{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-1692","native_reference":{"book_number":610,"chapter_from":5,"chapter_to":5,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":23,"verse_to":23},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrose of Milan</b>: And is not temperance in harmony with nature and that divine law which in the beginning of all things gave the springs for drink and the fruits of trees for food? After the flood, the just man found wine a source of temptation to him. Let us, then, use the natural food of temperance, and would that we all could do so! But, because not all are strong, the apostle therefore says, \"Use a little wine for your frequent infirmities.\" We must drink it not for our pleasure but for our infirmity, sparingly as a remedy, not excessively as a gratification.<br/><i>— Letters 63.27</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Seek nothing from them beyond health of body. For this is a blessing not to be despised, because of its being necessary to the work of life until \"this mortal shall have put on immortality\"—in other words, the true, perfect, and everlasting health, which is neither reduced by earthly infirmities nor repaired by corruptible gratification, but, enduring with celestial rigour, is animated with a life eternally incorruptible. For the apostle himself says, \"Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof,\" because we must take care of the flesh, but only in so far as is necessary for health; \"For no man ever yet hated his own flesh,\" as he himself likewise says. Hence, also, he admonished Timothy, who was, as it appears, too severe upon his body, that he should \"use a little wine for his stomach's sake, and for his often infirmities.\"<br/><i>— Letters 130.3.7</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Thus many do not eat flesh, and yet do not superstitiously regard it as unclean. And so the same people who abstain when in health take it when unwell without any fear, if it is 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.\"<br/><i>— OF THE MORALS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 1.33.72</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: \"Use a little wine,\" says the apostle to Timothy, who drank water, \"for thy stomach's sake;\" 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.<br/><i>— The Instructor Book 2</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: Notice the reasons why wine is allowed: it is to cure pain in the stomach and to relieve a frequent infirmity and hardly then. And lest perchance we should indulge ourselves on the ground of illness, Paul recommends that but a little wine should be taken, advising rather as a physician than as an apostle—although indeed an apostle is a spiritual physician.<br/><i>— LETTERS 22.8</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: If he be a striker, or violent, or cruel, and unmerciful, accuse him. These things are unworthy of a Bishop. If he be luxurious, this also is censurable. But if he takes care of his body that he may minister to thee, if he attends to his health that he may be useful, ought he for this to be accused? Knowest thou not that bodily infirmity no less than infirmity of soul injures both us and the Church? Why, otherwise, does Paul attend to this matter, in writing to Timothy, \"Use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thy often infirmities\"? For if we could practice virtue with the soul alone, we need not take care of the body. And why then were we born at all? But if this has contributed a great share, is it not the extreme of folly to neglect it?<br/><i>— Homily on Titus 1</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thy often infirmities.\" If one who had practiced fasting to such an extent, and used only water, so long that he had brought on \"infirmities\" and \"frequent infirmities,\" is thus commanded to be chaste, and does not refuse the admonition, much less ought we to be offended when we receive an admonition from any one. But why did not Paul restore strength to his stomach? Not because he could not--for he whose garment had raised the dead was clearly able to do this too--but because he had a design of importance in withholding such aid. What then was his purpose? That even now, if we see great and virtuous men afflicted with infirmities, we may not be offended, for this was a profitable visitation. If indeed to Paul himself a \"messenger of Satan\" was sent that he should not be \"exalted above measure\" (2 Cor. xii. 11), much more might it be so with Timothy. For the miracles he wrought were enough to have rendered him arrogant. For this reason he is left to be subject to the rules of medicine, that he may be humbled, and others may not be offended, but may learn that they who performed such excellent actions were men of the same nature as themselves. In other respects also Timothy seems to have been subject to disease, which is implied by that expression, \"Thy often infirmities,\" as well of other parts as of the stomach. He does not however allow him to indulge freely in wine, but as much as was for health and not for luxury.<br/><i>— Homily on 1 Timothy 16</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: No longer drink water but use a little wine for your stomach and your frequent ailments.</p><p>No longer drink water. And why did Paul not heal his stomach, who also worked physical healings, but wanted him to be healed by diet? So that it might serve as a reminder to us not to be easily offended if good men were weakened: and so that Timothy himself might be kept in office through illness, lest he become proud. Finally, so that we might know that since they were of the same nature as us, those good works were performed which they did: since Paul could have healed him with a single prayer, but it was not altogether beneficial. Chrysostom has much to say on this matter. Therefore, see the book in which he discusses Images, and you will see very beautifully what has been treated on this subject by the divine Chrysostom in that place, in the introductory verse, as I understand.</p><p>but use a little wine. That is, only as much as is necessary for health: for Paul knows that even an excess of wine can be harmful. From this, it is indicated that Timothy was ill not only in the stomach but also in other parts of the body.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Let ¦sculapius 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. Let Minerva have been the first who built a ship: I shall see Jonah and the apostles sailing.<br/><i>— De Corona</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Whether, moreover, the apostle had any acquaintance with xerophagies-(the apostle) who had repeatedly practised greater rigours, \"hunger, and thirst, and fists 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,\" 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 dissuaded.<br/><i>— On Fasting</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"0f0de72cdcd7526557de8ab6a01f6c0be3bd12b4da4f479b0a0840e4d60eec21","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":1692,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"1cfb16a65ee406078c60d28fff9b5fa74b918484b49e8d7766fb16028d9dff79","translator":null,"work":null}