Ecclesiastes 2:4

"I acted in grand style: I built myself houses, I planted vineyards; "and others such until the point where he says: "The wise man has his eyes in his head, whereas the fool walks in darkness. "Before I discuss each of these in turn it seems useful to me to encompass all of them in a short paragraph, and to reduce their meanings to just one explanation, so that it is easier to understand what is being said. I had all things that have been considered good through the ages.

We correctly assume that the text [Ecclesiastes] offers further elucidation to what we have just read, that is, mental incoherence and the indignity of drunkenness. "I enlarged my work, built my houses" to which Ecclesiastes adds "I planted my vineyards." The words "I enlarged" and what follows commonly mean abundance. The text does not mean the expansion of personal needs by the planting of vines. "I planted my vineyards," that is, I have provided material to burn fuel through the increase of pleasures because my mind sank low just as strong drink covers the mind with earth. "I planted my vines." I have not exercised self-control, Ecclesiastes says, like the drunken Noah because this lovely plant is both an object of pity and ridicule after it is stripped. The more well-disposed sons of Noah pitied their father's indecency while others laughed and ridiculed him. Vineyards contain an entire list of passions which are aggravated by wine, for who does not know that an immoderate use of wine fuels undiscipline? It includes a multitude of pleasures, youthful outrage, unbecoming old age, disgrace for women, a drug for madness, insanity, obnoxiousness for the soul, death to the mind and alienation from virtue. Drunkenness produces unreasonable laughter and crying, spontaneous tears, hollow boasting, irrational fear, indifference to fear, no reason for arrogance, thoughtless generosity and the promise of unfulfilled work. We may omit further unbecoming behavior such as indecent drowsiness, drunken stupor, unsteady feet and the twisting of one's neck which cannot remain steady. What kind of abomination makes a person commit incest with one's daughter? How was Lot deceived to perpetrate a deed of which he was unaware? What new names were mysteriously given to those children? How did the mothers of such a polluted birth become sisters of their own children? […]

The confession about planting vines encompasses a great catalogue of effects on the person. The text includes in its meaning the full extent and nature of the effects caused by wine. Who in the world does not know that once wine immoderately exceeds what is necessary, it is tinder for licentiousness, the means to selfindulgence, injury to youth, deformity to age, dishonor for women, a poison inducing madness, sustenance for insanity, destruction to the soul, death to the understanding, estrangement from virtue? From it comes unjustified mirth, lamentation without reason, senseless tears, unfounded boasting, shameless lying, craving for the unreal, expectation of the impracticable, monstrous threats, groundless fear, unawareness of what is really to be feared, unreasonable jealousy, excessive bonhomie, the promise of impossible things—not to mention the unseemly nodding of the head, the shaky, topheavy gait, the indecency due to immoderate intake, uncontrolled movement of the limbs, the bending of the neck which can no longer support itself on the shoulders, when the flabbiness brought about by the wine relaxes the neck muscles. What caused the unlawful heinous act of incest with daughters? What distracted Lot's mind from what was happening, when he both committed the heinous act and was ignorant of what he committed? Who invented, like a riddle, the weird names of those children? How did the mothers of the accursed progeny become the sisters of their own children? How did the boys have the same man both as father and grandfather? Who was it who muddled their identity by breaking the law? Was it not wine, exceeding moderation, which caused this unbelievable tragedy? Was it not drunkenness that shaped such a myth into history, one which surpasses real myths in its monstrosity? Homilies on Ecclesiastes

Whether [Solomon] really did these things or made the story up for our benefit, so that the argument might reach its logical conclusion, I cannot say precisely. Nevertheless he does speak of things with which nobody who was aiming at virtue would willingly be associated. However, whether it is by benevolent design that he discusses things that had not happened as if they had, and condemns them as though he had experienced them, in order that we might turn away from desire for what is condemned before the experience, or whether he deliberately lowered himself to the enjoyment of such things, so as to train his senses rigorously by using alien things, it is for each to decide freely for himself, whichever conjecture he likes to pursue. If however anyone were to say that Solomon really was involved in the practical experience of pleasures, I would agree.

But if from personal experience Ecclesiastes condemns the apparent existence [of vanity] to make us avoid a similar situation, or if he freely rejects the enjoyment coming from pleasure in order to diligently train his senses through unpleasant experiences, let us willingly pay attention to his words and draw our own conclusions. We will now respond to anyone who claims that Ecclesiastes' experience results in pleasure. Persons who traverse the sea and explore its depths in the hope of finding pearls exert themselves in profitable labor, not in pleasure. If Solomon resembles these men and devotes himself to fishing, he becomes submerged in pleasure; he is not filled with sea salt which to me represents pleasure but seeks that which is profitable for his mind in these depths.