To get drunk
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G3184 is a verb for being drunk or intoxicated. Six exact current-edition forms occur in scenes of corrupt servant behavior, the banquet master's speech at Cana, a rejected accusation at Pentecost, selfish abuse of the Corinthian church meal, Paul's contrast between night-time drunkenness and sober watchfulness, and Revelation's image of the woman drunk with the blood of Jesus' witnesses.
Reader summary
Full entry for μεθύω (G3184) · Open the biblical lexicon
G3184 is a verb for being drunk or intoxicated. Six exact current-edition forms occur in scenes of corrupt servant behavior, the banquet master's speech at Cana, a rejected accusation at Pentecost, selfish abuse of the Corinthian church meal, Paul's contrast between night-time drunkenness and sober watchfulness, and Revelation's image of the woman drunk.
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include [the guests] are drunk (1), are not drunk (1), drunk (1), drunkards (1), get drunk (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 24:49. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (1), 1 Thessalonians (1), Acts (1), John (1).
G3184 is a verb for being drunk or intoxicated. Six exact current-edition forms occur in scenes of corrupt servant behavior, the banquet master's speech at Cana, a rejected accusation at Pentecost, selfish abuse of the Corinthian church meal, Paul's contrast between night-time drunkenness and sober watchfulness, and Revelation's image of the woman drunk with the blood of Jesus' witnesses.
The verb concerns intoxication, though Revelation uses the image figuratively for saturation in persecuting violence. John 2:10 reports the banquet master's observation and does not make his words Jesus' moral endorsement. The exact G3184 witness neither condemns every use of wine nor blesses intoxication. It supports sober love, concern for impaired judgment and harm, freedom from pressure to drink, and compassionate care for people facing addiction.
Revelation 17:2 is not included because the governed BSB word table assigns its related intoxication form to G3182.
The exact current-edition G3184 witness spans six books and six scenes, from literal intoxication and denied accusation to church-meal abuse, watchfulness imagery, and Revelation's figurative drunkenness with blood.
And he begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.
Drunken association appears inside a warning about violent and presumptuous unfaithfulness.
And said, “Everyone serves the fine wine first, and then the cheap wine after the guests are drunk. But you have saved the fine wine until now!”
The banquet master's words explain his surprise at the wine's quality; the narrative does not present the sentence as Jesus' approval of drunkenness.
These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It is only the third hour of the day!
Peter rejects the accusation and redirects the crowd to the promised outpouring of the Spirit.
For as you eat, each of you goes ahead without sharing his meal. While one remains hungry, another gets drunk.
The intoxication is part of a communal failure involving exclusion, hunger, and contempt.
For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.
The next verse contrasts this night behavior with sober readiness marked by faith, love, and hope.
I could see that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses for Jesus. And I was utterly amazed at the sight of her.
The vision uses intoxication figuratively to portray the woman's relation to persecuting bloodshed.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Intoxication from excessive wine; used metaphorically for spiritual intoxication or moral corruption.
Intoxication from excessive wine; used metaphorically for spiritual intoxication or moral corruption.
(μέθυ, wine, cf. μέθη), [in LXX chiefly for שָׁכַר, רָוָה ;] to be drunken: Mat.24:49, Jhn.2:10, Act.2:15, 1Co.11:21, 1Th.5:7; metaphorically, Rev.17:2, 6.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I am drunk
Read verseI am drunk
Read verseI am drunk
Read verseI am drunk
Read verseI am drunk
Read verseI am drunk
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 7 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 7 lexical occurrence verses.
μεθύω is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G3184 never permits a careless sermon about alcohol. Cana reports the banquet master's surprise but directs readers to Jesus' glory, not intoxication as a virtue. Pentecost rejects a drunkenness accusation. Corinth shows intoxication worsening a meal already marked by hunger and contempt, and First Thessalonians contrasts drunkenness with sober readiness. Revelation then uses the image for a power saturated in the blood of faithful witnesses.
Churches should teach sober love without shaming people who seek help, pressuring abstainers to drink, or treating addiction as mere lack of willpower. Freedom must consider conscience, medication, recovery, family danger, impaired judgment, and the safety of others, with qualified care welcomed when dependence is present.
1Cor.11.21
Five surface forms and five parsing patterns appear in the six exact G3184 rows. Context distinguishes literal drunkenness, denied drunkenness, reported speech, and figurative intoxication.
Scripture can receive wine as a created gift and condemn drunkenness as destructive folly. Those wider themes govern pastoral teaching, while the exact G3184 claims remain attached to its six current-edition rows.