VINEGAR (חֹ֫מֶץ, H2810, vinegar; ὄξος, G3954, sour wine). Properly “a liquid consisting of acetic acid in a dilute form produced by the acetous fermentation of wine or some other alcoholic liquors...” (OCD). Faulty methods of manufacture produced in ancient times an inferior wine liable to turn sour rapidly (Heb. ḥōměṩ, from a root meaning “to be sour or sharp”; Gr. ὀξος, meaning also “sharp” or “acid-tasting”). It was equivalent to the Rom. posca, a cheap sour wine, which, mixed with water, was the common beverage of peasants (Ruth 2:14). The Nazirite’s vow of abstinence excluded this form of alcoholic beverage as well as the intoxicating wine of more common use in higher levels of society, because such a vow could be made in all strata of the community (Num 6:3). Proverbs 10:26 speaks of its strong acidic taste. Similarly, Proverbs 25:20 reads “vinegar on a wound,” i.e. an irritant. The wine used antiseptically by the Good Samaritan was of the more costly variety (Luke 10:34). Psalm 69:21 refers to it as a drink. The vinegar offered to Christ was the soldiers’ ration wine, the posca brought by the squad on duty, and given in kindliness rather than derision (Matt 27:34; Mark 15:63; Luke 23:36; John 19:29). This was not the myrrh-infused anodyne of Matthew 27:34 and Mark 15:23.

A curiosity of lit. is the so-called “Vinegar Bible.” The nickname is derived from the fact that the parable of the vineyard was misprinted as the parable of the “vinegar” in Luke 22. The ed. was produced by Baskett in 1717.