The new wine of Christ's sacrifice, of the New Covenant, and of God's Spirit being poured out on us is infinitely more valuable than anything before conversion. Whether the old wine represents physical abundance or the headiness of what Babylon entices us with constantly, nothing can be compared to the new wineâif we have God's Spirit. No one pours new wine into old wineskinsâ (Luke 5:37). It seems that if anyone asked Jesus a question, he answered with a parable. The skins will burst and the patch will pull away from the garment. Tradition is good, as a final image affirms, like old wine that is stable and rich to the taste.
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Porter with a Wineskin, by Niko Pirosmani (before 1919)
New Wine into Old Wineskins is a parable of Jesus. It is found at Matthew 9:14-17, Mark 2:18-22 and Luke 5:33-39.
Passage[edit]
The parables follow the recruitment of Levi as a disciple of Jesus, and appear to be part of a discussion at a banquet held by him (Luke 5:29).[1] The parables are told in response to a question about fasting:
And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink? And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.
ââLuke 5:33-35, KJV
Jesus' response continues with the two short parables. Luke has the more detailed version:
And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.
Interpretation[edit]![]()
The two parables relate to the relationship between Jesus' teaching and traditional Judaism.[2] According to some interpreters, Jesus here 'pits his own, new way against the old way of the Pharisees and their scribes.'[1] In the early second century, Marcion, founder of Marcionism, used the passage to justify a 'total separation between the religion that Jesus and Paul espoused and that of the Hebrew Scriptures.'[3]
Other interpreters see Luke as giving Christianity roots in Jewish antiquity,[1] although 'Jesus has brought something new, and the rituals and traditions of official Judaism cannot contain it.'[4]
In his commentary on Matthew, Mark, and Luke,[5]John Calvin states that the old wineskins and the old garment represent Jesus' disciples, and the new wine and unshrunk cloth represent the practice of fasting twice a week. Fasting this way would be burdensome to the new disciples, and would be more than they could bear.[6]
Based on parallel rabbinic sayings found in Pirkei Avot, one interpreter sees the parable as depicting the difficulty of teaching disciples with prior learning as compared to teaching new, uneducated disciples.[7][8]
The metaphors in the two parables were drawn from contemporary culture.[2] New cloth had not yet shrunk, so that using new cloth to patch older clothing would result in a tear as it began to shrink.[9] Similarly, old wineskins had been 'stretched to the limit'[9] or become brittle[2] as wine had fermented inside them; using them again therefore risked bursting them.[9]
See also[edit]References[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_Wine_into_Old_Wineskins&oldid=934619594'
The Parable of Patches and Wineskins Text: Matt. The new wine represents the inner aspects of a Christian life, and the new cloth pictures outward conduct. A true knowledge according to the image of the One who created himâ. Parable Patches and Wineskins Matt. Parable of Patches and Wineskins.
The Parables of Jesus â Part 2. As Jesus explains in the parable, such cloth, if used to patch a tear in an.
The parable of the new wineskins follows in. What is the meaning of the parables of fasting at the wedding feast.
And the wineskins? In the first parable, if you put a new patch on an old garment.Question: 'What is the meaning of the parables of fasting at the wedding feast, the old cloth, and the wineskins?' Answer: These parables, found in Mark 2:18-22, begin with a statement that the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist were fasting. The twice-weekly fast was a tradition adopted by the legalistic Pharisees at the time, even though the Mosaic Law prescribed only one fast on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29, 31).Some people came to Jesus and asked Him why His disciples did not fast like the Pharisees and those of Johnâs disciples who had remained loyal to the Pharisaic traditions. Jesusâ response is given in three short parables. The first one is a parable of a bridegroom with his groomsmen at a wedding feast.Jesusâ point is that fasting during the wedding feast is pointless. In this story Jesus is the Bridegroom, and while He is present in this world, it is a time of celebration because He is the fulfillment of their Messianic prophecies.
Jesus Himself said that He came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17). To continue fasting with Jesus present is akin to fasting and being mournful during a wedding celebration in which the groom is present. The other two parables, which are similar, make the same point.
The first one says you donât put a new patch on an old garment, and the second says you donât put new wine into an old wineskin.In the first parable, if you put a new patch on an old garment, when the new patch shrinks due to washing, it will tear away from the older garment, making the tear worse. Similarly, new wine needs a new wineskin because as the new wine expands during the fermentation process, it stretches the wineskin. An old wineskin will burst under the pressure of new wine. These two parables illustrate the fact that you canât mix old religious rituals with new faith in Jesus. Jesusâ disciples were not fasting along with the Pharisees and Johnâs disciples because they were now under the new covenant of grace and faith in Christ.As mentioned earlier, Jesus fulfilled the law; therefore, there is no longer any need to continue with the old rituals. Jesus cannot be added to a works-based religion. In the case of the Pharisees, they were consumed with their own self-righteousness, and faith in Jesus cannot be combined with self-righteous rituals.
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