Luke 5:34
Jesus replied, “Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while He is with them?
BSB
Parallel translations (2) ▾
ASV
And Jesus said unto them, Can ye make the sons of the bride-chamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?
KJV
And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?
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Commentary
1 voiceVoices on this verse
loading…Hebraic traditional view
Levi's feast and the old wine
Levi “made him a great feast in his own house,” and the objection came at the guest list: the Pharisaic table discipline meant an observant associate did not eat with the non-observant, whose food might be untithed and whose vessels unclean, and tax collectors stood furthest outside the circle of trust: the Mishnah rules a house unclean if tax collectors have entered it (Taharot 7:6), and even permits declaring untruths to them under duress, classing them with robbers (Nedarim 3:4). The table Jesus chose was a boundary deliberately crossed: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” The fuller table-and-fasting background is in this site's Matthew 9 note.
Luke alone keeps the last saying: “No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.” Spoken at a Jewish table about Jewish devotion, it is a gracious word, not a sneer: Jesus knows exactly why the old ways taste right to those formed by them, even as He announces something new that will not fit the old wineskins.
Sources: Mishnah Taharot 7:6 (tax collectors and the unclean house) · Mishnah Nedarim 3:4 (vows made to tax collectors)
Original language & word study
21 tagged words| Original | Transliteration | Meaning | Word study |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ὁ | Ho | <the> | G3588 → |
| δὲ | de | And | G1161 → |
| Ἰησοῦς | Iēsous | Jesus | G2424 → |
| εἶπεν | eipen | said | G2036 → |
| πρὸς | pros | to | G4314 → |
| αὐτούς· | autous | them; | G846 → |
| μὴ | mē | Not | G3361 → |
| δύνασθε | dunasthe | are you able | G1410 → |
| τοὺς | tous | the | G3588 → |
| υἱοὺς | huious | sons | G5207 → |
| τοῦ | tou | of the | G3588 → |
| νυμφῶνος | numphōnos | bridechamber | G3567 → |
| ἐν | en | in | G1722 → |
| ᾧ | hō | which [time] | G3739 → |
| ὁ | ho | the | G3588 → |
| νυμφίος | numphios | bridegroom | G3566 → |
| μετ᾽ | met᾽ | with | G3326 → |
| αὐτῶν | autōn | them | G846 → |
| ἐστιν, | estin | is, | G1510 → |
| ποιῆσαι | poiēsai | to make | G4160 → |
| νηστεῦσαι; | nēsteusai | to fast? | G3522 → |
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