No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities<\/em>” (I Timothy 5:23).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIf we conclude that Paul was referring only to a non-alcoholic wine, then we must also conclude that Timothy was avoiding all grape related products, including grape juice. Otherwise, there would be no need to encourage him to change his practice. Using alcohol-based medicine is not a loophole that allows the casual use of alcohol.<\/p>\n
The argument that Timothy was a bishop at the time the New Testament was written is false. The New Testament refers to him as a young man, but the qualifications of a bishop is an older man who has raised children. “This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. … one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence<\/em>” (I Timothy 3:1,4). “If a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination<\/em>” (Titus 1:6). Nowhere in the New Testament is Timothy referred to as a bishop. He is called a preacher, evangelist, or minister. “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. … But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry<\/em>” (II Timothy 4:2,5). The writings of some early Christians do state that Timothy did eventually become a bishop (or elder) later in life, but it would not have been at this point in Timothy’s life.<\/p>\nBesides, I do not find the avoidance of alcohol stated in such absolute terms that an elder using an alcohol-based medicine when needed for an ailment would be sinning.<\/p>\n
But the real point is that there is nothing in I Timothy 5:23 that makes it a necessary conclusion that Paul is only referring to a non-alcoholic wine. Can a grape juice stomach medicine exist? Perhaps. Is it necessarily what Paul is referring to? We don’t know and thus cannot make any conclusions based on that.<\/p>\n\t
Response:<\/h2>\n
OK. Thanks for the response and thanks for all the information.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I just read your article online about alcohol and the Bible,\u00a0New Testament Beverages, and wanted to say it is magnificent. I do want to point out something about a loophole you left for the drinker concerning Paul’s advice to Timothy about drinking wine. In the Greek book, The Learned Banqueters\u00a0and other sources mention medicines…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[371],"class_list":["post-28364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-alcohol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":57933,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-little-wine-for-your-stomachs-sake\/","url_meta":{"origin":28364,"position":0},"title":"A Little Wine for Your Stomach’s Sake","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bryan Matthew Dockens Paul advised Timothy, \"No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities\" (I Timothy 5:23). \"No longer drink only water ...\" By this statement, we learn that Timothy's habit had been one of total abstinence from wine\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59741,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/social-drinking-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":28364,"position":1},"title":"Social Drinking (Thompson)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Floyd Thompson Many times in trying to justify social drinking people will use as a defense Paul's admonition to Timothy in I Timothy 5:23, which says, \"use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thine often infirmities.\" I think this passage has not been thoroughly discussed until we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1670,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-wrong-with-drinking-so-long-as-it-is-done-in-moderation\/","url_meta":{"origin":28364,"position":2},"title":"What is wrong with drinking, so long as it is done in moderation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 4, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What's wrong with drinking, so long as it is done in moderation? After all Jesus turned water into wine in John 2. The disciples were accused of being drunk in Acts 2, so alcohol must have been in use. Older women were only told not to be given to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22449,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-timothy-a-nazirite\/","url_meta":{"origin":28364,"position":3},"title":"Was Timothy a Nazirite?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was Timothy a Nazirite? It appeared that he was reluctant to take the wine ( grape juice) so I know that if he was a Nazirite he would not take even grapes or grape juice for medicine. I was told that it had to be alcohol because he could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86675,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/much-wine\/","url_meta":{"origin":28364,"position":4},"title":"Much Wine?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Tracy Dugger In giving the qualifications of elders, the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write that an elder is not to be, \"\u2026given to wine\u2026\" (I Timothy 3:3). Then in I Timothy 3:6, Paul stated of deacons, \"Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double tongued, not given to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7953,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-it-matter-how-long-was-jesus-hair\/","url_meta":{"origin":28364,"position":5},"title":"Does it matter how long was Jesus’ hair?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Interesting and thank you for the insight concerning\u00a0the length of Jesus\u2019 hair, though it does not seem necessary to teach it. It is true. We don\u2019t know if he had long hair or not. How long would it have to be to be considered long anyway? The Bible doesn\u2019t\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}