1 Timothy 3:3

3:3 not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not contentious, free from the love of money.

1 Timothy 4:4

4:4 For every creation of God is good and no food ¹  is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.

Leviticus 10:9-11

10:9 “Do not drink wine or strong drink, you and your sons with you, when you enter into the Meeting Tent, so that you do not die, which is a perpetual statute throughout your generations, ²  10:10 as well as ³  to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, ⁴  10:11 and to teach the Israelites all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them through ⁵  Moses.”

Psalms 104:15

104:15 as well as wine that makes people feel so good, ⁶ 

and so they can have oil to make their faces shine, ⁷ 

as well as food that sustains people’s lives. ⁸ 

Proverbs 31:4-7

31:4 It is not for kings, ⁹  O Lemuel,

it is not for kings to drink wine, ¹⁰ 

or for rulers to crave strong drink, ¹¹ 

31:5 lest they drink and forget what is decreed,

and remove ¹²  from all the poor ¹³  their legal rights. ¹⁴ 

31:6 Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, ¹⁵ 

and wine to those who are bitterly distressed; ¹⁶ 

31:7 let them ¹⁷  drink and forget ¹⁸  their poverty,

and remember their misery no more.

Ezekiel 44:21

44:21 No priest may drink wine when he enters the inner court.

Ephesians 5:18

5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, which ¹⁹  is debauchery, ²⁰  but be filled by the Spirit, ²¹ 

Titus 1:7

1:7 For the overseer ²²  must be blameless as one entrusted with God’s work, ²³  not arrogant, not prone to anger, not a drunkard, not violent, not greedy for gain.

Titus 2:3

2:3 Older women likewise are to exhibit behavior fitting for those who are holy, not slandering, not slaves to excessive drinking, but teaching what is good.

[4:4]  ¹ tn Grk “nothing.”

[10:9]  ² tn Heb “a perpetual statute for your generations”; NAB “a perpetual ordinance”; NRSV “a statute forever”; NLT “a permanent law.” The Hebrew grammar here suggests that the last portion of v. 9 functions as both a conclusion to v. 9 and an introduction to vv. 10-11. It is a pivot clause, as it were. Thus, it was a “perpetual statute” to not drink alcoholic beverages when ministering in the tabernacle, but it was also a “perpetual statue” to distinguish between holy and profane and unclean and clean (v. 10) as well as to teach the children of Israel all such statutes (v. 11).

[10:10]  ³ tn Heb “and,” but regarding the translation “as well as,” see the note at the end of v. 9.

[10:10]  ⁴ sn The two pairs of categories in this verse refer to: (1) the status of a person, place, thing, or time – “holy” (קֹדֶשׁ, qodesh) versus “common” (חֹל, khol); as opposed to (2) the condition of a person, place, or thing – “unclean” (טָמֵא, tame’) versus “clean” (טָהוֹר, tahor). Someone or something could gain “holy” status by being “consecrated” (i.e., made holy; e.g., the Hebrew Piel קִדֵּשׁ (qiddesh) in Lev 8:15, 30), and to treat someone or something that was holy as if it were “common” would be to “profane” that person or thing (the Hebrew Piel הִלֵּל [hillel], e.g., in Lev 19:29 and 22:15). Similarly, on another level, someone or something could be in a “clean” condition, but one could “defile” (the Hebrew Piel טִמֵּא [timme’], e.g., in Gen 34:5 and Num 6:9) that person or thing and thereby make it “unclean.” To “purify” (the Hebrew Piel טִהֵר [tiher], e.g., in Lev 16:19 and Num 8:6, 15) that unclean person or thing would be to make it “clean” once again. With regard to the animals (Lev 11), some were by nature “unclean,” so they could never be eaten, but others were by nature “clean” and, therefore, edible (Lev 11:2, 46-47). The meat of clean animals could become inedible by too long of a delay in eating it, in which case the Hebrew term פִּגּוּל (pigul) “foul, spoiled” is used to describe it (Lev 7:18; 19:7; cf. also Ezek 4:14 and Isa 65:4), not the term for “unclean” (טָהוֹר, tahor). Strictly speaking, therefore, unclean meat never becomes clean, and clean meat never becomes unclean.

[10:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “by the hand of” (so KJV).

[104:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “and wine [that] makes the heart of man happy.”

[104:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “to make [the] face shine from oil.” The Hebrew verb צָהַל (tsahal, “to shine”) occurs only here in the OT. It appears to be an alternate form of צָהַר (tsahar), a derivative from צָהָרִים (tsaharim, “noon”).

[104:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “and food [that] sustains the heart of man.”

[31:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “[It is] not for kings.”

[31:4]  ¹⁰ sn This second warning for kings concerns the use of alcohol. If this passage is meant to prohibit any use of alcohol by kings, it would be unheard of in any ancient royal court. What is probably meant is an excessive and unwarranted use of alcohol, or a troubling need for it, so that the meaning is “to drink wine in excess” (cf. NLT “to guzzle wine”; CEV “should not get drunk”). The danger, of course, would be that excessive use of alcohol would cloud the mind and deprive a king of true administrative ability and justice.

[31:4]  ¹¹ tn The MT has אֵו (’ev), a Kethib/Qere reading. The Kethib is אוֹ (’o) but the Qere is אֵי (’ey). Some follow the Qere and take the word as a shortened form of וַֹיֵּה, “where?” This would mean the ruler would be always asking for drink (cf. ASV). Others reconstruct to אַוֵּה (’avveh, “to desire; to crave”). In either case, the verse would be saying that a king is not to be wanting/seeking alcohol.

[31:5]  ¹² tn The verb means “change,” perhaps expressed in reversing decisions or removing rights.

[31:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “all the children of poverty.” This expression refers to the poor by nature. Cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “the afflicted”; NIV “oppressed.”

[31:5]  ¹⁴ sn The word is דִּין (din, “judgment”; so KJV). In this passage it refers to the cause or the plea for justice, i.e., the “legal rights.”

[31:6]  ¹⁵ sn Wine and beer should be given to those distressed and dying in order to ease their suffering and help them forget.

[31:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “to the bitter of soul.” The phrase לְמָרֵי נָפֶשׁ (lÿmare nafesh) has been translated “of heavy hearts” (KJV); “in anguish” (NIV); “in misery” (TEV); “in bitter distress” (NRSV); “sorely depressed” (NAB); “in deep depression (NLT); “have lost all hope” (CEV). The word “bitter” (מַר, mar) describes the physical and mental/spiritual suffering as a result of affliction, grief, or suffering – these people are in emotional pain. So the idea of “bitterly distressed” works as well as any other translation.

[31:7]  ¹⁷ tn The subjects and suffixes are singular (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB). Most other English versions render this as plural for stylistic reasons, in light of the preceding context.

[31:7]  ¹⁸ tn The king was not to “drink and forget”; the suffering are to “drink and forget.”

[5:18]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “in which.”

[5:18]  ²⁰ tn Or “dissipation.” See BDAG 148 s.v. ἀσωτία.

[5:18]  ²¹ tn Many have taken ἐν πνεύματι (en pneumati) as indicating content, i.e., one is to be filled with the Spirit. ExSyn 375 states, “There are no other examples in biblical Greek in which ἐν + the dative after πληρόω indicates content. Further, the parallel with οἴνῳ as well as the common grammatical category of means suggest that the idea intended is that believers are to be filled by means of the [Holy] Spirit. If so there seems to be an unnamed agent. The meaning of this text can only be fully appreciated in light of the πληρόω language in Ephesians. Always the term is used in connection with a member of the Trinity. Three considerations seem to be key: (1) In Eph 3:19 the ‘hinge’ prayer introducing the last half of the letter makes a request that the believers ‘be filled with all the fullness of God’ (πληρωθῆτε εἰς πᾶν πλήρωμα τοῦ θεοῦ). The explicit content of πληρόω is thus God’s fullness (probably a reference to his moral attributes). (2) In 4:10 Christ is said to be the agent of filling (with v. 11 adding the specifics of his giving spiritual gifts). (3) The author then brings his argument to a crescendo in 5:18: Believers are to be filled by Christ by means of the Spirit with the content of the fullness of God.”

[1:7]  ²² sn The overseer is another term for the same official position of leadership as the “elder.” This is seen in the interchange of the two terms in this passage and in Acts 20:17, 28, as well as in the parallels between these verses and 1 Tim 3:1-7.

[1:7]  ²³ tn Grk “as God’s steward.”