Luke 5:37

Luk 5:37 . The tradition of the second logion seems to have come down to Lk.’s time without variation; at all events he gives it substantially as in parallels. The difficulty connected with this parabolic word is not critical or exegetical, but scientific. The question has been raised: could even new, tough skins stand the process of fermentation? and the suggestion made that Jesus was not thinking at all of fermented, intoxicating wine, but of “must,” a non-intoxicating beverage, which could be kept safely in new leather bottles, but not in old skins, which had previously contained ordinary wine, because particles of albuminoid matter adhering to the skin would set up fermentation and develop gas with an enormous pressure. On this vide Farrar (C. G. T., Excursus , III.).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 37. The new wine will burst the bottles] These old bottles would not be able to stand the fermentation of the new wine, as the old sewing would be apt to give way. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the eastern bottles are made of skins; generally those of goats.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(37) Else.—Better, as before, if otherwise.

The bottles shall perish.—Better, will perish, there being no reason for any difference between the two verbs.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

37. new wine into old bottles] Rather, wine-skins. The skins used for holding wine were apt to get seamed and cracked, and old wineskins would tend to set up the process of fermentation. They could contain the motionless, not expand with the fermenting. To explain this passage, see Excursus III.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But new wine must be put into new bottles,.... Such as the disciples of Christ were, and sinners called to repentance are, who are renewed by the Spirit and grace of God: and these are filled with spiritual joy and comfort, as with new wine, arising from discoveries of the love of God, a view of interest in the blessings of the covenant, and an application of Gospel truths and promises.

And both are preserved; both these renewed ones, who are preserved unto the kingdom and glory of Christ; and the grace that is put into them, which is a well of living water, springing up to everlasting life; as well as the Gospel, and its blessings.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Vers. 37, 38. 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. In these two verses the Greek words rendered "bottles" properly signify "wine-skins." These leathern bottles throughout Syria and Palestine are generally made of goat-skins. They are still of universal use; the simile of the "old bottles" refers to "wine-skins" old and frail, which had been long in use, and hence nearly worn out; such "skins," after long usage, are in the habit of getting seamed and cracked. (Farrar, in an elaborate excursus, urges that must, and not wine in the ordinary sense, i.e. the fermented juice of the grape, is signified in the parable here, grape juice in the form of unfermented must being much used as a favourite drink in the East. This suggestion, although ingenious and interesting, does not seem necessary to explain the imagery used; it seems more natural to understand wine in its ordinary meaning.) The "new wine" here represents the teaching of Jesus in all its freshness, originality, and power, and the "wine-skins" the men who are to receive from the Master the great principle of his doctrine. Now, the recognized teachers in Israel, termed scribes and rabbis, or doctors of the Law, were wedded to the old interpretation of the Law were hampered by traditions, sayings of the Fathers, elaborate ritual observances, prejudices, narrowness, bigotry. The vast collection of the Talmud, where wise words on the same page are crowded out with childish sayings, well represents the teaching of these scribes and rabbis. Never would Jesus entrust to these narrow and prejudiced representatives of a worn-out religious school his new, fresh, generous doctrines. It would indeed be pouring new wine into old, decayed, worn-out wine-vessels. The new wine must be deposited in new wine-skins. His doctrine must be entrusted to no rabbi of Israel, fettered by a thousand precedents, hampered by countless prejudices, but to simple unprejudiced men, who would just receive his teaching, and then pass it on pure and unadulterated to other simple, truthful souls men earnest, loyal, devoted, like his fisher-friends of Gennesaret, or his publican-follower of Capernaum. He needs, as Godet well phrases it changing, though, the imagery of Jesus natures, new men... fair tablets on which his hand may write the characters of Divine truth, without coming across the old traces of a false human wisdom. "God, I thank thee because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

bottles

i.e. wineskins.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

new wine

"grape juice." This refers to wine that has not yet fermented.

wineskins

These were bags made out of animal skins. They could also be called "wine bags" or "bags made of skin."

the new wine would burst the skins

When the new wine ferments and expands, it breaks the old skins because they can no longer stretch out. Jesus' audience would have understood the information about the wine's fermenting and expanding. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

the wine would be spilled

This can be stated in active form. AT: "the wine would spill out of the bags" (See: Active or Passive)

fresh wineskins

"new wineskins" or "new wine bags." This refers to new wineskins, unused.

drinking old wine ... wants the new

This metaphor contrasts the old teaching of the religious leaders against the new teaching of Jesus. The point is that people who are used to the old teaching are not willing to listen to the new things that Jesus is teaching. (See: Metaphor)

old wine

"wine that has fermented"

for he says, 'The old is better.'

It may be helpful to add: "and he is therefore not willing to try the new wine" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

translationWords

wine

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

37. ἀσκούς. ‘Wine-skins.’ Our Lord often illustrates two aspects of the same truth by a pair of parables (e.g. the Hid Treasure and the Pearl; the Sower and the Tares, &c.). The skins used for holding wine were apt to get seamed and cracked, and old wine-skins would tend to set up the process of fermentation. They could contain the motionless, but they could not expand with the fermenting. To explain this passage, see Excursus III.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

37. This second parable carries on and develops the teaching of the first. We have similar pairs of parables in the Mustard-seed and the leaven, the Treasure hid in the Field and the Pearl of eat price, the Ten Virgins and the Talents, the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, the Unwise Builder and the Unwise King. In three respects this second parable differs from the first. (1) The piece of new cloth represents only a fragment of the new system; the new wine represents the whole of it. (2) The new garment and the old one are only marred; the new wine is lost and the old skins are destroyed. (3) Not only is the wrong method condemned, the right method is indicated (ἀλλὰ … βλητέον). The argument is à fortiori. If it is a mistake to take the natural out come from one system and force it upon an alien system, much more fatal will it be to try to force the whole of a new and growing system into the worn out forms of an old one. “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes” (10:21). The scribes and Pharisees, wise in the letter of the law, and understanding their own cramping traditions, were incapable of receiving the free spirit of the Gospel. Young and fresh natures, free from prejudice and open to new light and new impressions, were needed to receive the new word and preserve it unchecked and untramelled for future generations. On the fitness of the twofold parable to the occasion Bengel remarks, parabolam a veste, a vino: imprimis opportunam convivio.

οὐδεὶς βάλλει οἶνον νέον εἰς ἀσκοὺς παλαιούς. For βάλλειν of pouring liquids comp. Joh 13:5; Mat 26:12; Jdg 6:19; Epictet. iv. 19, 12. Skin-bottles, utres, are still in use in the East, made of a single goat-skin (Hom. Il. iii. 247), from which the flesh and bones are drawn without ripping up the body. The neck of the animal becomes the neck of the bottle. Gen 21:4, Gen 21:15, Gen 21:19; Psa 119:83. Comp. Hdt. ii. 121, 20, iii. 9, 2; Hom. Od. v. 265. In Job 32:19 it is said that even new skins are ready to burst when they are full of new wine: comp. 38:37. See Herzog, Pro_2 art. Schlauch; Tristram, Nat. Hist. of B. p. 92.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 37, 38. The Second Parable.

The figure is taken from the Oriental custom of preserving liquids in leathern bottles, made generally of goat-skins. “No one,” says M. Pierotti, “travels in Palestine without having a leathern bottle filled with water amongst his luggage. These bottles preserve the water for drinking, without imparting any ill taste to it; also wine, oil, honey, and milk.” In this parable there is evidently an advance on the preceding, as we always find in the case of double parables. This difference of meaning, misapprehended by Neander and the greater part of interpreters, comes out more particularly from two features: 1. The opposition between the unity of the garment in the first, and the plurality of the bottles in the second; 2. The fact that, since the new wine answers to the new garment, the new bottles must represent a different and entirely new idea. In fact, Jesus here is no longer opposing the evangelical principle to the legal principle, but the representatives of the one to those of the other. Two complaints were raised against Jesus: 1 st. His negligence of the legal forms; to this accusation He has just replied. 2 d. His contempt for the representatives of legalism, and His sympathy with those who had thrown off the theocratic discipline. It is to this second charge that He now replies. Nothing can be more simple than our parable from this point of view. The new wine represents that living and healthy spirituality which flows so abundantly through the teaching of Jesus; and the bottles, the men who are to become the depositaries of this principle, and to preserve it for mankind. And whom in Israel will Jesus choose to fulfil this part? The old practitioners of legal observance? Pharisees puffed up with the idea of their own merit? Rabbis jaded with textual discussions? Such persons have nothing to learn, nothing to receive from Him! If associated with His work, they could not fail to falsify it, by mixing up with His instructions the old prejudices with which they are imbued; or even if they should yield their hearts for a moment to the lofty thought of Jesus, it would put all their religious notions and routine devotion to the rout, just as new and sparkling wine bursts a worn-out leathern bottle. Where, then, shall He choose His future instruments? Among those who have neither merit nor wisdom of their own. He needs fresh natures, souls whose only merit is their receptivity, new men in the sense of the homo novus among the Romans, fair tablets on which His hand may write the characters of divine truth, without coming across the old traces of a false human wisdom. “God, I thank Thee, because Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to these babes” (Luk 10:21). These babes will save the truth, and it will save them; this is expressed by these last words: “and both, the wine and the bottles, are preserved.” These words are omitted in Luke by some Alex. They are suspected of having been added from Matthew, where they are not wanting in any document; Meyer’s conjecture, that they have been suppressed, in accordance with Mark, is less probable.

It has been thought that the old bottles represent the unregenerate nature of man, and the new bottles, hearts renewed by the Gospel. But Jesus would not have represented the destruction of the old corrupt nature by the gospel as a result to be dreaded; and He would scarcely have compared new hearts, the works of His Holy Spirit, to bottles, the existence of which precedes that of the wine which they contain. Lange and Gess see in the old bottles a figure of the legal forms, in the new bottles the image of the evangelical forms. But Christian institutions are an emanation of the Christian spirit, while the bottles exist independently of the wine with which they are filled. And Jesus would not have attached equal importance to the preservation of the wine and of the bottles, as He does in the words: “And both are preserved.” It is a question, then, here of the preservation of the gospel, and of the salvation of the individuals who are the depositaries of it. Jesus returns here to the fact which was the occasion of the whole scene, and which had called forth the dissatisfaction of His adversaries, the call of Levi the publican. It is this bold act which He justifies in the second parable, after having vindicated, in the first, the principle on which it was based. A new system demands new persons. This same truth will be applied on a larger scale, when, through the labours of St. Paul, the gospel shall pass from the Jews to the Gentiles, who are the new men in the kingdom of God.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.