📖 Biblical Definition
Vinegar — soured wine — was the cheap drink of Roman soldiers and laborers. In Scripture it is offered to Christ twice on the cross. First, mingled with gall before the crucifixion to dull pain — He tasted it and refused: "They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink" (Matthew 27:34). Second, after His cry "I thirst", a sponge soaked in vinegar was lifted to His lips on a reed or hyssop branch — He received this one, in fulfillment of Psalm 69:21: "They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished" (John 19:30). Then He bowed His head.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
VIN'EGAR, n.
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1. Vegetable acid; an acid liquor obtained from wine, cider, beer, or other liquors, by the second or acetous fermentation. 2. In scripture, vinegar mingled with gall was offered to Christ on the cross.
📖 Key Scripture
Psalm 69:21 — "In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."
Matthew 27:48 — "One of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink."
John 19:30 — "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished."
Proverbs 10:26 — "As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Vinegar at the cross fulfills Psalm 69; modern Christianity rarely connects the dots.
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Psalm 69:21 was written about a thousand years before the cross: in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. John 19:28-30 records the precise fulfillment: Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. A sponge filled with vinegar was put on a hyssop branch and lifted to His mouth. It is finished. The verbs in John's account make clear: Christ deliberately requested the vinegar to land the prophecy to the dot.
The dot lands. Christ Himself was orchestrating the prophecies in His final hour from the cross, fulfilling them with such precision that no detail was left undone. Modern critics call the New Testament authors creative; the precision of the prophetic fulfillments — thirty pieces of silver, the gambled garments, the unbroken bones, the pierced side, the vinegar — suggests something stronger: the Author of Scripture and the Subject of the cross are the same Lord.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew chomets (H2558); Greek oxos (G3690).
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H2558 — chomets — vinegar; sour
G3690 — oxos — sour wine, vinegar
Usage
"Christ requested the vinegar to land Psalm 69:21 to the dot."
"The Author of Scripture and the Subject of the cross are the same Lord."
"Modern critics call the New Testament creative; the precision of fulfillments suggests something stronger."