Vinegar
“Sour or fermented drink”
Summary
Vinegar in biblical times was sour wine used as an acidic condiment by laborers and Roman soldiers, notable for being offered to Christ during His crucifixion.
☩Nature and Uses
The Hebrew term chomets designated a beverage consisting of wine or strong drink turned sour. It was sometimes artificially made by an admixture of barley and wine, making it liable to fermentation. Vinegar was proverbially acid, harmful to teeth, and unpleasant when drunk alone. However, when diluted with water, it made a refreshing beverage popular among the poor, laborers, and soldiers. Ruth dipped her bread in vinegar while working in Boaz's fields. The Romans called this thin, sour wine acetum, or posca when mixed with water, and it was the standard drink of soldiers on active duty.
☩At the Crucifixion
Vinegar appears prominently in the crucifixion narrative. The soldiers had brought a vessel of posca for their own use. Initially they mocked Jesus by offering it while keeping it out of reach. Later, when Jesus cried 'I thirst,' one bystander, likely a Roman soldier moved by pity, dipped a sponge in the vinegar and held it to His lips on a hyssop reed. His comrades tried to stop him, mistaking Jesus' cry of 'Eli, Eli' for an invocation to Elijah, but the man persisted. Jesus accepted this refreshing drink, unlike the earlier offering of wine mixed with gall or myrrh, which He refused because the myrrh would have deadened His pain.
☩Symbolic and Prophetic Significance
The offering of vinegar to Christ fulfilled the prophecy in Psalm 69:21: 'In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.' Matthew specifically mentions vinegar 'mingled with gall' to highlight this fulfillment, while Mark records the actual substance as myrrh. The distinction between the two offerings is important: Jesus refused the narcotic wine with myrrh that would have stupefied His senses, choosing to face His sufferings fully conscious, but He accepted the simple vinegar that merely refreshed His exhausted frame.
Related Verses12 mentions
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Vinegar," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. X (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Vinegar," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. V (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.George Morrish, "Vinegar," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).
- 4.James Hastings (ed.), "Vinegar," in Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, vol. II (T. & T. Clark, 1906–1908).
- 5.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Vinegar," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).