Tool Beta
Is It Actually in the Bible?
Phrases people quote as Scripture. The real verse, or the honest answer that there is not one.
"Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess" just means don't drink more than a moderate amount
"Excess" here names a whole lifestyle of reckless, dissolute living, not merely too large a quantity.
Ephesians 5:18, in every translation this tool compares.
Ephesians 5:18 warns, "be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess." The underlying Greek word ("asotia") describes a life abandoned to sensuality, wasteful indulgence, and moral riot, the kind of drunken revelry associated with pagan festivals in the ancient world, not simply drinking one glass too many. "Excess" comes from Latin "excedere," to go beyond or exceed, and in this context carries that stronger classical force.
Modern English uses "excess" as a fairly mild, almost neutral word for "too much of something" (excess baggage, excess weight), so a reader can badly undersell what Paul is actually warning against: a whole dissolute way of life, not just overindulgence at a party.
