Greek word · G3630
οἰνοπότης
oinopotēs
drunkard
Literally "wine-drinker" (oinos "wine" + potēs "drinker"). In use it meant a habitual heavy drinker, a tippler or drunkard. It names a person by his habit.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
οἰνο-πότης, -ου, ὁ
(οίνος + πότης, a drinker), poët. and late prose, [in LXX: Proverbs 23:20 (יַיִן סָבָא)* ;]
a wine-drinker, wine-bibber: Matthew 11:19, Luke 7:34.†
(AS)
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
Literally "wine-drinker" (oinos "wine" + potēs "drinker"). In use it meant a habitual heavy drinker, a tippler or drunkard. It names a person by his habit.
- Against the English
KJV "winebibber" (from the old verb "bib", to tipple) is accurate but archaic. YLT's "wine drinker" is literal but sounds too mild in modern English. "Drunkard" (BSB, WEB, NIV, NASB) gives the insult's force.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Proverbs 23:20 in the Septuagint: "Do not be a wine-drinker (oinopotēs)". This verse warns against the very pair of vices named here, and v.21 adds that the drunkard and glutton come to poverty. The word also appears in secular Greek for heavy drinkers (for example Polybius 20.8.2, per LSJ and BDAG).
Where it appears
Matthew · 1
-
Matthew 11:19 οἰνοπότης, a drunkard,
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at this glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is vindicated by her actions.”
Here: Literally 'wine-drinker'. It was used of habitual heavy drinkers, as in Proverbs 23:20 in the Greek Old Testament: 'do not be a wine-drinker'.
Luke · 1
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Luke 7:34 οἰνοπότης, a drunkard,
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at this glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
Here: Literally "wine-drinker". In use it meant a habitual heavy drinker, a sot. It twists "drinking" into drunkenness.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.