Whining about wine.

The discussion of wine drinking by Jerome provides a closer view at the thought process concerning alcohol. Jerome starts with the discussion that wine is used by the devil to cause the young to fall into the sin of sensuality. He goes so far as to assert the wickedness of wine over several other sins. But what is puzzling is that Jerome goes from talking about wine’s lust-inducing nature to examples of male inebriation. It would seem more profitable to discuss perhaps the effect on women. But perhaps he does not want to give examples of bad women to Eustochium and the main figure of the anecdotes being male might also make the discussion less scandalous. Inebriation is touched upon with regards to Noah, but the discussion primarily seems to conclude that if you drink wine, you will commit fornication. It is interesting how much time Jerome devotes to discussing wine, both good and bad qualities of it. Jerome mentions that even Paul recommended wine for stomach problems, but again limits the quantity to prevent others from giving into a weakness for alcohol. Jerome seems to presume an inherent desire for alcohol and drunkenness. From his discussion of Paul and Timothy it seems that Jerome concludes that Paul’s mention of a short amount is to keep Timothy from falling into error. He also seems to presume an inherent desire for it in Eustochium. It might be more telling of Jerome’s own psychology regarding inebriants than of human nature.