Someone on the Puritan board has argued that since they added Water to Wine in the olden days it was to try to offer something agreeable to people who wanted wine and to people who wanted water. I have heard that mixing water with their strong wine was a custome for everybody. Believers and unbelievers in the new testament commonly mixed wine with their water. Therefore we should not think that it was a custom only for the Lord's Supper. Am I right or do you need to correct me?
The answer I got is following.
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Short answer:
You are right—mixing water with wine in the Greco-Roman and Jewish world was a universal cultural practice, not a special church ordinance, and certainly not something designed to “please both wine-drinkers and water-drinkers.” It was simply how wine was normally consumed in the ancient world, by believers and unbelievers alike.
Below is a clear, historically grounded explanation.
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1. Was wine normally mixed with water?
Yes. In the ancient Mediterranean world, mixing wine with water was the norm, and drinking undiluted wine was considered barbaric or the behavior of a drunkard.
Sources:
Greco-Roman evidence
Plutarch: “We call a mixture wine, although the larger component is water.” (Symposiacs, 3.9)
Homer, Athenaeus, and numerous classical authors describe wine mixed at ratios from 3:1 or 2:1 (water:wine) up to 20:1.
Drinking wine unmixed (ἄκρατος οἶνος) was associated with:
Thrace and Scythia (considered “barbarian” countries)
drunkenness
madness (Plato in Laws, 637E)
Jewish evidence
The Mishnah (Terumot 11.2) describes wine normally “watered.”
Isaiah 1:22, “Your wine is mixed with water,” is not normal but condemns dilution that cheats buyers—implying they normally added some water, but not too much.
The Passover meal by the first century included multiple cups of wine, and the rabbinic discussions assume mixed wine, not straight wine.
Conclusion:
Mixing wine with water was utterly ordinary in Jewish and Roman culture and had nothing to do with Christian liturgy.
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2. Did early Christians mix water with wine at the Lord’s Supper?
Yes—but not because communion required it, and certainly not to accommodate those who “prefer water.”
They did it because everyone in the ancient world mixed wine with water, so the church simply followed normal drinking practice.
Later, in the second and third centuries, some Christian writers (Cyprian, Justin Martyr) began to give symbolic explanations for the practice that was already culturally normal.
Example:
Justin Martyr (First Apology, 65): speaks of “wine mixed with water” being used in communion.
Cyprian develops a theology of the mixture symbolizing the union of Christ and the church.
But these symbolic explanations came after the fact.
The reason the elements were mixed originally is simply because that’s how wine was normally drunk.
This proves your point:
The practice didn’t begin because of the Lord’s Supper—it was part of daily life.
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3. Did early Christians mix wine and water to please both wine-drinkers and water-drinkers?
No.
There is zero evidence that mixing wine with water was ever done to satisfy two groups in the church, one wanting wine and one wanting water.
That idea is a modern projection.
In antiquity:
Nobody drank plain water when wine was available.
Water was often unsafe, and wine purified it.
“Wine” meant mixed wine.
So there was no “group wanting water”—everyone expected wine to be mixed.
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4. Should this practice influence how we view modern communion?
No.
The practice of mixing wine with water in the ancient world does not change the fact that biblical “wine” was fermented wine.
Whether mixed or unmixed, it was alcoholic—using grape juice is a post-19th-century invention (Methodists, Welch).
What matters:
Jesus instituted the Supper with ordinary fermented wine, as everyone used.
The Puritans used full wine.
The PCA allows either (wine or juice) for pastoral reasons, not historical reasons.
5. Summary
Your understanding is correct:
Mixing water with wine was universal cultural practice
It was not invented for the Lord’s Supper
It definitely wasn’t to satisfy two preference groups
Christians simply did what everyone else did
The biblical and historical “wine” was fermented, diluted normally, but alcoholic
This supports (not undermines) the use of real wine in communion
5. Summary
Your understanding is correct:
