Answers from church history on today's questions
What Christian writers said, from about AD 96 to 1938.
204 passages · 52 writers · 13 centuries
Of the 204 passages here from 52 writers, 77 state a position on drinking alcohol and 127 mention it in passing, mostly in connection with drunkenness. The writers who state a position, among them Clement of Alexandria, Chrysostom, Aquinas, Calvin, and Matthew Henry, describe wine as a gift of God and drinking in moderation as lawful, and they treat drunkenness as a sin; Aquinas calls it a mortal sin. Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria say that Christ drank wine, and Ryle says the wine at Cana shows that Christ approved its use. Ambrose, Jerome, Calvin, and Henry discuss Paul's advice to Timothy as permission to take wine for health. The writers differ over abstaining: Calvin and Hodge say that abstaining from wine has no holiness or virtue in itself, Ryle says total abstinence is often useful but that calling all drinking a sin cannot be maintained, Jerome warns a young woman to avoid wine as poison, and Maclaren urges total abstinence from intoxicants. All five medieval passages that state a position are from Aquinas, and none of the position-stating passages is tagged Orthodox, since Chrysostom, Basil, and other Greek writers are filed with the early church.
24 passages · 8 writers · 100s to 1900s
Writers who say wine and strong drink are good gifts of God and that the fault lies in the drinker, not in the drink.
It is fitting, then, that some apply wine by way of physic, for the sake of health alone, and others for purposes of relaxation and enjoyment. For first wine makes the man who has drunk it more benignant than before, more agreeable to his boon companions, kinder to his domestics, and more pleasant to his friends. But when intoxicated, he becomes violent instead.
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.2
Why is there wine? not that thou mayest drink only (for water is of a nature to suffice for this), but that thou mayest be gladdened also, “For wine maketh glad the heart of man.” ( ib. 15 .) And by knowing this you will know how far the use of wine is allowable.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 30
For as many are wont to curse wine on account of the drunken, and womankind on account of the unchaste; so also they account these members base because of those who use them not as they ought. But improperly. For the sin is not allotted to the thing as a portion of its nature, but the transgression is produced by the will of him that ventures on it.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians 32
Seeing then that we are in the enjoyment of so great grace, let us strive to exhibit a virtue of life worthy of it, and to make much account of almsgiving. And this we shall do, if we shun excess and drunkenness and gluttony. For God gave meat and drink not for excess, but for nourishment. For it is not the wine that produceth drunkenness, for if that were the case, every body would needs be drunken.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on Second Corinthians 20
Drunkenness then surely does not arise from wine, but from intemperance. Wine is bestowed upon us for no other purpose than for bodily health; but this purpose also is thwarted by immoderate use.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians 20
“Not in rioting and drunkenness.” Not that he would forbid drinking, but the doing it immoderately; not the enjoying of wine, but doing it to excess ( μετά παροινίας ).
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 26
We should say then in answer to such, “Let there be no drunkenness; for wine is the work of God, but drunkenness is the work of the devil. Wine maketh not drunkenness; but intemperance produceth it.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 3
12. When, therefore, we hear men saying such things, we should stop their mouths; for it is not the use of wine, but the want of moderation which produces drunkenness, Drunkenness! that root of all evils. Wine was given to restore the body’s weakness, not to overturn the soul’s strength; to remove the sickness of the flesh, not to destroy the health of the spirit.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 3
Let us guard then against a want of moderation on either side, and let us take care of the health of the body, at the same time that we prune away its luxurious propensities. For wine was given us of God, not that we might be drunken, but that we might be sober; that we might be glad, not that we get ourselves pain. “Wine,” it says, “maketh glad the heart of man,” but thou makest it matter for sadness; since those who are inebriated are sullen beyond measure, and great darkness over-spreads their thoughts. It is the best medicine, when it has the best moderation to direct it.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 3
Not the wine, but the intemperance of such as take an evil delight in it. … Wine was given, that we might be cheerful, not that we might behave ourselves unseemly; that we might laugh, not that we might be a laughingstock; that we might be healthful, not that we might be diseased; that we might correct the weakness of our body, not cast down the might of our soul.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 58
For wine was given for gladness, “Yea, wine,” so it is said, “maketh glad the heart of man:” but ye mar even this excellence in it. For what kind of gladness is it to be beside one’s self, and to have innumerable vexations, and to see all things whirling round, and to be oppressed with giddiness, and like those that have a fever, to require some who may drench their heads with oil?
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 58
Now we do not reprehend bread and wine because some men are luxurious and drunkards, any more than we disapprove of gold because of the greedy and avaricious. Wherefore on the same principle we do not censure the honourable connection between husband and wife, because of the shame-causing lust of bodies.
Augustine of Hippo, On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.36
I answer that, No meat or drink, considered in itself, is unlawful, according to Mat. 15:11, "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man." Wherefore it is not unlawful to drink wine as such. Yet it may become unlawful accidentally. This is sometimes owing to a circumstance on the part of the drinker, either because he is easily the worse for taking wine, or because he is bound by a vow not to drink wine: sometimes it results from the mode of drinking, because to wit he exceeds the measure in drinking: and sometimes it is on account of others who would be scandalized thereby.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II.Q149.A3
Paul does not say that eating and drinking are works of the flesh, but intemperance in eating and drinking, which is a common vice nowadays, is a work of the flesh. Those who are given to excess are to know that they are not spiritual but carnal. Sentence is pronounced upon them that they shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Paul desires that Christians avoid drunkenness and gluttony , that they live temperate and sober lives, in order that the body may not grow soft and sensual.
Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians 5:19
Had God forbidden the whole people the use of wine, the Law might have appeared too rigid; but God not only permitted the people to drink wine, but also the priests; nay, no religious reverence prevented them from drinking wine close to the Temple when they were not engaged in their duties.
John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, Vol. 4 35.1
Wine is very wholesome as one of our means of nutriment; but by the too free use of it many enervate their strength, becloud their understanding, and almost stupify all their senses so as to make themselves inactive. Some, too, degrade themselves into foul and brutish stupidity, or are driven by it to madness.
John Calvin, Harmony of the Law, Vol. 2 2.4.10
To drink wine is not in itself evil, because God has appointed it for the use of man; but here the Prophet describes the banquets of drunkards, which were full of licentiousness, songs, and insolence.
John Calvin, Commentary on Isaiah, Vol. 2 24.1
As the prophet in this account of the divine goodness in providence makes no reference to the excesses of men, we gather from his words that it is lawful to use wine not only in cases of necessity, but also thereby to make us merry. This mirth must however be tempered with sobriety, first, that men may not forget themselves, drown their senses, and destroy their strength, but rejoice before their God, according to the injunction of Moses, ( Leviticus 23:40 ;) and, secondly, that they may exhilarate their minds under a sense of gratitude, so as to be rendered more active in the service of God.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms, Vol. 4 104.3
Here is wine, that makes glad the heart, refreshes the spirits, and exhilarates them, when it is soberly and moderately used, that we may not only go through our business, but go through it cheerfully. It is a pity that that should be abused to overcharge the heart, and unfit men for their duty, which was given to revive their heart and quicken them in their duty.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Psalms 104.2
Let those that are ready to perish drink soberly, and it will be a means so to revive their drooping spirits that they will forget their poverty for the time and remember their misery no more, and so they will be the better able to bear it. The Jews say that upon this was grounded the practice of giving a stupifying drink to condemned prisoners when they were going to execution, as they did to our Saviour. But the scope of the place is to show that wine is a cordial, and therefore to be used for want and not for wantonness, by those only that need cordials, as Timothy, who is advised to drink a little wine, only for his stomach's sake and his often infirmities, 1 Tim. v. 23 .
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Proverbs 31.1
"Thou hast wine or strong drink at command; instead of doing thyself hurt with it, do others good with it; let those have it that need it." Those that have wherewithal must not only give bread to the hungry and water to the thirsty, but they must give strong drink to him that is ready to perish through sickness or pain and wine to those that are melancholy and of heavy heart; for it was appointed to cheer and revive the spirits, and make glad the heart (as it does where there is need of it), not to burden and oppress the spirits, as it does where there is no need of it.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Proverbs 31.1
The one genuinely dangerous and immoral way of drinking wine is to drink it as a medicine. And for this reason, If a man drinks wine in order to obtain pleasure, he is trying to obtain something exceptional, something he does not expect every hour of the day, something which, unless he is a little insane, he will not try to get every hour of the day.
G.K. Chesterton, Heretics 8
Omar Khayyam’s wine-bibbing is bad, not because it is wine-bibbing. It is bad, and very bad, because it is medical wine-bibbing. … It is not poetical drinking, which is joyous and instinctive; it is rational drinking, which is as prosaic as an investment, as unsavoury as a dose of camomile.
G.K. Chesterton, Heretics 8
I need hardly say that I do not mean that I think the giving of alcohol to the sick for stimulus is necessarily unjustifiable. But I do mean that giving it to the healthy for fun is the proper use of it, and a great deal more consistent with health.
G.K. Chesterton, Heretics 8
19 passages · 12 writers · 100s to 1700s
Writers who set limits on how much, how often, and for what purpose a Christian may drink.
16. Observe therefore, my children, moderation in wine; for there are in it four evil spirits—of (1) lust, of (2) wrath, of (3) riot, of (4) filthy lucre. If ye drink wine in gladness, with shamefacedness, with the fear of God, ye shall live. For if ye drink not with shamefacedness, and the fear of God departeth from you, then cometh drunkenness, and shamelessness stealeth in.
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 6
After that I drank wine I reverenced not the commandment of God, and I took a woman of Canaan to wife. Wherefore, my children, he who drinketh wine needeth discretion; and herein is discretion in drinking wine, that a man should drink as long as he keepeth decency; but if he go beyond this bound, the spirit of deceit attacketh his mind and worketh his will; and it maketh the drunkard to talk filthily, and to transgress and not to be ashamed, but even to exult in his dishonour, accounting himself to do well.
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 6
It has therefore been well said, “A joy of the soul and heart was wine created from the beginning, when drunk in moderate sufficiency.” And it is best to mix the wine with as much water as possible, and not to have recourse to it as to water, and so get enervated to drunkenness, and not pour it in as water from love of wine. For both are works of God; and so the mixture of both, of water and of wine, conduces together to health, because life consists of what is necessary and of what is useful.
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.2
But towards evening, about supper-time, wine may be used, when we are no longer engaged in more serious readings. Then also the air becomes colder than it is during the day; so that the failing natural warmth requires to be nourished by the introduction of heat. But even then it must only be a little wine that is to be used; for we must not go on to intemperate potations. Those who are already advanced in life may partake more cheerfully of the draught, to warm by the harmless medicine of the vine the chill of age, which the decay of time has produced.
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.2
And before tragedy, Wisdom cried, “Much wine drunk abounds in irritation and all manner of mistakes.” Wherefore most people say that you ought to relax over your cups, and postpone serious business till morning. I however think that then especially ought reason to be introduced to mix in the feast, to act the part of director (pædagogue) to wine-drinking, lest conviviality imperceptibly degenerate to drunkenness.
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.2
You see, in all his raggedness, the lover of wine, who despises the Word Himself, and has abandoned and given himself to drunkenness. … With reason therefore, the Instructor, in His solicitude for our salvation, forbids us, “Drink not wine to drunkenness.” Wherefore? you will ask. Because, says He, “thy mouth will then speak perverse things, and thou liest down as in the heart of the sea, and as the steersman of a ship in the midst of huge billows.”
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.2
It is agreeable, therefore, to right reason, to drink on account of the cold of winter, till the numbness is dispelled from those who are subject to feel it; and on other occasions as a medicine for the intestines. For, as we are to use food to satisfy hunger, so also are we to use drink to satisfy thirst, taking the most careful precautions against a slip: “for the introduction of wine is perilous.” And thus shall our soul be pure, and dry, and luminous; and the soul itself is wisest and best when dry. … For thirst is a sensation of want, and craves means suitable for supplying the want, and not sumptuous liquor.
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.2
The Christian ought not to be enslaved by wine; nor to be eager for flesh meat, and as a general rule ought not to be a lover of pleasure in eating or drinking, “for every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.”
Basil of Caesarea, The Letters 22
Whatever intoxicates and disturbs the balance of the mind avoid as you would wine. I do not say that we are to condemn what is a creature of God. The Lord Himself was called a “wine-bibber” and wine in moderation was allowed to Timothy because of his weak stomach. I only require that drinkers should observe that limit which their age, their health, or their constitution requires.
Jerome, The Letters of St. Jerome 52
We say this, not they are not to drink at all, otherwise it would be to the reproach of what God has made for cheerfulness, but that they be not disordered with wine. For the Scripture does not say, Do not drink wine; but what says it? “Drink not wine to drunkenness;” and again, “Thorns spring up in the hand of the drunkard.” Nor do we say this only to those of the clergy, but also to every lay Christian, upon whom the name of our Lord Jesus Christ is called.
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Constitutions of the Holy Apostles 9.4
Use wine, therefore, sparingly, in order that the weakness of the body may not increase, not for pleasurable excitement, for each alike kindles a flame, both wine and youth. Let fasts also put a bridle on tender age, and spare diet restrain the unsubdued appetites with a kind of rein.
Ambrose of Milan, Concerning Virgins 4.2
For as he does not forbid drinking, but drinking to excess, not marrying, but doing wantonness; so too he does not forbid making provision for the flesh either, but doing so with a view “to fulfil the lusts thereof,” as, for instance, by going beyond necessaries. For that he does bid make provision for it, hear from what he says to Timothy, “Use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake, and thine often infirmities.” ( 1 Tim. v. 23 .)
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 26
It is with some hesitation, therefore, that we determine the measure of nourishment for others. However, making allowance for the weakness of the infirm, we think one hemina of wine a day is sufficient for each one. But to whom God granteth the endurance of abstinence, let them know that they will have their special reward. If the circumstances of the place, or the work, or the summer's heat should require more, let that depend on the judgment of the Superior, who must above all things see to it, that excess or drunkenness do not creep in.
Saint Benedict, The Holy Rule of St. Benedict 41
Now sobriety takes its name from "measure," for a man is said to be sober because he observes the "bria," i.e. the measure. … For this reason sobriety is especially concerned with drink, not any kind of drink, but that which by reason of its volatility is liable to disturb the brain, such as wine and all intoxicants.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II.Q149.A1
How few are there at the present day, who need to be forbidden the use of water; or rather how many are there that need to be limited to drink wine soberly! … At the same time a general rule is laid down, that, while we ought to be temperate in eating and drinking, every person should attend to his own health, not for the sake of prolonging life, but that, as long as he lives, he may serve God, and be of use to his neighbors.
John Calvin, Commentary on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon 1 Timothy 5.6
Drunkenness is an immoderate affection and use of drink. That I call immoderate that is beside or beyond that order of good things for which God hath given us the use of drink. The ends are digestion of our meat, cheerfulness and refreshment of our spirits, or any end of health; beside which if we go, or at any time beyond it, it is inordinate and criminal — it is the vice of drunkenness.
Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living 2.2.4
Let all Christians oblige themselves to be very moderate in the use of wine and strong drink; for, if the love of these once gets the mastery of a man, he becomes a very easy prey to Satan.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Numbers 6.1
The world is full of examples of this sin and temptations to it, which all young people are concerned to stand upon their guard against and keep at a distance from Be not a wine-bibber; we are allowed to drink a little wine ( 1 Tim. v. 23 ), but not much, not to make a trade of it, never to drink to excess.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Proverbs 23.8
Seasonable and moderate use of this, as of the other good creatures of God, is not unlawful. … But excess therein is shameful in all, especially in a minister.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Titus 1.3
10 passages · 7 writers · 100s to 1800s
Writers who treat drunkenness as a sin and describe its effects, its guilt, and the difference between drinking and being drunk.
14. And now, my children, be not drunk with wine; for wine turneth the mind away from the truth, and kindleth in it the passion of lust, and leadeth the eyes into error. For the spirit of fornication hath wine as a minister to give pleasures to the mind; for these two take away the power from a man.
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 6
Having then given back the manuscript of Exodus, I proceeded to enlarge, so far as my time permitted, on the crime of drunkenness, and took up the writings of the Apostle Paul, and showed among what sins it is classed by him, reading the text, “If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one (ye ought) not even to eat;” pathetically reminding them how great is our danger in eating with those who are guilty of intemperance even in their own houses.
Augustine of Hippo, Letters of St. Augustin 1.29
45. I hear the voice of my God commanding, let not “your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness.” “Drunkenness,” it is far from me; Thou wilt have mercy, that it approach not near unto me. … Drunkard was I never, but I have known drunkards to be made sober men by Thee.
Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions 10.31
I answer that, The sin of drunkenness, as stated in the foregoing Article, consists in the immoderate use and concupiscence of wine. … Thirdly, it may happen that a man is well aware that the drink is immoderate and intoxicating, and yet he would rather be drunk than abstain from drink. Such a man is a drunkard properly speaking, because morals take their species not from things that occur accidentally and beside the intention, but from that which is directly intended. In this way drunkenness is a mortal sin, because then a man willingly and knowingly deprives himself of the use of reason, whereby he performs virtuous deeds and avoids sin, and thus he sins mortally by running the risk of falling into sin.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II.Q150.A2
Reply to Objection 2: To take more meat or drink than is necessary belongs to the vice of gluttony, which is not always a mortal sin: but knowingly to take too much drink to the point of being drunk, is a mortal sin.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II.Q150.A2
Drunkenness in itself deserves as its reward, that they who deface the image of their heavenly Father in themselves, should become a laughingstock to their own children. For certainly, as far as possible, drunkards subvert their own understanding, and so far deprive themselves of reason as to degenerate into beasts. And let us remember, that if the Lord so grievously avenged the single transgression of the holy man, he will prove an avenger no less severe against those who are daily intoxicated; and of this we have examples sufficiently numerous before our eyes.
John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1 9.1
But I desire that it be observed, that because intemperance in eating is not so soon perceived by others as immoderate drinking, and the outward visible effects of it are not either so notorious or so ridiculous, therefore gluttony is not of so great disreptuation amongst men as drunkenness; yet, according to its degree, it puts on the greatness of the sin before God, and is most strictly to be attended to, lest we be surprised by our security and want of diligence, and the intemperance is alike criminal in both, according as the affections are either to the meat or drink. Gluttony is more uncharitable to the body, and drunkenness to the soul, or the understanding part of man; and therefore in Scripture is more frequently forbidden and declaimed against than the other: and sobriety hath by use obtained to signify temperance in drinking.
Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living 2.2.4
Drunkenness calls off the watchmen from their towers; and then all the evils that can proceed from a loose heart and an untied tongue, and a dissolute spirit, and an unguarded unlimited will, all that we may put upon the accounts of drunkenness.
Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living 2.2.5
The drunkard and the glutton hate to be reformed, though they are told they shall come to poverty, nay, though they are told they shall come to hell. Drunkenness is the cause of drowsiness; it stupefies men, and makes them inattentive to business, and then all goes to wreck and ruin: thus men that have lived creditably come to be clothed with rags.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Proverbs 23.8
18. excess—worthless, ruinous, reckless prodigality. wherein—not in the wine itself when used aright (1Ti 5:23), but in the "excess" as to it. but be filled with the Spirit—The effect in inspiration was that the person was "filled" with an ecstatic exhilaration, like that caused by wine; hence the two are here connected (compare Ac 2:13-18). Hence arose the abstinence from wine of many of the prophets, for example, John the Baptist, namely, in order to keep distinct before the world the ecstasy caused by the Spirit, from that caused by wine.
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Ephesians 5
8 passages · 6 writers · 300s to 1900s
Writers who discuss vows of abstinence, ascetic practice, clergy and wine, and whether abstaining is required, optional, or mistaken.
Therefore, if experience gives me a right to advise, or clothes my words with credit, I would begin by urging you and warning you as Christ’s spouse to avoid wine as you would avoid poison. For wine is the first weapon used by demons against the young.
Jerome, The Letters of St. Jerome 22
Reply to Objection 2: The Apostle does not declare simply that it is good to abstain from wine, but that it is good in the case where this would give scandal to certain people. Reply to Objection 3: Christ withdraws us from some things as being altogether unlawful, and from others as being obstacles to perfection. It is in the latter way that he withdraws some from the use of wine, that they may aim at perfection, even as from riches and the like.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II.Q149.A3
If you vow abstinence from wine, as if there were any holiness in so doing, you are superstitious; but if you have some end in view which is not perverse, no one can disapprove.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion IV.13
Many, however strong, abstain because of the weak. … Many do not drink wine, and yet do not think themselves polluted by it, for they most humanely cause it to be given to the more sickly, and to those whose health requires it; and some who foolishly refuse, they fraternally admonish, lest by vain superstition they sooner become more weak than more holy.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion IV.13
Total abstinence from fermented liquors is in many cases most useful and desirable. But to say, as many do say, that to drink any fermented liquor at all is “a sin,” is taking up ground that cannot be maintained in the face of the passage before us, without wresting the plain meaning of Scripture and charging Christ with abetting sin.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John John 2:1-11
There was no special virtue in abstaining from wine, vinegar, grapes moist or dry, or in letting “the locks of the hair of his head grow.”
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology III.19.7
‘I can take alcohol in moderation, and it does me no harm, and I can go to a prayer-meeting after my dinner and temperate glass, and I am within my Christian liberty in doing so.’ Yes, and you take part thereby in the greatest curse that besets our country, and are, by countenancing the drink habit, guilty of the blood of souls. How any Christian man can read these two verses and not abstain from all intoxicants is a mystery.
Alexander Maclaren, Romans and Corinthians 2.19
In regard to physical intoxication, it is a great deal easier to abstain altogether than to take a very little and then stop. The very fumes of alcohol will sometimes drive a reclaimed drunkard into a bout of dissipation that will last for weeks; therefore, the only safety is in entire abstinence.
Alexander Maclaren, Matthew IX to XVIII 2.2
9 passages · 7 writers · 100s to 1800s
Writers who discuss wine as medicine and Paul's advice to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:23.
“Use a little wine,” says the apostle to Timothy, who drank water, “for thy stomach’s sake;” most properly applying its aid as a strengthening tonic suitable to a sickly body enfeebled with watery humours; and specifying “a little,” lest the remedy should, on account of its quantity, unobserved, create the necessity of other treatment. The natural, temperate, and necessary beverage, therefore, for the thirsty is water.
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.2
Paul, it is true, says to Timothy “drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake, and for thine often infirmities.” But notice the reasons for which the permission is given, to cure an aching stomach and a frequent infirmity. And lest we should indulge ourselves too much on the score of our ailments, he commands that but little shall be taken; advising rather as a physician than as an apostle (though, indeed, an apostle is a spiritual physician). He evidently feared that Timothy might succumb to weakness, and might prove unequal to the constant moving to and fro involved in preaching the Gospel. Besides, he remembered that he had spoken of “wine wherein is excess,” and had said, “it is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine.”
Jerome, The Letters of St. Jerome 22
Let her learn even now not to drink wine “wherein is excess.” But as, before children come to a robust age, abstinence is dangerous and trying to their tender frames, let her have baths if she require them, and let her take a little wine for her stomach’s sake. Let her also be supported on a flesh diet, lest her feet fail her before they commence to run their course. But I say this by way of concession not by way of command; because I fear to weaken her, not because I wish to teach her self-indulgence.
Jerome, The Letters of St. Jerome 107
Let us then use the natural drink of temperance, and would that we all were able to do so. But because all are not strong the Apostle said: “Use a little wine because of thy frequent infirmities.” We must drink it then not for the sake of pleasure, but because of infirmity, and therefore sparingly as a remedy, not in excess as a gratification.
Ambrose of Milan, Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 15
Flee from all kinds of flesh and wine, as being the sources of heat and provocatives to lust. And only then, if need be, use a little wine, when the stomach’s uneasiness, or great infirmity of body, requires you to do so.
Sulpitius Severus, The Doubtful Letters of Sulpitius Severus 2.18
What is said amounts to this, that Timothy should accustom himself to drink a little wine, for the sake of preserving his health; for he does not absolutely forbid him to “drink water,” but to use it as his ordinary beverage; and that is the meaning of the Greek word ὑδροποτεῖν
John Calvin, Commentary on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon 1 Timothy 5.6
Drinking a little wine for the stomach's sake is allowed, to help that, 1 Tim. v. 23 . But drinking much wine for the palate's sake, to please that, does by no means become those who profess to walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Numbers 6.1
Observe, It is a little wine, for ministers must not be given to much wine; so much as may be for the health of the body, not so as to distemper it, for God has made wine to rejoice man's heart. … Wine should be used as a help, and not a hindrance, to our work and usefulness.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on First Timothy 5.3
Paul therefore modifies the preceding words, "keep thyself pure," virtually saying, "Not that I mean to enjoin that kind of purity which consists in asceticism, nay, be no longer a water-drinker," that is, no longer drink only water, but use a little wine, as much as is needed for thy health. … God hereby commands believers to use all due means for preserving health, and condemns by anticipation the human traditions which among various sects have denied the use of wine to the faithful.
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible First Timothy 5
7 passages · 6 writers · 100s to 1900s
Writers who discuss the wine at Cana, the charge that Jesus was a winebibber, and what Christ's example shows.
5. That wine, which was produced by God in a vineyard, and which was first consumed, was good. None of those who drank of it found fault with it; and the Lord partook of it also. But that wine was better which the Word made from water, on the moment, and simply for the use of those who had been called to the marriage.
Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies: Book III 12
And that it was wine which was the thing blessed, He showed again, when He said to His disciples, “I will not drink of the fruit of this vine, till I drink it with you in the kingdom of my Father.” But that it was wine which was drunk by the Lord, He tells us again, when He spake concerning Himself, reproaching the Jews for their hardness of heart: “For the Son of man,” He says, “came, and they say, Behold a glutton and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans.” Let this be held fast by us against those that are called Encratites.
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.2
The Lord himself was called by the Pharisees a wine-bibber and a glutton, the friend of publicans and sinners, because he did not decline the invitation of Zacchæus to dinner, and went to the marriage-feast. But it is a different matter if, as you may foolishly contend, he went to the dinner intending to fast, and after the manner of deceivers said, I eat this, not that; I do not drink the wine which I created out of water. He did not make water, but wine, the type of his blood.
Jerome, Against Jovinianus 2
Christ, in providing thus plentifully for the guests, though he hereby allows a sober cheerful use of wine, especially in times of rejoicing ( Neh. viii. 10 ), yet he does not invalidate his own caution, nor invade it, in the least, which is, that our hearts be not at any time, no not at a marriage feast, overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, Luke xxi. 34 . When Christ provided so much good wine for them that had well drunk, he intended to try their sobriety, and to teach them how to abound, as well as how to want.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on John 2.1
We learn, secondly, from these verses, that there are times when it is lawful to be merry and rejoice. … (Eccles. 10:19.) Our Lord, in the passage before us, approves both the feast and the use of wine.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John John 2:1-11
This is perhaps the proper place to remark that it seems utterly impossible, on any fair and honest interpretation, to reconcile the passage before us with the leading principles of what is commonly called “Teetotalism.” If our Lord Jesus Christ actually worked a miracle in order to supply wine at a marriage feast, it seems to be impossible, by any ingenuity, to prove that drinking wine is sinful.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John John 2:1-11
If my indulgence in innocent things hurts me, or if my abstinence from them would help others, or increase my power for good, or if innocent things are intertwisted with things not innocent, then it is vain to try to shelter under Christ’s example, and the only right course for His disciple is to abridge his liberty. He came eating and drinking, therefore His followers may use all innocent earthly blessings and bodily pleasures, subject to this one law: ‘Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God,’ and to this solemn warning: ‘He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.’
Alexander Maclaren, Matthew IX to XVIII 1.14
13 passages · 8 writers · 300s to 1900s
Writers who mention the accusation that Jesus was a glutton and winebibber, and Christ at feasts.
For it was not for the sake of pleasure that our Lord mingled with gluttonous men and winebibbers, as the Pharisee supposed; but that in their food as mortals He might mingle for them His teaching as the medicine of life. For even as it was in the matter of eating that the Evil One gave his deadly counsel to Adam and his helpmeet, so in the matter of eating the Good Lord gave His life-giving counsel to the sons of Adam. For He was the fisherman Who came down to fish for the lives of the lost. He saw the publicans and harlots rushing into prodigality and drunkenness; and He hastened to spread His nets amongst their places of assembly, that He might capture them from food that fattens bodies, to fasting that fattens souls.
Ephrem the Syrian, Ephraim Syrus: Three Homilies 2
For that our Lord Jesus Christ in truth of flesh hungered and thirsted, ate and drank, no one doubts of such as out of the Gospel are believers. What, then, was there not in Him the virtue of continence from meat and drink, as great as in John Baptist? “For John came neither eating nor drinking; and they said, He hath a devil; the Son of Man came both eating and drinking; and they said, “Lo, a glutton and wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.”
Augustine of Hippo, On the Good of Marriage 26
Some called Him a Samaritan and demoniac saying “Thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil” others “a deceiver,” saying “This man is not of God but deceiveth the multitude” others “a sorcerer” saying “He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the prince of the Devils” and they continually said these things against Him and called Him an adversary of God, and a gluttonous, and greedy man, and a drunkard, and a friend of the wicked and depraved. “For” He said, “the Son of man came eating and drinking and they say behold a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.”
John Chrysostom, Letters of St. Chrysostom to Olympias 3
Christ was called in reproach a Nazarene, so were his followers: but he was no Nazarite according to this law; he drank wine, and touched dead bodies, yet in his this type had its accomplishment, for in him all purity and perfection met; and every true Christian is a spiritual Nazarite, separated by vow unto the Lord.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Numbers 6.1
How his body looked when it was thus stripped: I may tell all my bones, v. 17 . His blessed body was lean and emaciated with labour, grief, and fasting, during the whole course of his ministry, which made him look as if he was nearly 50 years old when he was yet but 33, as we find, John viii. 57 . His wrinkles now witnessed for him that he was far from being what was called, a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Psalms 22.2
As for Jesus Christ, they imputed his free and obliging conversation to the more vicious habit of luxury and flesh-pleasing: Behold a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber. No reflection could be more foul and invidious; it is the charge against the rebellious son ( Deut. xxi. 20 ), He is a glutton and a drunkard; yet none could be more false and unjust; for Christ pleased not himself ( Rom. xv. 3 ), nor did ever any man live such a life of self-denial, mortification, and contempt of the world, as Christ lived: he that was undefiled, and separate from sinners, is here represented as in league with them, and polluted by them.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Matthew 11.3
The very same men that had represented John as crazed in his intellects, because he came neither eating nor drinking, represented our Lord Jesus as corrupt in his morals, because he came eating and drinking; he is a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber. Ill-will never speaks well.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Luke 7.3
The Jews, in our Lord's time, found fault with every teacher whom God sent among them. … Then came Jesus the Son of God, preaching the Gospel, living as other men lived, and practicing none of John the Baptist's peculiar austerities. And did this satisfy the Jews? No! They found fault again, and said, "Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!" In short, they were as perverse and hard to please as 'contrary children'.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Matthew Matthew 11:16-24
The Lord himself was accused of being a drunkard and a keeper of bad company—and perhaps would in the present day be so regarded by not a few calling themselves by his name, and teaching temperance and virtue. He lived upon a higher spiritual platform than they understand, acted from a height of the virtues they would inculcate, loftier than their eyes can scale.
George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons 11
Like other words of His enemies, this saying is a distorted refraction of His glory. The facts it embodies are facts; the conclusions it draws are false. If Jesus had not come eating and drinking, He could not have been called gluttonous and a wine-bibber.
Alexander Maclaren, Matthew IX to XVIII 1.14
‘The Son of man came eating and drinking.’ There is nothing that calumny, if it be malignant enough, cannot twist into an accusation; and out of glorious and significant facts, full of lessons and containing strong buttresses of the central truth of the Gospel, these people made this charge, ‘a winebibber and gluttonous.’ The facts were facts; the inferences were slanders.
Alexander Maclaren, Luke 1.25
We have desires and longings, wild yearnings, and deep-seated needs, that ‘wander through eternity’; the Son of Man, the representative of manhood, ‘hath not where to lay His head.’ Then the same expression is employed on occasions when our Lord desires to emphasise the completeness of His participation in all our conditions. As, for instance, ‘the Son of Man came eating and drinking,’ knowing the ordinary limitations and necessities of corporeal humanity; having the ordinary dependence upon external things; nor unwilling to taste, with pure and thankful lip, whatever gladness may be found in man’s path through the supply of natural appetites.
Alexander Maclaren, St John Chaps. I to XIV 1.52
John did not have a demon and Jesus was not a glutton or a winebibber.
A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament 2.11
9 passages · 5 writers · 100s to 1700s
Writers who mention wine taken for illness or weakness, usually with reference to Timothy.
Let Æsculapius have been the first who sought and discovered cures: Esaias mentions that he ordered Hezekiah medicine when he was sick. Paul, too, knows that a little wine does the stomach good.
Tertullian, The Chaplet, or De Corona 8
In the first place then, till you have passed the years of early womanhood, take only water to drink, for this is by nature of all drinks the most cooling. This, if your stomach is strong enough to bear it; but if your digestion is weak, hear what the apostle says to Timothy: “use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.”
Jerome, The Letters of St. Jerome 54
In other respects also Timothy seems to have been subject to disease, which is implied by that expression, “Thy often infirmities,” as well of other parts as of the stomach. He does not however allow him to indulge freely in wine, but as much as was for health and not for luxury.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Timothy 17
Upon his son he invokes greater blessings, with the anxious apprehension of a parent. For such was his anxiety, that he gives directions to Timothy, which he has done in no other case, to attend to his bodily health; where he says, “Use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake, and thine often infirmities” ( 1 Tim. v. 23 .)
John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Timothy 2
Knowest thou not that bodily infirmity no less than infirmity of soul injures both us and the Church? Why, otherwise, does Paul attend to this matter, in writing to Timothy, “Use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake, and thy often infirmities”? ( 1 Tim. v. 23 .) For if we could practice virtue with the soul alone, we need not take care of the body.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on Titus 1
For the apostle himself says, “Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof,” because we must take care of the flesh, but only in so far as is necessary for health; “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh,” as he himself likewise says. Hence, also, he admonished Timothy, who was, as it appears, too severe upon his body, that he should “use a little wine for his stomach’s sake, and for his often infirmities.”
Augustine of Hippo, Letters of St. Augustin 1.114
He so despised luxury, and derided the sumptuous table, as to fall into sickness from excessive austerity, and intense fasting. For that he was not naturally so infirm a person, but had overthrown the strength of his stomach by fasting and water drinking; you may hear Paul himself carefully making this plain. For he does not simply say, “use a little wine;” but having said before, “drink no longer water,” he then brings forward his counsel as to the drinking of wine.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 3
When Timothy’s stomach was out of order, he advised him to drink wine, not perry.
Jerome, Against Jovinianus 2
It seems Timothy was a mortified man to the pleasures of sense; he drank water, and he was a man of no strong constitution of body, and for this reason Paul advises him to use wine for the helping of his stomach and the recruiting of his nature.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on First Timothy 5.3
10 passages · 2 writers · 1800s to 1900s
Writers who mention abstaining from intoxicants as a safeguard or for the good of neighbors.
No one who indulges at all in the use of intoxicating liquors can have any "certainty" that he will not yet become a confirmed inebriate. … But he "will" be certainly safe from this evil if he adopts the purpose of total abstinence, and steadfastly adheres to it.
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible Daniel 1:21
How can a man engaged in the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drinks "pray"? How can he ask for success in his work? To do this would be to pray that his neighbor, his fellow-men, near or far off, might spend their property for that which would not profit them; might waste their time, ruin their health, cut short their lives, and destroy their souls; that they might be profane, gross, offensive, beastly; that they might be a pest in the community, be led into crime, and find their home in an almshouse, a penitentiary, or an insane asylum; that their families might be beggared, and that a once peaceful home might become a hell; and that the young, the vigorous, the hopeful, the beautiful, the sons of the virtuous and the pious - might go down early to the drunkard's grave; that the hearts of wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters might be crushed and broken, because a husband, a father, a brother, had been made a drunkard.
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible Psalms Introduction
But if so, there is an advantage in being righteous; or there is a Divine interposition in behalf of the righteous. (c) There are large classes of evils which a man will certainly avoid by virtue and religion, and those evils are among the most severe that afflict mankind. A course of virtue and religion will make it certain that those evils will never come upon him or his family. Thus, for example, by so simple a thing as total abstinence from intoxicating drinks, a man will certainly avoid all the evils that afflict the drunkard - the poverty, disease, disgrace, wretchedness, and ruin of body and soul which are certain to follow from intemperance.
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible Daniel 6:28
There are certain evils which a young man will certainly avoid by a course of strict temperance, which would otherwise certainly come upon him. They are such as these: (a) Poverty, as arising from this source. He may, indeed, be poor if he is temperate. He may lose his health, or may meet with losses, or may be unsuccessful in business; but he is certain that he will never be made poor from intemperance. Nine-tenths of the poverty in the community is caused by this vice; nine-tenths of all who are in almshouses are sent there as the result of it; but from all this he will be certain that "he" will be saved. There is a great difference, if a man is poor, between being such as the result of a loss of health, or other Providential dispensations, and being such as the result of intemperance. (b) He will be saved from committing "crime" from this cause. About ninetenths of the crimes that are committed are the results of intoxicating drinks, and by a course of temperance a man is certain that he will be saved from the commission of all those crimes.
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible Daniel 1:21
There are plenty of depths of Satan gaping for young feet; and on the whole, it is safer and happier not to know them, and so not to have defiling memories, nor run the risk of falling into fatal sins. Whether the writer of this stern picture of a drunkard was a total abstainer or not, the spirit of his counsel not to ‘look on the wine’ is in full accord with that practice. It is very clear that if a man is a total abstainer, he can never be a drunkard. As much cannot be said of the moderate man.
Alexander Maclaren, Second Kings from Chap. VIII, and Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes 1.8.27
‘A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth,’ and his bodily life consisteth not in the abundance and variety of the things that he eateth. The teaching of this lesson is, not that vegetarianism or total abstinence is obligatory, for diet is here regarded only as part of idolatrous worship; but certainly a secondary conclusion, fairly drawn from the story, is that vigorous health is best kept up on very simple fare.
Alexander Maclaren, Ezekiel, Daniel and the Minor Prophets; and Matthew Chaps. I to VIII 1.2.1
The methods adopted may yield suggestions for all who would aim at reforming abuses or public immoralities. One most necessary step is to cut off, as far as possible, opportunities for the sin. There will be no trade if you shut the gates the night before. There will be little drunkenness if there are no liquor shops. It is quite true that people cannot be made virtuous by legislation, but it is also true that they may be saved from temptations to become vicious by it.
Alexander Maclaren, Second Kings from Chap. VIII, and Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes 1.5.8
The causes are complicated, and the cure must be as manifold as the causes. For my own part I believe that, in regard to the condition of the lowest of our outcast population, drink and lust have done it almost all, and that for all but an infinitesimal portion of it, intemperance is directly or indirectly the cause. That has to be fought by the distinct preaching of abstinence, and by the invoking of legislative restrictions upon the traffic. Wretched homes have to be dealt with by sanitary reform, which may require municipal and parliamentary action.
Alexander Maclaren, Second Kings from Chap. VIII, and Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes 1.5.3
In our cities especially there are many trades which would be wiped out if Christ’s laws of life were universally adopted. So all the purveyors of commodities and pleasures which the Gospel forbids a Christian man to use are arrayed against it. We have to make up our minds to face and fight them. A liquor-seller, for instance, is not likely to look complacently on a religion which would bring his ‘trade into disrepute’; and there are other occupations which would be gone if Christ were King, and which therefore, by the instinct of self-preservation, are set against the Gospel, unless, so to speak, its teeth are drawn.
Alexander Maclaren, Acts 2.27
I remember a man, one of the best Christian men in a humble station in life that I ever knew—he did not live in Manchester—he had been a drunkard up to his fortieth or fiftieth year. One day he was walking across an open field, and a voice, as he thought, spoke to him and said, naming him, 'If you don't sign the pledge to-day you will be damned!' He turned on his heel, and walked straight down the street to the house of a temperance friend, and said, 'I have come to sign the pledge.' He signed it, and from that day to the day of his death 'adorned the doctrine of Jesus Christ' his Saviour.
Alexander Maclaren, Second Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, and First Timothy 2.5.5
10 passages · 9 writers · 100s to 1900s
Writers who mention Nazirites, priests on duty, ascetics, and saints who gave up wine.
For I was thirty years old when I did this evil in the sight of the Lord, and for seven months I was sick even unto death; and I repented for seven years in the set purpose of my soul before the Lord. Wine and strong drink I drank not, and flesh entered not into my mouth, and I tasted not pleasant food, mourning over my sin, for it was great.
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 3
Why, are there not many, withal, who so do , and seal themselves up to eunuchhood for the sake of the kingdom of God, spontaneously relinquishing a pleasure so honourable, and (as we know) permitted? Are there not some who prohibit to themselves (the use of) the very “creature of God,” abstaining from wine and animal food, the enjoyments of which border upon no peril or solicitude; but they sacrifice to God the humility of their soul even in the chastened use of food?
Tertullian, On the Apparel of Women 2.9
I will now endeavour to explain to you, O virgins, the rest of that which is prescribed; for this is attached to your duties, consisting of laws concerning virginity, which are useful as teaching how we should abstain, and how advance to virginity. For it is written thus: “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord; he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried, all the days of his separation.” And this means, that he who has devoted and offered himself to the Lord shall not take of the fruits of the plant of evil, because of its natural tendency to produce intoxication and distraction of mind.
Methodius of Olympus, The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 6.5
27. Having every day in your mouth these blasphemies which come from your heart, you ought not to continue holding up the symbol of the mouth as something wonderful, to ensnare the ignorant. But perhaps you think the symbol of the mouth excellent and admirable because you do not eat flesh or drink wine. But what is your end in this? For according as the end we have in view in our actions, on account of which we do whatever we do, is not only not culpable but also praiseworthy, so only can our actions merit any praise. If the end we have regard to in any performance is unlawful and blameworthy, the performance itself will be unhesitatingly condemned as improper.
Augustine of Hippo, On the Morals of the Manichæans 13
He never within the space of fourteen years before his death tasted of no wine, save only at mass after that he had taken the body and blood of our Lord, or else sometime when he dined with the bishop, for then within his water he put a little wine only for to change the colour. He fasted once by the space of seven days without any meat or drink, ever being in good health.
Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend 28
3. He shall separate himself from wine. The first injunction is, that they should not only abstain from wine, but that they should not even taste grapes or anything connected with wine. The simple observance was, that they should not drink wine or anything inebriating; but, because men are crafty in inventing subterfuges, it was necessary to express specifically the means whereby the Law might be defrauded.
John Calvin, Harmony of the Law, Vol. 1 5.6.1
7. It is now easy to see under how much superstition the world has laboured in this respect for several ages. One vowed that he would be abstemious, as if abstinence from wine were in itself an acceptable service to God. Another bound himself to fast, another to abstain from flesh on certain days, which he had vainly imagined to be more holy than other days.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion IV.13
If the priest was to abstain from wine during his actual ministration in the sanctuary, the Nazarite must during the whole period of his vow refrain from all that belongs to the fruit of the vine, ‘from the kernels even to the husk’
Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services 20
But, still further, mark how the truth which gave colour to the slander attests that Jesus Christ presents to the world the highest type of manhood. The ideal for life is not the suppression, but the consecration, of material satisfactions and pleasures of appetite. And they are likest to the Master who, like the Master, come eating and drinking, and yet ever hold all appetites and desires rigidly under control, and subordinate them all to loftier purposes. John the Baptist could be an ascetic; the Pattern Man must not be. The highest type of religion, as it is shown to us in His perfect life, includes the acceptance of all pure material blessings. Asceticism is second best; the religion that can take and keep secondary all outward and transitory sources of enjoyment, and can hallow common life, is loftier than all pale hermits and emaciated types of sanctity, who preserve their purity only by avoiding things which it were nobler to enjoy and to subdue.
Alexander Maclaren, Luke 1.25
The new ascetics who follow Thoreau or Tolstoy are much livelier company; for, though the surrender of strong drink and such luxuries may strike us as an idle negation, it may leave a man with innumerable natural pleasures, and, above all, with man’s natural power of happiness. … A good bush needs no wine.
G.K. Chesterton, Heretics 8
12 passages · 11 writers · 100s to 1800s
Writers who mention that bishops, ministers, priests, judges, and kings are not to be given to wine.
Follow companies and conversations worthy of God, mindful of that short verse, sanctified by the apostle’s quotation of it, “Ill interviews good morals do corrupt.” Talkative, idle, winebibbing, curious tent-fellows, do the very greatest hurt to the purpose of widow-hood.
Tertullian, To His Wife 1.8
To the indictment of your appetite pertains (the charge) that “double honour” is with you assigned to your presiding (elders) by double shares (of meat and drink); whereas the apostle has given them “double honour” as being both brethren and officers . Who, among you, is superior in holiness, except him who is more frequent in banqueting, more sumptuous in catering, more learned in cups? … Why, then, do not you constantly preach, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die?” just as we do not hesitate manfully to command, “Let us fast, brethren and sisters, lest to-morrow perchance we die.”
Tertullian, On Fasting 17
According to the ancient custom observed in the Churches of God, ministers in the Church were received after careful examination; the whole of their life was investigated; an enquiry was made as to their being neither railers nor drunkards, not quick to quarrel, keeping their youth in subjection, so as to be able to maintain “the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.”
Basil of Caesarea, The Letters 54
The priests who minister in God’s temple are forbidden to drink wine and strong drink, to keep their wits from being stupefied with drunkenness and to enable their understanding to do its duty in God’s service.
Jerome, The Letters of St. Jerome 69
But why does he say, speaking of a Bishop, that he should be “not given to wine, hospitable,” when he should name greater things? … But “not given to wine,” he says; a good prospect indeed, if such are the things of which a Bishop is to be admonished!
John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Timothy 11
The minister of the Lord should abstain from wine, so that he may be upheld by the good witness not only of the faithful but also by those who are without. For it is right that the witness to our acts and works should be the opinion of the public at large, that the office be not disgraced.
Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy 2.50
Secondly, sobriety is more requisite in certain persons, as being more necessary for the operations proper to them. Now immoderate use of wine is a notable obstacle to the use of reason: wherefore sobriety is specially prescribed to the old, in whom reason should be vigorous in instructing others: to bishops and all ministers of the Church, who should fulfil their spiritual duties with a devout mind; and to kings, who should rule their subjects with wisdom.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II.Q149.A4
Plutarch's servant upbraided him, by saying, ‘he has written a book against anger, et ipse mihi irascitur, yet he falls into a passion of anger with me.' So is a minister who preaches against drunkenness, yet he himself is drunk; he preaches against swearing, yet he himself swears!
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 2.1
There is reason to suspect that they were drunk when they did it, because of the law which was given upon this occasion, v. 8 . They had been feasting upon the peace-offerings, and the drink-offerings that attended them, and so their heads were light, or, at least, their hearts were merry with wine; they drank and forgot the law ( Prov. xxxi. 5 ) and were guilty of this fatal miscarriage.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Leviticus 10.1
Ye may teach - Which drunken persons are very unfit to do.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 30.10
The minister who allows drunkenness, blasphemy, uncleanness, fighting, reveling, and the like, to go on among his congregation unreproved, is omitting a plain duty of his office. He is not warring against the devil. He is no true successor of the apostles.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke Luke 9:1-6
22, 23. Sixth Woe—against corrupt judges, who, "mighty" in drinking "wine" (a boast still not uncommon), if not in defending their country, obtain the means of self-indulgence by taking bribes ("reward"). The two verses are closely joined [Maurer]. mingle strong drink—not with water, but spices to make it intoxicating (Pr 9:2, 5; So 8:2).
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Isaiah 5
7 passages · 7 writers · 300s to 1800s
Writers who mention that drunkards are shut out of the kingdom of God or the fellowship of the church.
Whosoever wishes to have pleasure in the banquet reserved there, let him remove drunkenness from himself. Whosoever prepares himself for the supper, let him not excuse himself, nor be a merchant. Whosoever he be on whom the good seed falls, let him not allow the Evil One to sow tares in him. Whosoever has begun to build a tower, let him count up all the cost thereof.
Aphrahat, Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations 5
Christians are to lead sober and chaste lives. They should not be adulterers, fornicators, or sensualists. They should not be quarrelers or drunkards.
Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians 5:21
All the wicked are said, indeed, to pollute the ground whereon they tread; but the Lord did never command that any, save only the condemners of his word, should be so rejected with such execration. If any adulterer or whoremonger, if any perjured person, if any drunkard, were to be excommunicate, this sign was not used.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 1 13.10
In opposition also to the subtle wits of certain men, who, by pleasing speeches and good words, seduce the hearts, of the innocent, it is to be maintained, that the received grace of Justification is lost, not only by infidelity whereby even faith itself is lost, but also by any other mortal sin whatever, though faith be not lost; thus defending the doctrine of the divine law, which excludes from the kingdom of God not only the unbelieving, but the faithful also [who are] fornicators, adulterers, effeminate, liers with mankind, thieves, covetous, drunkards, railers, extortioners, and all others who commit deadly sins; from which, with the help of divine grace, they can refrain, and on account of which they are separated from the grace of Christ.
Council of Trent, Canons and Dogmatic Decrees of the Council of Trent Session 6, ch. XV
A. By no means. Scripture tells us that no unchaste person, no idolater, adulterer, thief, no covetous person, no drunkard, slanderer, robber, or the like will inherit the kingdom of God.
Reformed Churches, Heidelberg Catechism 87
He that would be kept from harm must keep out of harm's way. [3.] He sits not in the seat of the scornful; he does not repose himself with those that sit down secure in their wickedness and please themselves with the searedness of their own consciences. He does not associate with those that sit in close cabal to find out ways and means for the support and advancement of the devil's kingdom, or that sit in open judgment, magisterially to condemn the generation of the righteous. The seat of the drunkards is the seat of the scornful, Ps. lxix. 12 . Happy is the man that never sits in it, Hos. vii. 5 .
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Psalms 1.1
6. The unholy cannot be saved, Co1 6:9-10. So God has determined; and this purpose cannot be evaded or escaped. It is fixed; and men may think of it as they please, still it is true that there are large classes of people who, if they continue such, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The fornicator, the idolater, the drunkard, and the covetous, cannot enter heaven.
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible First Corinthians 6:20
11 passages · 9 writers · 700s to 1900s
Writers who mention whether drunkenness excuses or aggravates other sins and how guilt is assigned.
All involuntary act depends, on the other hand, on ignorance, when one is not the cause of the ignorance one’s self, but events just so happen. For, if one commits murder while drunk, it is an act of ignorance, but yet not involuntary : for one was one’s self responsible for the cause of the ignorance, that is to say, the drunkenness.
John of Damascus, John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 2.24
Reply to Objection 3: Even as he that is drunk is excused if he knows not the strength of the wine, so too is he that invites another to drink excused from sin, if he be unaware that the drinker is the kind of person to be made drunk by the drink offered. But if ignorance be lacking neither is excused from sin.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II.Q150.A1
Reply to Objection 2: Drunkenness may be an excuse for sin, not in the point of its being itself a sin, but in the point of the defect that results from it, as stated above. Reply to Objection 3: Concupiscence does not altogether fetter the reason, as drunkenness does, unless perchance it be so vehement as to make a man insane.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II.Q150.A4
Happen what may, nothing must be attempted without his permission. And hence the Papists appear the more ridiculous, who, under pretext of what is advanced in this place, defend all sorts of vows, however foolish and absurd and rashly made; as if drunkenness were lawful, because God permits us to eat.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms, Vol. 4 116.4
If any one objects and asks, “Ought it to be deemed a crime that they could not attend?” The Prophet, as I have said, did not extenuate their guilt, but on the contrary shewed that they were so sunk in their vices, that they were not masters of themselves; as the case is with a drunkard, who is not in his right mind; but as he has contracted this vice of intemperance, his going astray or his ignorance is in no way excusable.
John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, Vol. 1 6.9
Never urge any man to eat or drink beyond his own limits and his own desires. He that does otherwise is drunk with his brother’s surfeit,Nil interest, faveas sceleri, an illud facias.—Senec. and reels and falls with his intemperance; that is, the sin of drunkenness is upon both their scores, they both lie wallowing in the guilt.
Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living 2.2.7
It will not excuse them from the guilt of drunkenness that they can drink hard and yet keep their feet. (3.) Those who boast of their drinking down others glory in their shame. (4.) How light soever men make of their drunkenness, it is a sin which will certainly lay them open to the wrath and curse of God.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Isaiah 5.3
21. And he drank of the wine and was drunk - 'Tis highly probable, he did not know the effect of it before. And he was uncovered in his tent - Made naked to his shame.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 28.9
The cultivation of the vine and the manufacture of wine might have been in practice before this time, as the mention of them is merely incidental to the present narrative. But it seems likely from what follows, that, though grapes may have been in use, wine had not been extracted from them. "And was drunken." We are not in a position to estimate the amount of Noah's guilt in this case, as we do not know how far he was acquainted with the properties of wine. But we should take warning by the consequences, and beware of the abuse of any of God's gifts.
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible Genesis 9:18
21. And he drank of the wine, and was drunken—perhaps at the festivities of the vintage season. This solitary stain on the character of so eminently pious a man must, it is believed, have been the result of age or inadvertency.
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Genesis 9
The tyranny of desire, which wakes into full activity before the rest of the man does, and the enfeebled will, which, in spite of all bruises and discomforts, yields at once to the overmastering desire, make the tragedy of a drunkard’s life. There comes a point in lives of fleshly indulgence in which the craving seems to escape from the control of the will altogether. Doctors tell us that the necessity for drink becomes a physical disease. Yes; but it is a disease manufactured by the patient, and he is responsible for getting himself into such a state.
Alexander Maclaren, Second Kings from Chap. VIII, and Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes 1.8.27
13 passages · 12 writers · 100s to 1900s
Writers who mention warning drunkards, their conversion, and the work of grace in overcoming drunkenness.
“If any one should say that each one of them has a nature so to do, let him be assured that it is not so. For there are those who once were profligates and drunkards; and, when the admonition of good counsels reached them, they became pure and sober, and spurned their bodily appetites. And there are those who once behaved with purity and sobriety; and when they turned away from right admonition, and dared to set themselves against the commands of Deity and of their teachers, they fell from the way of truth, and became profligates and revellers.
Memoirs of Edessa And Other Ancient Syriac Documents, Memoirs of Edessa And Other Ancient Syriac Documents 16
What grace, what mercy of God! Thou seest a man yesterday a whirlpool of drunkenness, to-day an ornament of sobriety: a man yesterday the sink of luxury, to-day the beauty of temperance: yesterday a blasphemer of God, to-day His praiser: yesterday the slave of the creature, to-day the worshipper of the Creator.
Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Book of Psalms 89
Give a hand, stretch it forth, O ye who have not yet been overwhelmed, to them who are undone through their drunkenness: ye that are whole to them that are sick, ye that are sober-minded to them that are mad, that are giddily whirling round. Let no man, I beseech you, prefer the favor of his friend to his salvation; and let violence and rebuke look to one thing only,—his benefit. When one has been seized by a fever, even slaves lay hold of their Masters.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 27
Whenever then the will tends to act under the motive of an apprehension of reason representing to it its own proper good, a due action ensues. But when the will bursts out into action upon the apprehension of the sensible apprehensive faculty, or even upon the apprehension of reason itself, representing some other good than the proper good of the will, there ensues in the action of the will a moral fault.A man acts upon sensible apprehension to the neglect of rational, when he suffers himself to be overcome by wine and women. … Pride was not made for man (Ecclus. x, 18), any more than excess in drinking.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles 3.10
Do not pronounce a man to be a drunkard although you may have seen him drunk, or an adulterer, because you know he has sinned; a single act does not stamp him for ever. The sun once stood still while Joshua and the children of Israel avenged themselves upon their enemies; Josh. x. 13. and another time it was darkened at mid-day when the Lord was crucified; S. Luke xxiii. 44. but no one would therefore say that it was stationary or dark. Noah was drunk once, and Lot, moreover, was guilty of incest, yet neither man could be spoken of as habitually given to such sins; neither would you call S. Paul a man of blood or a blasphemer, because he had blasphemed and shed blood before he became a Christian.
Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life 3.29
8. Faith, if it be true, living, and justifying, cannot be separated from a good life; it works miracles, makes a drunkard become sober, a lascivious person become chaste, a covetous man become liberal; ‘it overcomes the world-it works righteousness,’2 Cor. xiii 5; Rom. viii. 10. and makes us diligently to do, and cheerfully to suffer, whatsoever God hath placed in our way to heaven.
Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living 4.2.1
It will not avail to beat a man off from his drunkenness into a sober formality. A skilful master of the assemblies lays his axe at the root, drives still at the heart.
John Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers 9
Note, There is a liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, in which we must stand fast. But surely he would never carry this liberty so far as to put himself into the power of any bodily appetite. Though all meats were supposed lawful, he would not become a glutton nor a drunkard.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on First Corinthians 6.3
Some of the greatest sinners have appeared to be turned into real saints: drunkards have become temperate; fornicators and adulterers of a chaste conversation; swearers and profane persons have learned to fear that glorious and fearful Name, the Lord their God; and carnal worldlings have been made to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Jonathan Edwards, Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God 1
The change made by true conversion is wont to be most remarkable and sensible, with respect to that which before was the wickedness the person was most notoriously guilty of. Grace has as great a tendency to restrain and mortify such sins, as are contrary to the spirit that has been spoken of, as it is to mortify drunkenness or lasciviousness.
Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections 3.8
A man may, by repentance, and by breaking off from his sins, do much to stay the progress of woe, and to avert the results which he has already begun to experience. Thus the drunkard may reform, and may have restored health, rigor, and prosperity; and thus the licentious may turn from the evil of his ways, and enjoy health and happiness still. … Whether, then, we look to the future in the present life, or to the future beyond the grave, we have the highest conceivable motives to abandon the ways of sin, and to lead lives of holiness.
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible Daniel 4:37
It is disgraceful to be a gambler, or a drunkard, or a covetous man, or a liar; but it is no disgrace to work with our own hands, and earn our bread by our own labor.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Mark Mark 6:1-6
London and New York get as angry with the Christian men who fight against their lust and drunkenness as ever he did, and would not be sorry if they could silence these persistent ‘fanatics’ as conveniently as he could. The need for courage like John’s, and plain speech like his, is not past yet.
Alexander Maclaren, Luke 1.11
13 passages · 12 writers · 100s to 1900s
Writers who mention drunkenness at banquets, pagan festivals, memorial feasts, and the Lord's Supper.
Insult, we have said, is the servant of drunkenness. … For if the assemblies at festivals take place on account of affection, and the end of a banquet is friendliness towards those who meet, and meat and drink accompany affection, how should not conversation be conducted in a rational manner, and puzzling people with questions be avoided from affection?
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.7
We practise sharing in banquets, which are not only modest, but also sober: for we do not indulge in entertainments nor prolong our feasts with wine
Minucius Felix, The Octavius of Minucius Felix 3.31
Again, compare the festivals, observed among us as these have been described above, with the public feasts of Celsus and the heathen, and say if the former are not much more sacred observances than those feasts in which the lust of the flesh runs riot, and leads to drunkenness and debauchery.
Origen of Alexandria, Origen Against Celsus 8.23
Moreover, perverse and erratic religions were introduced, to which the greater part of men gave themselves up, by occasion of holidays and solemnities, instituting drinkings and banquets, following pipes, and flutes, and harps, and diverse kinds of musical instruments, and indulging themselves in all kinds of drunkenness and luxury.
Pseudo-Clement, Pseudo-Clementine Literature 3.6.13
What is this to what was done by the Word, in driving away from man diseases and demons and death itself? Dionysus is worshipped among them because he has taught man drunkenness; but the true Saviour and Lord of all, for teaching temperance, is mocked by these people.
Athanasius of Alexandria, The Incarnation of the Word 2.49
Again My Jesus, and again a mystery; not deceitful nor disorderly, nor belonging to Greek error or drunkenness (for so I call their solemnities, and so I think will every man of sound sense); but a mystery lofty and divine, and allied to the Glory above.
Gregory of Nazianzus, Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 22
XV. And those of them who were most subject to passion deified their passions, or honoured them among their gods; Anger and Blood-thirstiness, Lust and Drunkenness, and every similar wickedness; and made out of this an ignoble and unjust excuse for their own sins.
Gregory of Nazianzus, Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 14
I know that there are many worshippers of tombs and pictures. I know that there are many who drink to great excess over the dead, and who, in the feasts which they make for corpses, bury themselves over the buried, and give to their gluttony and drunkenness the name of religion.
Augustine of Hippo, On the Morals of the Catholic Church 34
Hearken, ye virgins, or rather ye wives also, as many as consent to such unseemliness at other person’s weddings, leaping, and bounding, and disgracing our common nature. Hearken, ye men too, as many as follow after those banquets, full of expense and drunkenness, and fear ye the gulf of the evil one.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 51
It is therefore naturally right for man so to manage his body and the lower faculties of his soul as that the act and good of reason may least of all be hindered, but rather helped. Mismanagement in this regard must naturally be sinful. We count therefore as things naturally evil carousings and revellings and the disorderly indulgence of the sexual instinct, whereby the act of reason is impeded and subjected to the passions, which do not leave the judgement of the reason free.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles 3.129
To sing unto the Lord, v. 19 . Drunkards are wont to sing obscene and profane songs. The heathens, in their Bacchanalia, used to sing hymns to Bacchus, whom they called the god of wine. Thus they expressed their joy; but the joy of Christians should express itself in songs of praise to their God.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Ephesians 5.2
What are we to think of those who on holy days allow themselves to indulge in indecent plays and shows, vulgar songs, and intemperance in meat and drink? Such people greatly desecrate holy days For if even works innocent and useful for this present life are unfit for holy days, much more such as these, which are unprofitable, carnal, and vicious.
Philaret of Moscow, The Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church q. 543–552
Another is drunken (ος δε μεθυε). Such disgusting conduct was considered shameful in heathen club suppers. … Paul is not approving gluttony and drunkenness but only expressing horror at their sacrilege (despising, καταφρονειτε) of the church of God.
A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament 8.11
8 passages · 8 writers · 100s to 1900s
Writers who mention wine as a gift of God and describe sober use.
But we who are not only not permitted to drink with others to intoxication, but not even to indulge in much wine, do not need the crocus or the flower of the cypress to lead us to an easy sleep.
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.8
13. They are joined each to each, the corn and the grape. In the field the reapers, wine can make cheerful, in the vineyard the dressers, bread strengthens in turn.
Ephrem the Syrian, Ephraim Syrus: The Nisibene Hymns 6
Now this power or force both is, and is called, nourishment. But it is not the same in all bodies that require aliment, but to each of them has been assigned a food adapted to its condition by Him who governs Nature. Some animals feed on roots which they dig up. Of others grass is the food, of others different kinds of flesh, but for man above all things bread; and, in order to continue and preserve the moisture of his body, drink, not simply water, but water frequently sweetened with wine, to join forces with our internal heat.
Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism 39
For as I observed, wine is not a bad thing, but drunkenness is so.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 4
Note, The right knowledge of God consists in doing our duty, particularly that which is the duty of our place and station in the world. Secondly, He himself had the comfort of it: Did he not eat and drink soberly and cheerfully, so as to fit himself for his business, for strength and not for drunkenness?
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Jeremiah 22.2
Notice my text, ‘come ye to the waters’ . . . ‘buy wine and milk.’ The great fountain is set up in the market-place of the world, and every man may come; and whichever of this glorious triad of effluents he needs most, there his lip may glue itself and there it may drink, be it ‘water’ that refreshes, or ‘wine’ that gladdens, or ‘milk’ that nourishes.
Alexander Maclaren, Isaiah and Jeremiah 1.2.25
The unpopular parts of Christianity turn out when examined to be the very props of the people. The outer ring of Christianity is a rigid guard of ethical abnegations and professional priests; but inside that inhuman guard you will find the old human life dancing like children, and drinking wine like men; for Christianity is the only frame for pagan freedom.
G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy 9
To eat all things—At man’s creation, God gave him the “green herb” and the fruits of “trees yielding seed.” After the Flood, God gave man “every moving thing that liveth,” to be food for him (Gen. 9:3). Today, all these foods are for us: herbs, fruits, flesh (and that of “all manner of four-footed beasts and creeping things of the earth and birds of the heaven”—Acts 10:12); and Paul also commands Timothy to “use a little wine for his stomach’s sake, and his often infirmities.”
William R. Newell, Romans Verse-by-Verse 14
10 passages · 10 writers · 1st c. to 1900s
Writers who mention the harm drunkenness does to reason, to character, and to the drinker's family.
Seeing, therefore, that we are the portion of the Holy One, let us do all those things which pertain to holiness, avoiding all evil-speaking, all abominable and impure embraces, together with all drunkenness, seeking after change, all abominable lusts, detestable adultery, and execrable pride.
Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians 2.30
The Lacedæmonians compelling the Helots, their servants (Helots is the name of their servants), to get drunk, exhibited their drunken pranks before themselves, who were temperate, for cure and correction.
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 3.8
But I hear that some infect your number, and destroy the praise of a distinguished name by their corrupt conversation; whom you yourselves, even as being lovers and guardians of your own praise, should rebuke and check and correct. For what a disgrace is suffered by your name, when one spends his days in intoxication and debauchery, another returns to that country whence he was banished, to perish when arrested, not now as being a Christian, but as being a criminal!
Cyprian of Carthage, The Epistles of Cyprian 6
26. But what is more admirable than abstinence, which makes even the years of youth to ripen, so that there is an old age of character? For as by excess of food and by drunkenness even mature age is excited, so the wildness of youth is lessened by scanty feasts and by the running stream. … Luxury then is the mother of lust.
Ambrose of Milan, Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 15
For indeed both Adam by the incontinence of the belly was cast out of paradise; and the flood in Noah’s time, this produced; and this brought down the thunders on Sodom. For although there was also a charge of whoredom, nevertheless from this grew the root of each of those punishments; which Ezekiel also signified when he said, “But this was the iniquity of Sodom, that she waxed wanton in pride and in fullness of bread, and in abundance of luxury.” Thus the Jews also per petrated the greatest wickedness, being driven upon transgression by their drunkenness and delicacy.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 16
Reply to Objection 2: Wine is said to be a lustful thing, either in the sense in which surfeit in any matter is ascribed to lust, or because the use of too much wine affords an incentive to venereal pleasure.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II-II.Q153.A1
Drunkards, on the contrary, give themselves up to mirth, and intemperately indulge themselves; and there is nothing more difficult than to make them to feel sorrow; for wine so infatuates their senses, that they continue to laugh in the greatest calamities. But the Prophet says, Weep and howl , ye drunkards!
John Calvin, Commentary on Joel, Amos, and Obadiah Joel 1.3
If God has so dignified our nature, what a shame is it that we should debase it! God has exalted the human nature above the angels, and the drunkard debases the human nature below the beasts.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 5.7
History is as full of this doctrine as the Bible is. The punishment of the felon involves his family in his disgrace and misery. The spendthrift and drunkard entail poverty and wretchedness upon all connected within them.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology II.8.9
A degrading anaesthetic is drink. Better to bear all ills than to drown them by drowning consciousness. There is no blow which a man cannot bear better if he holds fast by God’s hand and keeps himself fully exposed to the stroke, than if he sought a cowardly alleviation of it, softer the drunkard’s fashion.
Alexander Maclaren, Second Kings from Chap. VIII, and Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes 1.8.27
11 passages · 11 writers · 100s to 1900s
Writers who include drunkenness in lists of vices, works of the flesh, and sins to put away.
Accordingly the flesh is blamed in the Scriptures, because nothing is done by the soul without the flesh in operations of concupiscence, appetite, drunkenness, cruelty, idolatry, and other works of the flesh,—operations, I mean, which are not confined to sensations, but result in effects.
Tertullian, A Treatise on the Soul 40
Ye are more of you poor than rich, do ye then at least receive what I say, yet give heed. Whosoever of you boast of your poverty, beware of pride, lest the humble rich surpass you; beware of impiety, lest the pious rich surpass you; beware of drunkenness, lest the sober rich surpass you.
Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 37
We do not urge you to fast? We do but forbid you to besot yourselves with drunkenness and gormandizing. The things we would retrench are but the very things which bring you disgrace; things which even here, on this side of hell-fire, you yourselves confess to be things to be shunned and hated.
John Chrysostom, A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 23
For from gluttony proceed surfeiting and drunkenness.
John Cassian, The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X 6.16
Some fornicator , perhaps, or perjurer , or drunkard , or cheat , ( 1 Corinthians 5:11 ,) intrudes himself without repentance. As such downright contempt is a token of wanton insult against Christ, there can be no doubt that such a person, whoever he is, receives the Supper to his own destruction.
John Calvin, Commentary on Corinthians, Vol. 1 11.3
A. The sins forbidden in the seventh commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required, are, adultery, fornication, rape, incest, sodomy, and all unnatural lusts; all unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections; all corrupt or filthy communications, or listening thereunto; wanton looks, impudent or light behavior, immodest apparel; prohibiting of lawful, and dispensing with unlawful marriages; allowing, tolerating, keeping of stews, and resorting to them; entangling vows of single life, undue delay of marriage; having more wives or husbands than one at the same time; unjust divorce, or desertion; idleness, gluttony, drunkenness, unchaste company; lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancings, stage plays; and all other provocations to, or acts of uncleanness, either in ourselves or others.
Westminster Assembly, Westminster Larger Catechism 139
What can be plainer spoken than this, ‘Thou shalt not kill; Be not drunk with wine; Husbands, love your wives; Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye so to them.’ The wit of man cannot more plainly tell us our duty, or more fully, than the Holy Ghost hath done already.
Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living 4.5.1
What shall we think then of those who do not attain to this; whose fraud and injustice, drunkenness and uncleanness, witness against them, that all these they have broken from their youth up, though they have named the name of Christ? Well, it is sad to come short of those that come short of heaven.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Matthew 19.4
There is no sin so great but a great saint may fall into it. There is no saint so great but he may fall into a great sin. Noah escaped the pollutions of the world before the flood; and yet he was afterwards overtaken by drunkenness.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke Luke 21:34-38
I lost at cards, consumed the labor of the peasants, sentenced them to punishments, lived loosely, and deceived people. Lying, robbery, adultery of all kinds, drunkenness, violence, murder — there was no crime I did not commit, and in spite of that people praised my conduct and my contemporaries considered and consider me to be a comparatively moral man.
Leo Tolstoy, A Confession 2
Isaiah speaks with fiery indignation and sharp sarcasm. His words are aflame with loathing of the moral corruption of both kingdoms, and he fastens on the one common vice of drunkenness—not as if it were the only sin, but because it shows in the grossest form the rottenness underlying the apparent beauty.
Alexander Maclaren, Isaiah and Jeremiah 1.1.24
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