A number of people have been considering the grapes-wine season for Israel. The grapes began to become ripe as of month 4. Tammuz. These are earliest harvest grapes. Do they make the best wine? The finest of the fine? Grape juice or fermented wine at 3-4%? NO. Anyone tending a vineyard knows that the best grapes and best wine do not come early or first, rather they are later or last. The early grapes to create new wine made the tirosh (word from Hebrew). In the linked articles by Scott J. Shifferd, https://godsbreath.net/2011/05/20/did-Jesus-drink-wine/ he contends that the new wine was grape juice, not fermented. He believes that about Acts Chapter 2. When there was fermented wine it was only at 3-4%.
The Messiah's Miracle at Cana changing water into fine grape juice or slightly fermented wine is worth noting. Was it fine grape juice or fermented wine? He did not create an inferior beverage. He saved the best for last, as noted by the wine steward. The wine season for Israel in antiquity would begin in month 4,Tammus, until month 7 of Tishri. Tishri includes the Feast of Sukkot, the 3rd Great Harvest Festival. The last one and last of the 7 Appointed Times. There were 7 major crops or species of Israel: barley, wheat (2 harvests), figs, dates, pomegranates, grapes and olives. The grapes were late among the 7. Grapes ended in late Elul or Tishri.. Elul is the month in Israel when "the King is in the field." What harvest in Israel would He be seeing and enjoying? GRAPES! Olives would be ripe later in Cheshvan and Kislev.
So let us rethink when will the Messiah, as Groom and King, toast His beloved bride, the redeemed? With the inferior early or the fine last? At Tammuz or Av? No. At late Elul or Tishri? More probable. His Fruit of the Vine shall be the best beverage of all, the finest of the fine. Not jug wine, a new wine fermented at 3-4% sweet tirosh, called something like Down Home Blueberry Hill! For Israel the grapes-wine season is complete around Tishri 1 to 21 each year. When will the Messiah partake of the fruit of the vine? The conclusion of the grapes-wine season with the BEST SAVED FOR LAST? Will it be grape juice or fermented wine? Let us reconsider ideas about Israel's Fruit of the Vine! The finest vintage is ahead...
With Love and Shalom,Jean