Abstemiousness

Abstemiousness is restraint at the table — refusing food and drink that would master the eater. The wisdom literature warns of dainties that flatter and trap, and the narrative books show concrete cases of deliberate refusal. The pattern continues in the apostolic writings, where sober-mindedness becomes a basic mark of those who serve.

Restraint at a Ruler's Table

Proverbs frames the basic instruction as a guard set against appetite when the surroundings invite indulgence: "When you sit to eat with a ruler, Consider diligently him who is before you; And put a knife to your throat, If you are a man who is given to soul. Don't be desirous of his dainties; Seeing they are deceitful food" (Pr 23:1-3). The ruler's food is "deceitful" — its abundance is a snare, not a kindness, and the wise eater treats appetite itself as the danger to be checked.

The same chapter widens the warning: "Don't be among winebibbers, Among gluttonous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty; And drowsiness will clothe [a man] with rags" (Pr 23:20-21). Excess at the table is paired with excess at the cup; both end in poverty. The drinker's progression is mapped out in the same passage — "Don't look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it goes down smoothly: At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like an adder" (Pr 23:31-32).

Daniel's Refusal

The clearest narrative case is Daniel and his three companions in Babylon. Set apart for service in the king's court, they are assigned the king's dainties and wine, and Daniel refuses on principle: "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's dainties, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself" (Da 1:8). The refusal is volitional — "purposed in his heart" — not reluctant.

The steward's fear is practical: a worse-looking face will cost him his head (Da 1:10). Daniel proposes a ten-day test on pulse and water (Da 1:12). The outcome confirms the abstinence: "And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer, and they were fatter in flesh, than all the youths who ate of the king's dainties. So the steward took away their dainties, and the wine that they should drink, and gave them pulse" (Da 1:15-16). The court diet is set aside permanently for the four. Later, in a season of mourning, Daniel narrows his eating again: "I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, until three whole weeks were fulfilled" (Da 10:3).

The Sober Mind

The same restraint carries forward as a settled disposition rather than an episode. Overseers must be "without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach" (1Ti 3:2); their wives likewise "grave, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things" (1Ti 3:11). Aged men are to "be temperate, grave, sober-minded, sound in faith, in love, in patience" (Ti 2:2), and the grace of God instructs all believers "that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present age" (Ti 2:12).

Peter sets the same posture against the day's expectations: "Therefore girding up the loins of your⁺ mind, be sober and set your⁺ hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought to you⁺ at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1Pe 1:13). And: "But the end of all things is at hand: be⁺ therefore of sound mind, and be sober to prayer" (1Pe 4:7).

Wine and Restraint in the Wisdom of Sirach

Sirach's counsel on wine is not abstinence but measured use, framed in the same wisdom register as Proverbs: "Moreover, when at wine, exercise restraint, For wine has destroyed many" (Sir 31:25). The balance is explicit — "Joy of heart, gladness and delight, Is wine drunk at the [right] time and in sufficiency" (Sir 31:28), but "Headache, derision, and shame, Is wine drunk in strife and anger" (Sir 31:29), and "Much wine is a snare to the fool, It diminishes strength and increases wounds" (Sir 31:30). The same logic extends to food: "Do not be insatiable in every luxury, And give not yourself wholly to every dainty. For in much eating lurks sickness, And he who consumes too much draws near to loathing. Through lack of self-control many have perished, But he who controls himself prolongs his life" (Sir 37:29-31).