Luke 5:37
And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will spill, and the wineskins will be ruined.
BSB
Parallel translations (2) ▾
ASV
And no man putteth new wine into old wine-skins; else the new wine will burst the skins, and itself will be spilled, and the skins will perish.
KJV
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.
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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
26 tagged words| Original | Transliteration | Meaning | Word study |
|---|---|---|---|
| καὶ | kai | And | G2532 → |
| οὐδεὶς | oudeis | no [one] | G3762 → |
| βάλλει | ballei | puts | G906 → |
| οἶνον | oinon | wine | G3631 → |
| νέον | neon | new | G3501 → |
| εἰς | eis | into | G1519 → |
| ἀσκοὺς | askous | wineskins | G779 → |
| παλαιούς· | palaious | old; | G3820 → |
| εἰ | ei | lest | G1487 → |
| δὲ | de | then | G1161 → |
| μή | mē | except | G3361 → |
| γε, | ge | indeed | G1065 → |
| ῥήξει | rhēxei | will burst | G4486 → |
| ὁ | ho | the | G3588 → |
| οἶνος | oinos | wine | G3631 → |
| ὁ | ho | <the> | G3588 → |
| νέος | neos | new | G3501 → |
| τοὺς | tous | the | G3588 → |
| ἀσκοὺς | askous | wineskins | G779 → |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → |
| αὐτὸς | autos | it | G846 → |
| ἐκχυθήσεται, | ekchuthēsetai | will be spilled out, | G1632 → |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → |
| οἱ | hoi | the | G3588 → |
| ἀσκοὶ | askoi | wineskins | G779 → |
| ἀπολοῦνται· | apolountai | will be destroyed; | G622 → |
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