Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
1 Timothy 5:23
There are 20 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 242, footnote 4 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Chapter II.—On Drinking. (HTML)
“Use a little wine,” says the apostle to Timothy, who drank water, “for thy stomach’s sake;”[1 Timothy 5:23] 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.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 97, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
The Chaplet, or De Corona. (HTML)
Chapter VIII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 404 (In-Text, Margin)
... letters; I will own that they are requisite both for the business and commerce of life, and for performing our devotion to God. Nay, if he also first strung the chord to give forth melody, I will not deny, when listening to David, that this invention has been in use with the saints, and has ministered to God. 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.[1 Timothy 5:23] Let Minerva have been the first who built a ship: I shall see Jonah and the apostles sailing. Nay, there is more than this: for even Christ, we shall find, has ordinary rai ment; Paul, too, has his cloak. If at once, of every article of furniture ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 108, footnote 8 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Fasting. (HTML)
From Fasts Absolute Tertullian Comes to Partial Ones and Xerophagies. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1076 (In-Text, Margin)
... a man should sacrifice to God half his appetite; temperate in waters, and intemperate in meats. Whether, moreover, the apostle had any acquaintance with xerophagies—(the apostle) who had repeatedly practised greater rigours, “hunger, and thirst, and fasts many,” who had forbidden “drunkennesses and revellings” —we have a sufficient evidence even from the case of his disciple Timotheus; whom when he admonishes, “for the sake of his stomach and constant weaknesses,” to use “a little wine,”[1 Timothy 5:23] from which he was abstaining not from rule, but from devotion—else the custom would rather have been beneficial to his stomach—by this very fact he has advised abstinence from wine as “worthy of God,” which, on a ground of necessity, he has ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 409, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Good of Marriage. (HTML)
Section 25 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2002 (In-Text, Margin)
... there of the same virtue of mind, unto whom trial is wanting, whereby what is within, in the sight of God, may go forth also into the sight of men, and not to men begin to exist, but only become known? For there was already in Job patience, which God knew, and to which He bore witness: but it became known unto men by test of trial: and what lay hid within was not produced, but shown, by the things that were brought on him from without. Timothy also certainly had the virtue of abstaining from wine,[1 Timothy 5:23] which Paul took not from him, by advising him to use a moderate portion of wine, “for the sake of his stomach and his often infirmities,” otherwise he taught him a deadly lesson, that for the sake of the health of the body there should be a loss of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 511, footnote 12 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
Of the Work of Monks. (HTML)
Section 16 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2526 (In-Text, Margin)
... against this he hath straightway added, “But ye, brethren, become not weak in showing beneficence.” And when he was writing to Titus, saying, “Zenas the lawyer and Apollos do thou diligently send forward, that nothing may be wanting to them;” that he might show from what quarter nothing ought to be wanting to them, he straightway subjoined, “But let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary use, that they be not unfruitful.” In the case of Timothy also, whom he calls his own most true[1 Timothy 5:23] son, because he knew him weak of body, (as he shows, in advising him not to drink water, but to use a little wine for his stomach’s sake and his often infirmities,) lest then haply, because in bodily work he could not labor, he being unwilling to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 61, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
On the Morals of the Catholic Church. (HTML)
Another Kind of Men Living Together in Cities. Fasts of Three Days. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 150 (In-Text, Margin)
... required as a cure. Many drink no wine; but they do not think that wine defiles them; for they cause it to be given with the greatest propriety and moderation to people of languid temperament, and, in short, to all who cannot have bodily health without it. When some foolishly refuse it, they counsel them as brothers not to let a silly superstition make them weaker instead of making them holier. They read to them the apostle’s precept to his disciple to "take a little wine for his many infirmities."[1 Timothy 5:23] Then they diligently exercise piety; bodily exercise, they know, profiteth for a short time, as the same apostle says.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 219, footnote 2 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily on the Paralytic Let Down Through the Roof: and Concerning the Equality of the Divine Father and the Son. (HTML)
Homily on the Paralytic Let Down Through the Roof. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 734 (In-Text, Margin)
... tender love and providential care, and by way of conducting him to a higher degree of spiritual wisdom. Has some other man a body which is beset with disease and countless sufferings? The condition of these paralytics may be an ample source of consolation and besides these the blessed and brave disciple of Paul who was continually suffering from disorders, and never had any respite from prolonged infirmity, even as Paul also said “Use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities,”[1 Timothy 5:23] where he does not speak merely of infirmities as such. Or another having been subjected to false accusation has acquired a bad reputation with the public, and this is continually vexing and gnawing his soul: he enters this place and hears “Blessed ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 295, footnote 9 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Letters of St. Chrysostom to Olympias. (HTML)
To Olympias. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 944 (In-Text, Margin)
... from such chastisement is plain from the case of Job, who was more illustrious after it than before, and from the case of Timothy, who although he was such a good man, and entrusted with such an important ministry, and made the circuit of the world with Paul passed not two or three days, nor ten or twenty, or a hundred, but many in succession in ill health, his body being very seriously enfeebled. Paul shows this where he said “Use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake, and thine often infirmities.”[1 Timothy 5:23] And he who raised the dead did not cure this man’s infirmity, but left him in the furnace of his sickness so that he might therefrom contract a very great abundance of confidence. For the lessons which Paul himself had enjoyed from his Master, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 409, footnote 6 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)
Homily X (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1452 (In-Text, Margin)
... body? “That the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” For when thou seest the Apostles raising the dead, yet themselves sick, and unable to remove their own infirmities, thou mayest clearly perceive, that the resurrection of the dead man was not effected by the power of him who raised him, but by the energy of the Spirit. For in proof, that they were frequently sick, hear what Paul saith respecting Timothy, “Use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake, and thine often infirmities.”[1 Timothy 5:23] And again, of another he saith, “But Trophimus I have left at Miletus sick.” And writing to the Philippians, he said, “Epaphroditus was sick nigh unto death.” For if, when this was the case, they accounted them to be gods, and prepared to do ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 138, footnote 1 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Commentary and Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Galatians and Ephesians. (HTML)
Homilies on Ephesians. (HTML)
Ephesians 5:15,16,17 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 400 (In-Text, Margin)
... heart of man” (Ps. civ. 15.), says the Psalmist. How then does wine produce drunkenness? For it cannot be that one and the same thing should work opposite effects. 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. But hear moreover what our blessed Apostle writes and says to Timothy, “Use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake, and thine often infirmities.”[1 Timothy 5:23]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 407, footnote 4 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. (HTML)
Homilies on 1 Timothy. (HTML)
Argument. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1083 (In-Text, Margin)
... served with me in the Gospel.” (Philip. ii. 22.) And to the Corinthians again he writes: “I have sent unto you Timothy, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord.” (1 Cor. iv. 17.) And again: “Let no man despise him, for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do.” (1 Cor. xvi. 10, 11.) And to the Hebrews he writes, “Know that our brother Timothy is set at liberty.” (Heb. xiii. 23.) Indeed his love for him is everywhere apparent, and the miracles that are now wrought still attest his claims.[1 Timothy 5:23]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 560, footnote 7 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)
The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)
Personal Letters. (HTML)
Letter to Dracontius. Written A.D. 354 or 355. (HTML)
9. So take these as an example, beloved Dracontius, and do not say, or believe those who say, that the bishop’s office is an occasion of sin, nor that it gives rise to temptations to sin. For it is possible for you also as a bishop to hunger and thirst, as Paul did. You can drink no wine, like Timothy[1 Timothy 5:23], and fast constantly too, like Paul, in order that thus fasting after his example you may feast others with your words, and while thirsting for lack of drink, water others by teaching. Let not your advisers, then, allege these things. For we know both bishops who fast, and monks who eat. We know bishops who drink no wine, as well as monks who do. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 25, footnote 3 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 394 (In-Text, Margin)
... young. Greed does not shake, nor pride puff up, nor ambition infatuate so much as this. Other vices we easily escape, but this enemy is shut up within us, and wherever we go we carry him with us. Wine and youth between them kindle the fire of sensual pleasure. Why do we throw oil on the flame—why do we add fresh fuel to a miserable body which is already ablaze. 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.”[1 Timothy 5:23] 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 ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 105, footnote 13 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Furia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1578 (In-Text, Margin)
10. 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.”[1 Timothy 5:23] Then as regards your food you must avoid all heating dishes. I do not speak of flesh dishes only (although of these the chosen vessel declares his mind thus: “it is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine”) but of vegetables as well. Everything provocative or indigestible is to be refused. Be assured that nothing is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 193, footnote 4 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Laeta. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2708 (In-Text, Margin)
... greater virtue to disdain a pleasure which is actually before them, but I think it a safer self-restraint to shun what must needs attract you. Once as a boy at school I met the words: ‘It is ill blaming what you allow to become a habit.’ 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.[1 Timothy 5:23] 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. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 254, footnote 11 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Principia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3535 (In-Text, Margin)
Marcella practised fasting, but in moderation. She abstained from eating flesh, and she knew rather the scent of wine than its taste; touching it only for her stomach’s sake and for her often infirmities.[1 Timothy 5:23] She seldom appeared in public and took care to avoid the houses of great ladies, that she might not be forced to look upon what she had once for all renounced. She frequented the basilicas of apostles and martyrs that she might escape from the throng and give herself to private prayer. So obedient was she to her mother that for her sake she did things of which she herself disapproved. For ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 400, footnote 19 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4811 (In-Text, Margin)
... their cells, at first used the same sustenance. But the Lord Himself consecrated His baptism by a forty days’ fast, and He taught us that the more violent devils cannot be overcome, except by prayer and fasting. Cornelius the centurion was found worthy through alms-giving and frequent fasts to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit before baptism. The Apostle Paul, after speaking of hunger and thirst, and his other labours, perils from robbers, shipwrecks, loneliness, enumerates frequent fasts. And he[1 Timothy 5:23] advises his disciple Timothy, who had a weak stomach, and was subject to many infirmities, to drink wine in moderation: “Drink no longer water,” he says. The fact that he bids him no longer drink water shows that he had previously drunk ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 25, footnote 8 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Ten Points of Doctrine. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 730 (In-Text, Margin)
... eating. For we fast by abstaining from wine and flesh, not because we abhor them as abominations, but because we look for our reward; that having scorned things sensible, we may enjoy a spiritual and intellectual feast; and that having now sown in tears we may reap in joy in the world to come. Despise not therefore them that eat, and because of the weakness of their bodies partake of food: nor yet blame these who use a little wine for their stomach’s sake and their often infirmities[1 Timothy 5:23]: and neither condemn the men as sinners, nor abhor the flesh as strange food; for the Apostle knows some of this sort, when he says: forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 341, footnote 11 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Concerning Repentance. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Chapter XIV. St. Ambrose explains that the flesh given to Satan for destruction is eaten by the serpent when the soul is set free from carnal desires. He gives, therefore, various rules for guarding the senses, points out the snares laid for us by means of pleasures, and exhorts his hearers not to fear the destruction of the flesh by the serpent. (HTML)
... nourished by delicacies, kindled by wine, and inflamed by drunkenness. Still more dangerous than these are the incentives of words, which intoxicate the mind as it were with a kind of wine of the vine of Sodom. Let us be on our guard against abundance of this wine, for when the flesh is intoxicated the mind totters, the heart wavers, the heart is carried to and fro. And so with regard to each that precept is useful wherein Timothy is warned: “Drink a little wine because of thy frequent infirmities.”[1 Timothy 5:23] When the body is heated, it excites the glow of the mind; when the flesh is chilled with the cold of disease the spirit is chilled; when the body is in pain, the mind is sad, but the sadness shall become joy.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 460, footnote 3 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose. (HTML)
Epistle LXIII: To the Church at Vercellæ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3678 (In-Text, Margin)
27. And is not temperance agreeable to nature, and to that divine law, which in the very beginning of all created things gave the springs for drink and the fruits of the trees for food? After the Flood the just man found wine a source of temptation to him. 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.”[1 Timothy 5:23] 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.