1 Timothy 5:23

5:17-25 Care must be taken that ministers are maintained. And those who are laborious in this work are worthy of double honour and esteem. It is their just due, as much as the reward of the labourer. The apostle charges Timothy solemnly to guard against partiality. We have great need to watch at all times, that we do not partake of other men's sins. Keep thyself pure, not only from doing the like thyself, but from countenancing it, or any way helping to it in others. The apostle also charges Timothy to take care of his health. As we are not to make our bodies masters, so neither slaves; but to use them so that they may be most helpful to us in the service of God. There are secret, and there are open sins: some men's sins are open before-hand, and going before unto judgment; some they follow after. God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make known the counsels of all hearts. Looking forward to the judgment-day, let us all attend to our proper offices, whether in higher or lower stations, studying that the name and doctrine of God may never be blasphemed on our account.

Drink no longer water; not wholly, as many did in those countries, and Timothy probably did, not because he was not able to buy wine, but religiously, as a piece of discipline to keep under the flesh. But use a little wine; but mix some wine with the water. For thy stomach’s sake; to help thy digestion. And thine often infirmities; in regard of thy weakness and frequent infirmities.

Drink no longer water (μηκέτι ὑδροπότει) The verb N.T.o. olxx. Rend. be no longer a drinker of water. Timothy is not enjoined to abstain from water, but is bidden not to be a water-drinker, entirely abstaining from wine. The kindred noun ὑδροπότης is used by Greek comic writers to denote a mean-spirited person. See Aristoph. Knights, 319. But use a little wine (ἀλλὰ οἴνῳ ὀλίγῳ χρῶ) The reverse antithesis appears in Hdt. i. 171, of the Persians: οὐκ οἴνῳ διαχρέονται ἀλλ' ὑδροποτέουσι they do not indulge in wine but are water-drinkers. Comp. Plato, Repub. 561 C, τοτὲ μεν μεθύων - αὖθις δὲ ὑδροποτῶν sometimes he is drunk - then he is for total-abstinence. With a little wine comp. much wine, 1 Timothy 3:8; Titus 2:3. For thy stomach's sake (διὰ στόμαχον) Στόμαχος N.T.o. olxx. The appearance at this point of this dietetic prescription, if it is nothing more, is sufficiently startling; which has led to some question whether the verse may not have been misplaced. If it belongs here, it can be explained only as a continuation of the thought in 1 Timothy 5:22, to the effect that Timothy is to keep himself pure by not giving aid and comfort to the ascetics, and imperilling his own health by adopting their rules of abstinence.

Observe that οἶνος here, as everywhere else, means wine, fermented and capable of intoxicating, and not a sweet syrup made by boiling down grape-juice, and styled by certain modern reformers "unfermented wine." Such a concoction would have tended rather to aggravate than to relieve Timothy's stomachic or other infirmities. Thine often infirmities (τὰς πυκνάς σου ἀσθενείας) This use of often as an adjective appears in earlier English. So Chaucer: "Ofte sythes" or "tymes ofte," many times. Shakespeare: "In which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous sadness" (As you like it, IV. i. 19). And Ben Jonson: "The jolly wassal walks the often round." The Forest, iii. Even Tennyson: "Wrench'd or broken limb - an often chance In those brain-stunning shocks and tourney-falls." continued...

1 Timothy 5:23 . Σεαυτὸν , thyself ) The antithesis is, other men’s . Timothy is admonished, in passing, how he should regulate his own conduct, while he is engaged in regulating the conduct of others; and this parenthesis very elegantly imitates the delay that ought to be allowed to intervene in such matters.— μηκέτι , no longer ) A safe admonition, always keeping in view the precept, keep thyself pure .

23. no longer—as a habit. This injunction to drink wine occasionally is a modification of the preceding "keep thyself pure." The presbyter and deacon were enjoined to be "not given to wine" (1Ti 3:3, 8). Timothy seems to have had a tendency to undue ascetical strictness on this point (compare Note, see on [2481]1Ti 4:8; compare the Nazarene vow, Nu 6:1-4; John the Baptist, Lu 1:15; Ro 14). 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. So Ellicott and Wiesinger. Alford thus: Timothy was of a feeble frame (see on [2482]1Co 16:10, 11), and prone to timidity in his duties as overseer where vigorous action was needed; hence Paul exhorts him to take all proper means to raise his bodily condition above these infirmities. 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.

Verse 23. - Be no longer a drinker of for drink no longer , A.V. Be... a drinker of water ( ὑδροπότει ); here only in the New Testament. It is found in some codices of the LXX. in Daniel 1:12 , and also in classical Greek. We learn from hence the interesting fact that Timothy was, in modern parlance, a total abstainer; and we also learn that, in St. Paul's judgment, total abstinence was not to be adhered to if injurious to the health. The epithet, "a little," should not be overlooked. Was Luke, the beloved physician, with St. Paul when he wrote this prescription (see 2 Timothy 4:11 )? It is also interesting to have this passing allusion to Timothy's bad health, and this instance of St. Paul's thoughtful consideration for him. Infirmities ( ἀσθενείας ); in the sense of sicknesses , attacks of illness. 1 Timothy 5:23

23 . Drink no longer water ] The form of the verb and its tense require the fuller rendering of R.V., Be no longer a drinker of water . The connexion seems to be; ‘you have, I know, among other means of training and disciplining yourself in “purity,” been a water-drinker; but have the courage of a sanctified common sense; this is not the only way, nor even for you the right way, to your end; if your stomach is out of order and your health much enfeebled, take a little wine as medicine, not as indulgence.’ thine often infirmities ] ‘Infirmities’ was a stronger word formerly than now: the Greek word is frequently rendered ‘sickness,’ cf. John 11:3-4 , ‘He whom thou lovest is sick,’ ‘this sickness is not unto death,’ ‘Lazarus is dead.’ Two observations may be made on this verse with regard to the question, (1) of temperance, (2) of authorship. (1) According to the principles of the Church of England Temperance Society the resolution of total abstinence is taken (as it was by Timothy) by those who see in it a discipline in Christian life, or a help in Christian love, and is expressly guarded by the reservation ‘except under medical advice;’ and the question whether wine and other alcoholic drinks are generally useful in illness is one quite open among C.E.T.S. total abstainers, as among doctors.

On a point of medical science St Paul’s lay experience will not be claimed as a final settlement. (2) The verse is so casually introduced that, as Dr Farrar remarks, ‘though we see at once how it may have occurred to St Paul’s thoughts—since otherwise the former rule might have led to a self-denial still more rigid ( Romans 14:2 ), and even injurious to health—it is far too natural and spontaneous, too entirely disconnected from all that precedes and follows it, to have occurred to any imitator. An imitator, if capable of introducing the natural play of thought to which the precept “keep thyself pure” is due, would have been far more likely to add—and especially in an Epistle which so scrupulously forbids indulgence in wine to all Church officials—“and, in order to promote this purity, take as little wine as possible, or avoid it altogether.” ’

1 Timothy 5:23 . μηκέτι ὑδροπότει : An adequate explanation of this seemingly irrelevant direction is that since there is a certain degree of ambiguity in ἁγνός , St. Paul thought it necessary to guard against any possible misunderstanding of Keep thyself pure : “I do not mean you to practice a rigid asceticism; on the contrary, I think that you are likely to injure your health by your complete abstinence from wine; so, be no longer a water-drinker , etc.” So Hort, who thinks that this is “not merely a sanitary but quite as much a moral precept” ( Judaistic Christianity , p. 144). This explanation is preferable to that of Paley who regards this as an example of “the negligence of real correspondence … when a man writes as he remembers: when he puts down an article that occurs the moment it occurs, lest he should afterwards forget it” ( Horae Paulinae ). Similarly Calvin suggested that σεαυτὸν — ἀσθενείας was a marginal note by St. Paul himself. Alford’s view has not much to commend it, viz. , that Timothy’s weakness of character was connected with his constant ill health, and that St. Paul hoped to brace his deputy’s will by a tonic. For this position of μηκέτι cf. Mark 9:25 ; Mark 11:14 , Luke 8:49 , John 5:14 ; John 8:11 , Romans 14:13 , Ephesians 4:28 ; and see note on chap. 1 Timothy 4:14 . διὰ τὸ στόμαχον : Wetstein’s happy quotation from Libanius, Epist . 1578 must not be omitted: πέπτωκε καὶ ἡμῖν ὁ στόμαχος ταῖς συνεχέσιν ὑδροποσίαις .

(23) Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities. —Those who argue that this Epistle was the artificial composition of an age subsequent to St. Paul’s, and was written in great measure to support the hierarchical development, which, they say, showed itself only in the century after St. Paul’s death, have no little difficulty in accounting for the presence of such a command as this. It can, in fact, only be explained on the supposition that the letter was, in truth, written by St. Paul to Timothy in all freedom and in all love: by the older and more experienced, to the younger and comparatively untried man: by the master to the pupil: by an old and trusted friend, accustomed to speak his whole mind, to one his inferior in years, in rank, in knowledge. No ecclesiastical forger of the second or third century would have dreamed, or, had he dreamed, would have dared to weave into the complicated tapestry of such an Epistle such a charge as “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine—considering thine often infirmities.” The reminder was, no doubt, suggested by St.