1 Timothy 5:23

Amplified Bible

²³No longer ^[a]continue drinking [only] water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.

1 Timothy 5:23 Timothy, whose mother was Jewish (Acts 16:1), may have voluntarily taken a lifelong vow to abstain from wine, as Nazirites (from the Hebrew “devoted” or “consecrated”) sometimes did (cf Samson, Judg 13:7). Evidently he never developed a tolerance for water, which was often contaminated and which, in the absence of wine, he would have to drink.