Advice For Wine Drinkers

Μετὰ βουλῆς οἰνοπότει Ἡδοναῖς ἢ διδαχαῖς ἀλλοτρίαις τὸν σὸν πλοῦτον μὴ δώσεις. Μετὰ βουλῆς οἰνοπότει. Τὸν τῆς ἀληθενῆς ἀμπέλου πίνων οἶνον, τὴν τῶν Γραφῶν ἑρμηνείαν, καὶ τὴν τῶν ὄντων θεωρίαν, μετὰ πολλῆς προσέρχου διακρίσεως τῇ τῆς διανοίας ἐπισκέψει. Δίδυμος Αλεξανδρεύς, Εἰς Παροιμίας Σολομώντος Εξηγήσεων, Κεφ ΛΑ' Migne PG 39.1644

With prudence he drinks wine. 1 Do not spend your wealth on the pleasures of strange teachings. With prudence he drinks wine. Drinking the wine of the true vine, he ponders the interpretation of the Scriptures and the contemplation of verities with much discrimination in the exertion of the mind. Didymus the Blind, On Proverbs, fragment   1 Prov 31.4

Feasts And Wisdom

Ἔσφαξεν τὰ ἑαυτῆς θύματα ἐκέρασεν εἰς κρατῆρα τὸν ἑαυτῆς οἶνον καὶ ἡτοιμάσατο τὴν ἑαυτῆς τράπεζαν. Ἐκκλινάτω, ἵνα φρόνησιν λάβῃ· ῥώννυται γὰρ ὁ ἀτελής ὑπὸ τῶν τῆς σοφίας λόγων καὶ μυστηρίων. Ἔλθατε φάγετε τῶν ἐμῶν ἄρτων καὶ πίετε οἶνον ὃν ἐκέρασα ὑμῖν. Ἡ αὑτὴ τροφὴ καὶ κρέα ὀνομάζεται καὶ ἄρτος καὶ γάλα καὶ οἶνος. Πλὴν οἱ ἄφρονες ὡς ἄρτου αὐτῶν μεταλαμβάνειν λέγονται καὶ ὡς οἴνου κεκερασμένου· εἰ δὲ τοῦτο πῶς νοήσομεν· Ἄρτον ἀγγέλων ἔφαγεν ἄνθρωπος; Ἄρτον δέ μοι νόει τὰς στερεὰς ἐντολὰς τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ οἶνον, τὴν ἐκ μελέτης τῶν θείων Γραφῶν ἐπιγνωσιν αὐτοῦ· ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ τὸ θεῖον σῶμα καὶ τίμιον αἷμα αυτοῦ. Δίδυμος Αλεξανδρεύς, Εἰς Παροιμιας

Her sacrifices prepared, her wine mixed in bowls, her table spread. 1 Let him turn aside, I say, who would partake of wisdom; for the imperfect are strengthened by words of wisdom and the mysteries. Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mixed for you;  2  The same food is named flesh and bread and milk and wine. Truly the unwise, they say, take to their own bread and mix their own wine. And if this is so, how do we understand: 'Man ate the bread of angels?' 3 Now grasp my bread as the lasting commands of God, and the wine as the knowledge of God from meditation on the Divine Scriptures, and likewise with his divine body and precious blood. Didymus the Blind, On Proverbs, fragment  1 Prov 9.2  2 Prov 9.5  3 Ps 77.25

Wine and Spirit

Τὴν τοῦ Θείου Πνεύματος ἐπιφοίτησιν δεξάμενοι οἱ τοῦ Κυρίου ἀπόστολοι, γλεύκους εἶναι μεστοὶ ἐνομέσθησαν, καὶ εἰς πάντα τὰ ἔθην τὴν ἀληθῆ καὶ ἀνόθευτον πόσιν τῶν μυστηρίων ἐκόμισαν. Τοὺς τοίνυν τὴν θείαν παραχαράσσοντας παίδευσιν, καὶ νόθοις ἐξιτήλοις ἐντάλμασι τὰ οὐράνια ἐπιθολοῦντας διδάγματα, Μανιχαίους, καὶ Σίμωνας, καὶ Μοντανοὺς, καὶ Ναυάτους, Ἀρείους, καὶ Μακεδονίους, Φωτεινούς τε καὶ τοὺς τούτοις ὁμόφρονας, καπήλους εἰκότως προσαγορεύει μιγνύντας τὸν οἶον ὕδατι, τῇ ἀκραιφνεῖ τῶν Θείων λόγων σοφιᾳ τοὺς οἰκείους σχετλιασμοὺς ἐπεισάγοντας. Ἅγιος Ἰσίδωρος Του Πηλουσιώτου, Βιβλιον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολή ΡΞΘ', Ζοιλῳ Πρεσβυτερῳ

The Apostles of the Lord receiving the coming of the The Holy Spirit  were thought to be drunk with wine,1 and yet the true and pure portion of the mysteries they brought to every nation. But those who adulterate the Divine teachings, polluting the heavenly lessons with base diluting precepts, the Manichees, the Simonians, the Montanists, the Novationists, the Arians, the Macedonians and the Photinians, and those of similar mind to them, the Prophet well names cheats, mixers of wine with water,2 for they pour in their own wretched things with the pure wisdom of the words of God . Saint Isidore of Pelusium, Book 1, Letter 169 To Zoilus the Presbyter 1 Acts 2.13 2 Isa 1.22

Wine And Scripture

Ἐπειδὴ ἄμπελον ἑαυτὸν ὁ Κύριος προσηγόρευσε, τὸ νοστιμον καὶ καρδίαν εὐφραῖον παρασχόμενος κήρυγμα, οἵνον ἀνεγκαίως καλεῖ ἡ θεία Γραφὴ τὸν ἀληθῆ θείας γνώσεως λόγον· τοῦτον καὶ ἐν κρατῆρι ἡ σοφία ποτίζει, κρατῆρα τὴν τοῦ Κυρίου πλευρὰν ὀνομάζουσα, ἐξ ἥς ἡμῖν ἡ τῆς ζωῆς εὐφροσύνη ἐπήγαοεν. Ἅγιος Ἰσίδωρος Του Πηλουσιώτου, Βιβλιον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολή ΡΞΗ', Ζωιλῳ Πρεσβυτερῳ

Since the Lord names himself the vine,1 that which supplies the heart's return to joy is preaching, and wine it is necessary to call the Divine Scripture the true account of Divine knowledge, and this in the bowl wisdom gives to drink,  the wine bowl named the side of the Lord,2 from which the joyous life flows out to us. Saint Isidore of Pelusium, Book 1, Letter 168, to the Presbyter Zoilus 1 Jn 15.5 2 cf Jn 19.34