Temperance Meaning in the Bible

Temperance comes from the Latin temperantia, 'moderation, self-restraint,' from temperare, 'to mix in due proportion' — the same root as 'temper' in the sense of tempered steel. It is one of the four classical cardinal virtues alongside prudence, justice, and fortitude, which is why it appears so often in medieval and Renaissance art.

In the KJV it is the ninth and final fruit of the Spirit: 'love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law' (Galatians 5:22–23). The Greek is enkrateia — literally 'in-strength,' power held under control. Paul places it last, after eight other-directed qualities, as the one that governs the self. It also appears in 2 Peter 1:6 in a chain of virtues, and in Acts 24:25, where Paul reasoned with Felix 'of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, [and] Felix trembled.'

The name was used by English Puritans from the sixteenth century and travelled to New England — a Temperance sailed on early colonial voyages — long before it became attached to the nineteenth-century anti-alcohol movement. That association is why it fell out of use, and why the modern revival has to reach back past it to the Galatians meaning.

Temperance is rare but rising in the US, riding the same wave as Verity, Mercy and Constance. It carries the natural nicknames Tempe, Terra and Ren.