G3184 — μεθύω (methýō)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: G3184
Original: μεθύω
Transliteration: methýō
Pronunciation: meth-oo'-o
Part of Speech: Verb
Root: From another form of μέθυ (methy, "wine"); cognate with μέθη (G3178, "drunkenness"), μεθύσκω (G3182, "make drunk"), μέθυσος (G3183, "drunkard")
Occurrences: 7 unique verses, 8 tokens in NT
First Occurrence: Mat 24:49 — "to eat and drink with the drunken"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From Strong's: "from another form of [μέθυ]; to drink to intoxication, i.e. get drunk." Classical Greek usage spans from literal intoxication to, by extension, drinking one's fill / drinking freely at a banquet (cf. LSJ). The lexical core is the effect of wine on the drinker — saturation, past the point of simple thirst-quenching.

Semantic Domains¶

Louw-Nida:

Primary domain: 88.37 — Drunkenness (within 88, Moral and Ethical Qualities and Related Behavior)
Secondary domain: 23 — Physiological Processes and States (subdomain 23.001, Eat/Drink)
Co-domain members (88.37): κραιπάλη (G2897, hangover/surfeiting), κῶμος (G2970, carousing), μέθη (G3178, drunkenness), μεθύσκω (G3182, make drunk), μέθυσος (G3183, drunkard), οἰνοπότης (G3630, winebibber), οἰνοφλυγία (G3632, excess of wine), πάροινος (G3943, given to wine), πότος (G4224, banqueting)

Louw-Nida places methýō squarely in the semantic domain of drunkenness, not merely drinking. The neutral "eat/drink" domain (23) contains πίνω (G4095); methýō is categorized with moral-ethical terms for intoxication.

UBS Semantic Domains: - [088] Moral and Ethical Qualities and Related Behavior - [023] Physiological Processes and States

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
drunken	3	42.9%
are drunken	1	14.3%
is drunken	1	14.3%
have been made drunk	1	14.3%
men have well drunk	1	14.3%
are (in "are not drunken")	1	14.3%

Six of seven KJV renderings employ "drunk/drunken" directly. The one outlier is John 2:10, where the KJV uses "have well drunk" — a rendering that preserves ambiguity in English but stands apart from every other NT usage of this verb.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
1 Thessalonians	1	1.12
Revelation	2	0.50
1 Corinthians	1	0.23
Matthew	1	0.09
Acts	1	0.10
John	1	0.11

Distribution is sparse and scattered across gospels, Acts, epistles, and apocalyptic literature. No single author dominates; Paul accounts for 2 of 7 occurrences. The term never appears in Luke, the pastoral epistles, Hebrews, or the general epistles.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Literal Intoxication (Moral/Ethical Warning Context)¶

Mat 24:49 — "to eat and drink with the drunken (methyóntōn)" — the wicked servant's behavior signaling judgment.
1 Cor 11:21 — "one is hungry, and another is drunken (methýei)" — Paul rebukes the Corinthian abuse of the Lord's Supper; the contrast with "hungry" and the rebuke itself require genuine intoxication.
1 Thess 5:7 — "they that be drunken (methyskómenoi) are drunken (methýousin) in the night" — paired with sleep/darkness as the state believers of the day must reject.

In all three, methýō describes a negatively-valenced state: bodily intoxication treated as moral failure.

2. Accusation of Intoxication (Denied)¶

Acts 2:15 — "these are not drunken (methýousin), as ye suppose" — Peter rejects the charge that the Pentecost disciples are intoxicated. The mockers' accusation (Acts 2:13 uses γλεύκους, "new/sweet wine") presumes the normal sense of methýō is drunk, not merely having drunk.

3. Apocalyptic Figurative Intoxication¶

Rev 17:2 — "the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk (emethýsthēsan) with the wine of her fornication" — aorist passive; Babylon's corrupting influence produces a drunkenness-like stupor.
Rev 17:6 — "the woman drunken (methýousan) with the blood of the saints" — figurative, but drawing on the full force of "staggering / saturated past reason." The image requires the strong sense, not mere "drinking freely."

4. Satiation at a Banquet (John 2:10)¶

John 2:10 — the architriklínos (master of the feast) says, "Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk (methysthōsin, aorist passive subjunctive), then that which is worse."

This is the only NT use where methýō is not explicitly negative or explicitly figurative intoxication. It appears in a proverbial saying about banquet practice — the master is stating a general customary pattern, not describing the Cana guests in particular. In classical and Hellenistic Greek, methýō at banquets can range from "drunk" to "have drunk freely / to the full," and commentators split on whether the architriklínos means "once guests are intoxicated [and can't tell the difference]" or "once guests have drunk their fill." Lexicons (BDAG, LSJ) register both the intoxication sense and the "drink freely" sense; context and semantic domain neighbors (all pointing to intoxication in the NT) weigh on the question.

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
οἶνος (oînos, wine)	G3631	2x (29%)	methýō + oinos: wine as the agent/means of the drunkenness (John 2:10; Rev 17:2)
αἷμα (haîma, blood)	G129	1x	figurative: "drunken with the blood" (Rev 17:6)
ἐσθίω (esthíō, eat)	G2068	1x	eating/drinking pair (Mat 24:49; cf. 1 Cor 11:21)
δεῖπνον (deîpnon, supper)	G1173	1x	banquet/meal setting (1 Cor 11:21)
καθεύδω (katheúdō, sleep)	G2518	1x	drunkenness paired with sleep/night (1 Thess 5:7)
ἡμέρα (hēméra, day)	G2250	1x	contrast: day vs. night-drunkenness (1 Thess 5:7)

Note: the two co-occurrences with oînos are the only NT pairings of methýō with wine-the-substance. Both involve large quantities — a wedding banquet (John 2) and Babylon's cup (Rev 17).

Word Family / Cognates¶

G3178 μέθη (methē) — noun: drunkenness (Luke 21:34; Rom 13:13; Gal 5:21)
G3182 μεθύσκω (methýskō) — causative verb: to make drunk / become drunk (Luke 12:45; Eph 5:18; 1 Thess 5:7)
G3183 μέθυσος (méthysos) — noun: a drunkard (1 Cor 5:11; 6:10)
μέθυ (methy) — Homeric/classical word for wine; common Indo-European root (cf. Sanskrit madhu, "honey/mead"; English mead)

Synonyms¶

No direct synonyms were retained from search_relationships.py for G3184; the raw hits were loose associative links rather than clear lexical equivalents.

Antonyms¶

No antonyms were returned by search_relationships.py for G3184.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
שִׁכּוֹר (shikkôr)	H7910	"drunken"	Hebrew adjective: a drunk person (state/identity); Num 6:3, Deut 21:20, Isa 28:1
שָׁכַר (shâkar)	H7937	"drunk(en)"	Hebrew verb: to become drunk; often used of strong drink (shēkar)
πίνω (pínō)	G4095	"drink" (overlap)	Neutral verb for drinking — covers water, wine, cup of suffering, etc. (154x NT). Does NOT imply intoxication. This is the word used for ordinary drinking, including Jesus drinking wine (Luke 7:33–34, Mat 26:29)
שָׁתָה (shâthâh)	H8354	"drink" / "drunk" (occasional)	Hebrew neutral verb: to imbibe, including water. The Hebrew parallel to pínō, not to methýō

The crucial distinction: πίνω (G4095) is the general "drink" verb (used in the OT drinking-verb matches and throughout the NT for all drinking, including Jesus drinking wine). μεθύω (G3184) is specifically the verb for drinking past a threshold — in the NT that threshold is normally intoxication; only the banquet proverb in John 2:10 arguably admits the "drink freely" reading.

Domain Neighbors (Louw-Nida 88.37 — Drunkenness)¶

Strong's	Word	Primary KJV	Key Difference
G2897	κραιπάλη	surfeiting	aftermath of drinking; hangover
G2970	κῶμος	revelling, rioting	drunken carousing / party
G3178	μέθη	drunkenness	abstract noun for the state
G3182	μεθύσκω	be drunken	causative/inchoative — get drunk
G3183	μέθυσος	drunkard	person characterized by drunkenness
G3630	οἰνοπότης	winebibber	wine-drinker (habitual); slur against Jesus (Mat 11:19)
G3632	οἰνοφλυγία	excess of wine	wine-gluttony
G3943	πάροινος	given to wine	disposition toward wine (elder-qualification lists)
G4224	πότος	banqueting	drinking party

Hebrew Source (via LXX)¶

Hebrew Source	Strong's	Co-occ	PMI	Score
שָׁכַר (shâkar)	H7937	15	8.85	24.53
שִׁכּוֹר (shikkôr)	H7910	10	8.73	20.94
רָוָה (râvâh)	H7301	9	8.47	19.51
יַיִן (yayin, wine)	H3196	9	5.34	12.29
שָׁתָה (shâthâh)	H8354	9	4.70	10.83
כּוֹס (kôs, cup)	H3563	4	6.25	10.06

LXX Background¶

In the Septuagint, μεθύω consistently translates Hebrew verbs in the שָׁכַר (shakar) family, which denotes intoxication from שֵׁכָר (shēkar, strong drink). Representative LXX occurrences: - Gen 9:21 (LXX) — Noah "drank of the wine, and was drunken (emethýsthē)" — the archetypal intoxication scene, rendering Hebrew wayyishkar. - Gen 43:34 — Joseph's brothers "drank, and were merry (emethýsthēsan) with him" — ambiguous in the Hebrew (wayyishkeru); LXX chose methýō for what many English versions translate "drank freely." - 1 Sam 1:14 — Eli accuses Hannah: "How long wilt thou be drunken (methysthēsē)?" — clearly intoxication. - Isa 29:9; 49:26; Jer 25:27 — figurative drunkenness of nations under judgment; methýō translates shikkor-forms. - Song 5:1 — "drink, yea, drink abundantly (methýsthēte), O beloved" — the clearest LXX case of methýō carrying the "drink freely/to satiety" sense rather than intoxication.

The strongest PMI bridges are with שָׁכַר/שִׁכּוֹר (the pure intoxication words), but the word also overlaps with רָוָה (to be saturated/watered) and the neutral שָׁתָה (to drink) in some contexts. Notably, methýō also maps to places where Hebrew רָוָה describes land being watered to saturation (Isa 55:10) — the semantic core is saturation past the point of need, with intoxication as the most common application.