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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Mark 2:21 - 2:22
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mar_2:21-22
21"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results. 22No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins."
Mar_2:21 This reflects a cultural truth, turned into a proverb.
Mar_2:22 "wineskins" This referred to goats being skinned in such a way as to allow the skins to be used as a container for liquids. These newly tanned skins would have elastic qualities. When these skins became old, the fermentation process and expansion of the new wine would cause them to split. Judaism was unable to receive Jesus' insights and corrections and, therefore, was about to be made null and void. The new covenant (cf. Jer_31:31-34; Eze_36:22-38) has come in Jesus! Nothing can remain the same.
There are several Greek variants connected to this verse. Some come from the parallels in Mat_9:17 and Luk_5:37-38. Mark's succinct way of recording these events caused scribes to attempt to clarify his language.
Notice the metaphorical titles for Jesus in this context: (1) the physician, Mar_2:17; (2) the bridegroom, Mar_2:19; (3) the new wine, Mar_2:21-22; and (4) the Lord of the Sabbath, Mar_2:28.
▣ "lost" See Special Topic: Apollumi at Mar_3:6.