61. 1Ti_3:2-3
1 Timothy 3:2-3, “Not given to wine.” The Apostle Paul, in this first letter to Timothy, whom he calls his “own son in the faith,” names thirteen qualifications for a bishop or pastor. “A bishop, then, must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach; not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous.” The language is imperative, “Must be;” thus designating that these qualifications are indispensable. He spake with authority, being inspired of God.
It is not my purpose to examine each of these thirteen, but to call attention to three of them, as bearing particularly on the duty of abstinence. In the Authorized Version, we read, “Vigilant, sober, not given to wine.” That we may the more perfectly understand the meaning of these, we must look at the original Greek words used by the apostle.
Vigilant—The Greek is neephalion, which Donnegan’s Lexicon renders “abstemious; that abstains, especially from wine.” Hence, “sober, discreet, circumspect, cautious.” Robinson’s New Testament Lexicon defines the word, “Sober, temperate, especially in respect to wine.” In New Testament, trop., “sober-minded, watchful, circumspect.” In the adjective form, the word occurs only in 1 Timothy 3:2; 1 Timothy 3:11, and Titus 2:2, from the verb neepho, which Donnegan defines, “To live abstemiously, to abstain from wine.” Green’s New Testament Lexicon, “To be sober, not intoxicated; metaphorically, to be vigilant, circumspect.”
Sober—The Greek is sōphrona. Donnegan, “That is, of sound mind and good understanding; sound in intellect, not deranged; intelligent, discreet, prudent, or wise.” Green, “Sound; of a sound mind, sane, staid, temperate, discreet, 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8; Titus 2:3. Modest, chaste, Titus 2:5.” Macknight, “Sound mind; one who governs his passions, prudent.” Bloomfield, “Sober-minded, orderly.” Not given to wine—The Greek is mee-paroinon. mee, a negative particle, not;paroinon, compounded of para, a preposition governing the genitive (of, from, on the part of), the dative (at, by, near, with), the accusative (together, with, to, towards, by, near, at, next to); and oinos, wine. Literally, not at, by, near, or with wine. This looks considerably like total abstinence. It applies equally to private habits and public conduct. Notice the careful steps of the progress. He must be neephalion, abstinent, sober in body, that he may be sōphrona, sound in mind, and that his influence may be unimpaired, meeparion, not with or near wine. We find in this passage no countenance for the moderate use of intoxicating wine, but the reverse, the obligation to abstain totally.
“Not given to wine” is certainly a very liberal translation, and shows here the usages of the day unconsciously influenced the translators. “The ancient paroinos was a man accustomed to attend drinking-parties.” Thus the Christian minister is required not only to be personally sober, but also to withhold his presence and sanction from those assemblies where alcoholic drinks are used, endangering the sobriety of himself and others. That both Paul and Timothy understood that total abstinence was an essential qualification for the Christian pastor, is evident from the compliance of Timothy. In this same letter, 1 Timothy 5:23, Paul advises Timothy, “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.” The fact is plain that Timothy, in strict accordance with the direction, “not given to wine,” that is, not with or near wine, was a total abstainer. The recommendation to “use a little wine” is exceptional, and strictly medicinal. As there existed in the Roman Empire, in which Timothy traveled, a variety of wines, differing from each other in character, we cannot decide, ex cathedra, that it was alcoholic wine that Paul recommended. Pliny, Columella, Philo, and others state that many of the wines of their day produced “headaches, dropsy, madness, and stomach complaints”—Nott, Lond. Ed. p. 96. We can hardly believe that Paul recommended these. Yet these strikingly designate the effects of alcoholic wines. The same writers tell us that wines destitute of all strength were exceedingly wholesome and useful to the body, salubre corporis. Pliny mentions a wine in good repute, aduminon—that is, without power, without strength. He particularly states that the wines most adapted to the sick are “Utilissimum vinum omnibus sacco viribus fractis,” which the alcoholic wine men translate, “For all the sick, wine is most useful when its forces have been broken by the strainer.” We do not object to this rendering, since the wine must be harmless when its forces, which is alcohol, are broken. The Latin word fractis is from frango, to break in pieces, to dash in pieces, which indicates the thoroughness of the work done by the “sacco,” strainer or filter. That the force which the filter breaks is fermentation, is evident from the next sentence of Pliny. (See item “Filtration,” on a previous page.) Horace, lib. i. ode 17, speaks of the innocentis Lesbii, innocent Lesbian, which Professor C. Smart renders “unintoxicating.” The Delphin Notes to Horace say, “The ancients filtered their wines repeatedly before they could have fermented. And thus the faeces which nourish the strength of the wine being taken away, they rendered the wine itself more liquid, weaker, lighter, sweeter, and more pleasant to drink.”
Again, Horace tells his friend Maecenas to drink an hundred glasses, without fear of intoxication. (See previous page in this volume.)
Athenaeus says of the sweet Lesbian, “Let him take sweet wine (glukus), either mixed with water or warmed, especially that called protropos, as being very good for the stomach”—Nott, Lond. Ed. p. 96, and Bib. Com. p. 374.
Protropos was, according to Pliny, “Mustum quod sponte profluit antequam uvæ calcentur.” “The must which flows spontaneously from the grapes”—Nott, Lond. Ed. p. 80.
Donnegan defines it, “Wine flowing from the grapes before pressure.”
Smith’s Greek and Roman Antiquities, “That which flowed from the clusters, in consequence of their pressure upon each other, to which the inhabitants of Mytelene gave the name protropos.”
Why not treat Paul with common politeness, not to say honesty, and, as he so emphatically required that a bishop should “not be with or near wine,” believe that when he recommended Timothy to “use a little wine” medicinally, he had reference to such wine as Pliny says was “most useful for the sick,” whose “forces have been broken by the strainer,” or filter? As the recommendation was not for gratification, but for medicine, to Timothy personally, a sick man, and only a little at that, it gives no more countenance for the beverage use of wine for any one, and especially for those in health, than does the prescription of castor-oil by the physician for the beverage use of that article. The case of Timothy, a total abstainer, illustrates and enforces the inspired declaration that a bishop must be vigilant, that is, abstinent; sober, that is, sound in mind; and not given to wine, that is, not with or near wine. If all who are now in the sacred office would follow literally and faithfully the requirements which Paul lays down, “not with ok near wine,” the number of total abstainers would be greatly increased, the cause of temperance would be essentially promoted, and the good of the community permanently secured; for, according to Paul, total abstinence is an indispensable qualification for a pastor.