Question:
What is the meaning of the verse that says, “A little wine is good for the stomach”? And does this verse encourage drinking wine?

Answer:
First, we would like to say to the one asking the question that there is no verse in the Scripture with this commonly distorted wording.

What actually happened is that Saint Timothy, the bishop and disciple of Saint Paul the Apostle, was ill with a disease said to be dropsy, along with some ailments of the stomach, liver, and others. The Apostle advised him to refrain from drinking much water and to take—as a treatment for his specific condition—a little wine.

Thus he said to him:
“No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities” (1 Timothy 5:23).

Therefore, the Scripture did not issue a general rule that a little wine is good for the stomach, but rather the Apostle prescribed a treatment for a particular case.

Here is a specific patient with a specific illness, requiring a specific treatment suited precisely to his condition, at a time when pharmacy had not yet reached its present advancement. Wine was used then as a form of treatment.

If you were in the same condition as Timothy, and in the same era, this advice would suit you. But now, even if you had the same illnesses as Saint Timothy, modern medicine and pharmacy provide treatments according to current scientific progress.

We also note in the story of the Good Samaritan that when he found a wounded man, he poured wine and oil on his wounds as a treatment… the alcohol in the wine could cauterize the wound and prevent bleeding, similar to iodine today…

What you should understand from the verse in its correct wording is that wine is permitted as a treatment (not for pleasure), and it was prescribed in a particular case.

The matter is one of conscience: does everyone who partakes of it now take it purely as a treatment, applicable to his specific condition, and finds no other remedy?

We are speaking here from the perspective of treatment.

As for the subject of wine in detail, it is not the scope of this question.

An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in El-Keraza Magazine – Year Eight (Issue Forty-Two) 21-10-1977

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