Wednesday, May 23, 2018

1 Timothy 5:23: Brief Notes

I like William Mounce's Pastoral Letters commentary in the Word series, but have quibbles with him over some issues. 1 Timothy 5:23 reads:

"Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities" (KJV).

Greek (SBLGNT): μηκέτι ὑδροπότει, ἀλλὰ οἴνῳ ὀλίγῳ χρῶ διὰ τὸν στόμαχον καὶ τὰς πυκνάς σου ἀσθενείας.

Mounce reasons that Paul's words to Timothy deal with drinking wine for medicinal purposes only--something like an "elixir" (a panacea) that cures colds and about everything else. But do we have reason to believe the use of wine in this verse is that circumscribed?

It has been observed that Paul was probably quoting a notable proverb from antiquity. After all, the ancients seem to have extolled the virtues of wine in moderation: they recognized its healing properties when used moderately. However, is 1 Timothy 5:23 limiting temperate drinking (particularly, the imbibing of wine) to health purposes alone? Here are some thoughts culled from biblegateway although I hope to build on these sources later:

NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible: "use a little wine. Most people drank wine with their meals. It was watered down (often about two parts water to one part wine), and not distilled to a higher than natural degree of fermentation. Some have suggested that Timothy was abstaining from wine to avoid the criticism of the false teachers (4:3). your stomach. Wine was often used to settle stomachs and was thought to prevent dysentery; it could be used to disinfect water. Some restorative diets recommended water, others wine; wine was also used in some remedies (i.e., medicinally)."

Expositor's Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition): New Testament: Apparently for medicinal purposes, Timothy is told not to restrict himself to drinking water but to "use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses." The word for wine is sometimes used in LXX for unfermented grape juice. Furthermore, it is generally agreed that the wine of Jesus' day was usually rather weak and, especially among the Jews, often diluted with water. Moreover, safe drinking water was not always readily available in those eastern countries.

Asbury Bible Commentary: "A little wine indicates moderation and probably is a comment on the local water. Perhaps Timothy may be interpreting purity more physically/ascetically than Paul intended."

Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary:

For the most part in the NT, oinos is used literally, but occasionally it has symbolic meanings. In 1 Tim. 5:23, Paul exhorts Timothy to drink a little wine for his stomach's sake, and wine is a means of healing in Lk 10:34. John the Baptist abstains from drinking wine, perhaps following a Nazirite vow (Lk 1:15). However, Jesus, like most people, likely drank wine, as can be seen by the exaggerated accusation that he was a “glutton and a drunkard” (Mt 11:18–19), used by his opponents to mean that he did not fast nor abstain from wine (9:14–17; Mk 2:18–22; Lk 5:33–38). Additionally, Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine (Jn 2:1–11).

Symbolically, oinos is used negatively in Revelation, referring to the wine and cup of God’s wrath (14:10; 16:19; 19:15) and to the debauched ways of Babylon (14:8). Positively, oinos serves as a token of hope for the coming celebration for all believers at Jesus’ return. A picture of this coming new age is given in the creation of wine at the wedding in Cana (Jn 2:1–11) and in Jesus’ promise that he will not drink wine again until the great feast when the kingdom of God comes in all its fullness (Mt 26:29; Mk 14:25). See NIDNTT-A, 41–42.


Rhodian Geometric oinochoe by the Bird and Zigzag Painter, 740/720 BC. Paris: Louvre.

Thanks to Wikipedia Commons.

10 comments:

Edgar Foster said...

I hope my readers know that I used elixir lightly. 😐

Duncan said...

It it interesting to note that beer has been used throughout the history of civilization to make water safer to drink (usually 2-3%) but that the very idea of exposed contaminated water was also generally a byproduct of civilization. Excrement and drinking water in close proximity & pools of water without vegetation and more importantly, fish and birds to control the balance of life in that water.

In fact I have read that outside of the city environment, the contamination idea is somewhat of a myth. Their would have been an abundance of potable drinking water in areas not over populated with cattle or other domestic animals.

Edgar Foster said...

Can't say that I've studied this subject much, but the commentaries above apparently limit the water problem for Timothy to Ephesus or they say "those eastern countries" known as the biblical lands. Revelation suggests that Laodicea also had less than desirable water.

http://www.tyndalehouse.com/tynbul/library/TynBull_1987_38_06_Porter_LaodiceansRev3.pdf

But as you say--water might have been abundantly potable without oxen and domestic animals in abundance.

Edgar Foster said...

Also see https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2043&context=faculty_scholarship

Duncan said...

Thanks, look foreward to reading the paper from Duke. A bi problem with static water and drinking from cisterns is demonstrated graphically in London history.

http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/removal.html

Duncan said...

http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1425754/1/WengrowetalAntiquitySubmission3.pdf

Some studies do not emphasize the long term human influence on water availability due to agricultural practise. This study does, but the time scale was shorter than estimated here.

Duncan said...

Duke study is interesting & I noted for Rome:-

Over time, however, as the city’s population grew the water of the
Tiber became increasingly polluted, particularly because the city’s main sewer, the
Cloaca Maxima, flowed directly into it.78 The ready availability of a reliable source of clean water from the aqueducts spurred demands for its water to be used for drinking, fountains, gardens, and even public toilets.79

It's worth pointing out all that is wrong with flushing, water based toilets:-

https://permaculturenews.org/2014/07/21/building-basic-compost-toilet/

Edgar Foster said...

Glad you could make use of the Duke study and find other helpful links online. The Duke paper is just meant to survey ancient conditions and make a larger overall point, but I thought it contained some valuable insights on Rome and other cultures.

Duncan said...

http://www.palaeo.vetmed.uni-muenchen.de/download/poellath/2006kindermann_djara.pdf

Egypt is producing some of the best data on anthropomorphic climate change & it has some of the earliest evidence of beer production. Both wine and beer would have served the same perpose medicinally but would be ineffective against a number of pathogens and parasites.

http://parasites.probacto.com/can-alcohol-kill-a-parasite/

Duncan said...

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/bar-issues/march-april-2017/