Drunkenness (3178) (methe) (ISBE entry) is the Greek word most often was used of intentional and habitual intoxication. It is worth noting that in two of the three NT uses (Gal 5:21-note; 1Pe 4:3-notes) carousing and drunkenness are found side-by-side, which is not surprising to see one sin begat another. Jesus used methe warning believers to... Luke 21:34 Be on guard (present imperative = command emphasizing the continual need to be on guard), that your hearts may not be weighted down (pressed down as if with a weight -- depressed, burdened = a mind that loses its alertness) with dissipation (unbridled indulgence in a drinking party) and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day (of Christ's return - which will come unexpectedly and therefore demands one to be watchful! Some would equate this "day" with the "rapture") come on you suddenly like a trap. Methe is used 3 times in the NAS (Luke 21:34; Ro 13:13; Gal 5:21) and 13 times (Pr 20:1; 31:6; Isa 28:7; Jer 51:57; Ezek 23:33; 39:19; Joel 1:5; Hag 1:6) in the Septuagint - LXX. In the ancient world drunkenness was not a common vice. The Greeks drank more wine than they did milk and even children drank wine because the water supply was inadequate and dangerous. Breakfast even consisted of a slice of bread dipped in wine. But they drank wine in the proportion of three parts of water to one to two of wine. Anything as strong as a 1:1 ratio was called “strong wine.” Greeks and Christians alike condemned drunkenness as a thing which turned a man into a beast. The Jews had an especially keen sense of the evil of drunkenness, knowing that it disabled that very part of a man that was created most in the image of God. The TDNT has this note on the word group (methe, methuo, methusko = to get drunk)... In 1Thes 5:6 (note) Paul warns believers, as those who belong to the new aeon, to be vigilant and sober; drunkenness belongs to the night. In the parable in Mt 24:45ff. the bad steward, not living in eschatological tension, gives way to selfishness and hedonism, drinking with the drunkards. In 1Cor 11:21 the Corinthians disrupt the fellowship of the Lord's Supper; some are hungry while the wealthy are drunk. Unlike the feasts of Dionysus, the Lord's Supper is no place for intoxication. Intoxication is the direct opposite of spiritual drink. Thus Peter in Acts 2:15 resists strongly the accusation of drunkenness, and Paul in Eph 5:18 (note) contrasts orgiastic enthusiasm with the infilling of the Spirit that comes to expression in praise, thanksgiving, and love (vv. 19ff.). (Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Eerdmans) William Newell notes that... And the next things of the text follow these, as they have always followed them: Not in chamberings and wantonness- The word translated "chamberings" occurs three other times: Lu 11:7, Ro 9:10-note, Heb 13:4-note. Its being in the plural number here, and associated with the word generally rendered "lasciviousness, " suggests its horrid meaning. Schaff and Riddle well say: "Various forms of secret vice are here indicated by the plural. These sins are closely connected with the preceding (revellings and drunkennesses), often caused by them. The word translated 'wantonness' points to an abandoned sensuality." David said: "The floods of ungodliness (Heb. Belial) made me afraid" (Ps 18:4). So earth's steadily increasing tide of Noah's-day wickedness would terrify us, did we not know that the Lord is coming, to deliver His saints and to judge this very wickedness! (Romans: Verse by Verse) NOT IN SEXUAL PROMISCUITY and SENSUALITY: me koitais kai aselgeiais: (1Cor 6:9,10; Gal 5:19; Eph 5:3, 4, 5; Col 3:5; 1Thes 4:3, 4, 5; 2Pe 2:14,18, 19, 20; Jude 1:23) These two sins, sexual promiscuity and sensuality, are closely associated. Lenski notes that... In the old days of paganism these abominations accompanied many celebrations at temples, and Paul wrote 1Cor 6:15, 16, 17, 18, 19 20. Those who have visited the excavated ruins of Pompeii will know what is to be seen there in the way of brothels. The pagan world stank with vice, and does the modern world stink less?