the extravagance of excess, as is observed in mere
pleasure-seekers and those who are " mighty to drink
wine" (Prov. xxi-17 and Isa. v— 22). "The woe pro-
nounced in Isa. v-ii, 12 is uttered against such as
rise at an unseasonable morning-hour to devote the
day^ to hilarious rioting, and at an untimely season
especially when Jehovah in his providence was ex-
acting of his people an abstinent moderation, sober
reflection and penitential humiliation. So Paul in
his first Epistle to Corinth (xi-21, 22) addresses the
communicants in terms of exprobration, and because^
of their converting a solemn festival into a scene of
gluttony and revelry" (Prof Green).*

45. The model bishop (Paul to Timothy, I. iii-3)
need not be an extremist in one direction nor may
he prudently allow himself an unlimited latitude in
the other. He must not be Tiapotvoz, i.e. he is en-
joined from making his wine-bottle a companion in
:the hours of study or of official business. So also
the deacons (8 v.) should be no more " given to
much wine" than be "greedy of filthy lucre." A
similar monition is addressed to "aged women" (Titus
ii-3). John the Baptist who had taken upon himself
the Nazarite's vow was declared by the Pharisees to
be possessed of a devil, and all because he eschewed
wine altogether; the Son of man who went about as
other people did, eating bread and drinking wine with

* The writer takes pleasure in thus publicly acknowledging his
obligations to this distinguished Hebraist for valuable exegetical
notitise in elucidation of certain passages of Scripture. May his
shadow never be less !



The Alternative, the Vine or the Poppy — Which .^319

them (Luke vii— 33, 34), is pronounced by these same
" righteous'' " a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber/'
although the gist and climax of the charge against
him appears to have been, that he could afford to
compromise his good name (if he had any) in letting
himself down to the low level of humanity and so
consorting familiarly with " publicans and sinners''
{vide Matt, ix-ii and xi-19).
