Parables of Christ

Old and New Cloth and Wineskins

Group: Incongruities

Mark 02:21-22

Text Quotation

Mark 2:21-22 No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.

Commentary

Mark 2:21 New cloth; cloth which had not been fulled. Taketh away from the old; shrinks and draws the old, so that it is easily torn again, and made worse than before. Mark 2:22 Burst the bottles; by its fermentation. New bottles; which, being made of skins, and consequently elastic, yield to the expansion, and are not easily torn. These two cases are designed to express the incongruity of mourning and fasting on the part of the disciples, while their Lord was with them.

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