Clement of Alexandria, Instructor 2.2
The apostle tells Timothy, who drinks water, "Use a little wine," and adds, "because of your stomach" (1 Timothy 5:23). He offers this small measure as suitable help for a body that is thoroughly sick and weak, approving just a little so the remedy does not go unnoticed amid the need for much other treatment. Water is a natural and sobering drink, necessary for those who thirst. The Lord provided it to the ancient Hebrews as a drink flowing from the rocky cliff, giving them a simple-minded sobriety, and they especially ought to have been sober, since they were still deluded. Then the holy vine produced the prophetic cluster. This is a sign to those who have been instructed to rest from delusion: the great cluster, the Word who was pressed for us, the blood of the grape that desired to be mixed with water, just as the blood of the Word is mixed for salvation. The blood of the Lord is twofold: one is his fleshly blood, by which we are redeemed from corruption; the other is spiritual, by which we are anointed. To drink the blood of Jesus is to partake of the incorruptibility of the Lord; the power of the Word is the Spirit, as blood is of flesh. Accordingly, wine is mixed with water, and the Spirit is mixed with a person; the mixture brings joy to faith, while the Spirit leads to incorruptibility. The mixture of both together is called the eucharistic drink and Word, a praised and good grace, by which those who partake according to faith are sanctified in both body and soul. This divine mixture mystically blends the human being with the paternal will through Spirit and Word, for truly the Spirit is joined to the soul that it carries, and the flesh to the Word, through whom the Word became flesh. I therefore praise those who have renounced the austere life, who desire water as the remedy of sobriety, and who flee wine as far as possible, as a threat of fire. It is fitting that children and young women abstain from this remedy for the most part; it is not suitable to pour the hottest liquid, wine, into a youthful age that is already boiling with fluids, as if pouring fire into fire, from which wild and inflamed desires and a fiery character are kindled. The young, being inwardly heated, become prone to their appetites, as if their damage were being reproved through the body, their members of desire being corrupted sooner than they ought.
Greek
»Οἴνῳ δὲ ὀλίγῳ χρῶ«, τῷ Τιμοθέῳ ὑδροποτοῦντι, »διὰ τὸν στόμαχόν σου«, φησὶν ὁ ἀπόστολος, παγκάλως νοσηλευομένῳ καὶ πλαδῶντι σώματι κατάλληλον τὸ ἐπιστῦφον βοήθημα προσφέρων, ὀλίγον δὲ ἐγκρίνων τοῦτο, μὴ λάθῃ τὸ βοήθημα διὰ πλῆθος ἄλλης θεραπείας δεόμενον. φυσικὸν μὲν οὖν καὶ νηφάλιον ποτὸν ἀναγκαῖον διψῶσίν ἐστιν ὕδωρ. τοῦτο ἐκ τῆς ἀκροτόμου πέτρας κατειβόμενον τοῖς παλαιοῖς τῶν Ἑβραίων μονότροπον σωφροσύνης ὁ κύριος ἐχορήγει ποτόν, νήφειν δὲ μάλιστα ἐχρῆν τοὺς ἔτι πλανωμένους. ἔπειτα ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἁγία τὸν βότρυν ἐβλάστησεν τὸν προφητικόν. τοῦτο σημεῖον τοῖς εἰς ἀνάπαυσιν ἐκ τῆς πλάνης πεπαιδαγωγημένοις, ὁ μέγας βότρυς, ὁ λόγος ὁ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν θλιβείς, τὸ αἷμα τῆς σταφυλῆς ὕδατι κίρνασθαι ἐθελήσαντος τοῦ λόγου, ὡς καὶ τὸ αἷμα αὐτοῦ σωτηρίᾳ κίρναται διττὸν δὲ τὸ αἷμα τοῦ κυρίου· τὸ μέν ἐστιν αὐτοῦ σαρκικόν, ᾧ τῆς φθορᾶς λελυτρώμεθα, τὸ δὲ πνευματικόν, τοῦτ᾿ ἔστιν ᾧ κεχρίσμεθα. καὶ τοῦτ᾿ ἔστι πιεῖν τὸ αἷμα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, τῆς κυριακῆς μεταλαβεῖν ἀφθαρσίας· ἰσχὺς δὲ τοῦ λόγου τὸ πνεῦμα, ὡς αἷμα σαρκός. ἀναλόγως τοίνυν κίρναται ὁ μὲν οἶνος τῷ ὕδατι, τῷ δὲ ἀνθρώπῳ τὸ πνεῦμα, καὶ τὸ μὲν εἰς πίστιν εὐωχεῖ, τὸ κρᾶμα, τὸ δὲ εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν ὁδηγεῖ, τὸ πνεῦμα, ἡ δὲ ἀμφοῖν αὖθις κρᾶσις ποτοῦ τε καὶ λόγου εὐχαριστία κέκληται, χάρις ἐπαινουμένη καὶ καλή, ἧς οἱ κατὰ πίστιν μεταλαμβάνοντες ἁγιάζονται καὶ σῶμα καὶ ψυχήν, τὸ θεῖον κρᾶμα τὸν ἄνθρωπον τοῦ πατρικοῦ βουλήματος πνεύματι καὶ λόγῳ συγκιρνάντος μυστικῶς· καὶ γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς μὲν τὸ πνεῦμα ᾠκείωται τῇ ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ φερομένῃ ψυχῇ, ἡ δὲ σὰρξ τῷ λόγῳ, δι᾿ ἣν »ὁ λόγος γέγονεν σάρξ«. ἄγαμαι τοίνυν τοὺς αὐστηρὸν ἐπανῃρημένους βίον καὶ τῆς σωφροσύνης τὸ φάρμακον ἐπιποθοῦντας τὸ ὕδωρ, φεύγοντας δὲ ὅτι μάλιστα πορρωτάτω τὸν οἶνον οἷον πυρὸς ἀπειλήν. Ἀρέσκει οὖν τοὺς παῖδας καὶ τὰς κόρας ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πλεῖστον ἀπέχεσθαι τοῦ φαρμάκου τούτου· οὐ γὰρ κατάλληλον ζεούσῃ ἡλικίᾳ τῶν ὑγρῶν τὸ θερμότατον ἐπεγχεῖν, τὸν οἶνον, οἱονεὶ πῦρ ἐποχετεύοντας πυρί, ἐξ οὗ ὁρμαί τε ἄγριαι καὶ φλεγμαίνουσαι ἐπιθυμίαι καὶ διάπυρον ἦθος ἐκκαίεται προπετεῖς τε οἱ νέοι ἔνδοθεν χλιαινόμενοι ἐπὶ τὰς ὀρέξεις γίνονται, ὡς δὴ προὖπτον αὐτῶν τὴν βλάβην ἐλέγχεσθαι διὰ τοῦ σώματος, πεπαινομένων θᾶττον ἢ προσῆκεν τῶν τῆς ἐπιθυμίας μελῶν.