Matthew 9:17

Mat_9:17

New wine into old bottles.

Garments and wine skins

By these illustrations our Lord conveyed a lesson on the charm of naturalness and the law of congruity in religion,

1. As old cloth and new cloth are one in being cloth, old wine and new are one in being wine; so the religion before Christ and that which He introduced are essentially one in kind, if not in quality.

2. The effect of the forced junction of the old and new would be injurious to both. (D. Fraser, D. D.)

What is meant by old bottles?

Why is the carnal heart compared to an old bottle

1. Because a bottle is a proper receptacle of liquor, so is the heart of man a proper receptacle of Divine knowledge, grace, joy, etc.

2. Because a bottle of itself is an empty thing, and must be filled; so the heart of man is naturally empty of good.

3. Because a broken bottle cannot hold new wine, nor can an unrenewed heart hold saving peace, joy, etc. (B. Keach.)

Making skin bottles

As soon as the animal (goat) is killed, an opening is made in the skin large enough to introduce the lips, and a man begins to blow between the skin and the flesh until the two are completely separated from each other throughout. The head and feet are then cut off, and the entire body of the animal is drawn out of its skin through the opening at the neck. The hair is sometimes partially removed and the skin tanned. In Persia the skins are saturated with pitch. The opening at the neck is used for filling and emptying the vessel, while the four feet are tied or sewed up. The grape-juice which is to undergo the process of fermentation is put into skins, which are either entirely new or which have been carefully examined and found able to withstand the pressure.

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 9:17. Ἀσκοὺς, leather bottles) which were used instead of casks. The old bottles are the Pharisees; the new, the disciples; the wine, the Gospel.—ἀπολοῦνται, will perish) So that they can neither hold that, nor any other wine henceforward.—ἀμφότεροι, both) masculine, as τίς. in ch. Mat 23:17.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 9:17 . The new parable of the wine and wine-skins is introduced, not merely because the Speaker is full of matter, but because it enables Him aptly to show both sides of the question, the twofold application of the principle. οὐδὲ βάλλουσιν : nobody puts new wine into old skins; νέος applied to wine, καινός to skins ( ἀσκοὺς καινούς ). νέος is new in time, καινός in quality. That which is new in time does not necessarily deteriorate with age; it may even improve. That which is new in quality always deteriorates with age, like skins or cloth, vide Trench’s Synonyms , lx. εἰ δὲ μήγε ( vide ad Mat 6:1 ): two disastrous consequences ensue: skins burst, wine spilt. The reason not stated, assumed to be known. New wine ferments, old skins have lost their toughness and stretchableness. “They have become hard leather and give no more” (Koetsveld, De Gelijkenissen , p. 99). That is the one side keep the old to the old. ἀλλὰ βάλλουσι … συντηροῦνται : this is the other the new to the new; new wine in fresh skins, and both are preserved as suiting one another. With reference to the two parables, Schanz remarks that, in the first, the point of comparison is the distinction between part and whole, in the second form and contents are opposed to each other. So after him, Holtzmann in H.C. Weiss takes both parables as explaining the practice of John’s disciples, Holtzmann as giving reasons why Christ’s disciples differed from all others. The truth as above indicated lies between.

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

Verse 17. New wine into old bottles] It is still the custom, in the eastern countries, to make their bottles of goat skins: if these happened to be old, and new wine were put into them, the violence of the fermentation must necessarily burst them; and therefore newly made bottles were employed for the purpose of putting that wine in which had not yet gone through its state of fermentation. The institutes of Christ, and those of the Pharisees, could never be brought to accord: an attempt to combine the two systems would be as absurd as it would be destructive. The old covenant made way for the new, which was its completion and its end; but with that old covenant the new cannot be incorporated.

Christian prudence requires that the weak, and newly converted, should be managed with care and tenderness. To impose such duties and mortifications as are not absolutely necessary to salvation, before God has properly prepared the heart by his grace for them, is a conduct as absurd and ruinous as putting a piece of raw, unscoured cloth on an old garment; it is, in a word, requiring the person to do the work of a man, while as yet he is but a little child. Preachers of the Gospel, and especially those who are instruments in God's hand of many conversions, have need of much heavenly wisdom, that they may know to watch over, guide, and advise those who are brought to a sense of their sin and danger. How many auspicious beginnings have been ruined by men's proceeding too hastily, endeavouring to make their own designs take place, and to have the honour of that success themselves which is due only to God.

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

(17) Neither do men put new wine into old bottles.—The bottles are those made of hides partly tanned, and retaining, to a great extent, the form of the living animals. These, as they grew dry with age, became very liable to crack, and were unable to resist the pressure of the fermenting liquor. If the mistake were made, the bottles were marred, and the wine spilt. When we interpret the parable, we see at once that the “new wine” represents the inner, as the garment did the outer, aspect of Christian life, the new energies and gifts of the Spirit, which, as on the day of Pentecost, were likened to new wine (Act_2:13). In dealing with men, our Lord did not bestow these gifts suddenly, even on His own disciples, any more than He imposed rules of life for which men were not ready. As the action of organised churches has too often reproduced the mistake of sewing the patch of new cloth on the old garment, so in the action of enthusiastic or mystic sects, in the history of Montanism, Quakerism in its earlier stages, the growth of the so-called Catholic and Apostolic Church, which had its origin in the history of Edward Irving, we have that of pouring new wine into old bottles. The teaching of our Lord points in both instances to gradual training, speaking the truth as men are able to bear it; reserving many truths because they “cannot bear them now.”

St. Luke adds, as before, a new aspect of the illustration: “No man having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.” See Note on Luk_5:39.

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

17. new wine into old bottles] The Oriental bottles are skins of sheep or goats. Old bottles would crack and leak. This may be regarded as a further illustration of the doctrine taught in the preceding verse. But it is better to give it an individual application. The new wine is the new law, the freedom of Christianity. The new bottles are those fitted to live under that law. The old wine is Judaism, the old bottles those, who trained in Judaism, cannot receive the new law, who say “the old is better” (or “good”), Luk_5:39.

Our Lord’s answer then is threefold, (1) specially as to fasting, (2) as to Christianity in regard to Judaism, (3) as to individuals trained in Judaism.

(1) This is a joyous time, not a season for fasting, which is a sign of sorrow.

(2) Christianity is not a sect of Judaism, or to be judged according to rules of Judaism.

(3) It is not every soul that is capable of receiving the new and spiritual law. The new wine of Christianity requires new vessels to contain it.

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.

While he spake these things unto them,.... To the Scribes and Pharisees, and to John's disciples, concerning, and in vindication of his, and his disciples, eating and drinking with publicans and sinners, and their not fasting as others did; and while he spake these parables, to expose the folly of self-righteous persons, and justify his own conduct, in calling sinners to repentance,

behold, there came a certain ruler and worshipped him. This man, as both Mark and Luke say, was named Jairus; and was a ruler, not of the sanhedrim, or lesser consistory, but of the synagogue that was at Capernaum; and whom the Jews call, , "the head of the synagogue". Mark says, he was "one of the rulers": not that there were more rulers than one, in one synagogue (q): but as in great cities, so it is likely in Capernaum there were more synagogues than one, of which he was one of the rulers: so we read of (r), "heads", or "rulers of synagogues". As this is one mistake, so it is another to say, that Dr. Lightfoot speaks of this ruler, as the same with the "minister" of the congregation; when both here, and in the place referred to, he manifestly distinguishes them; as do the Jews: for, by this ruler, as their commentators (s) say,

"the necessary affairs of the synagogue were determined, as who should dismiss with a prophet, who should divide the "shema", and who should go before the ark.''

Whereas the business of , "the minister of the synagogue", was to bring in and out the ark, or chest, in which was the book of the law; and particularly, when the high priest read, or pronounced the blessings, "he" took the book, and gave it to "the ruler of the synagogue"; and the ruler of the synagogue gave it to the "sagan", and the "sagan" to the high priest (t). The doctor makes indeed , "the messenger of the congregation", to be the same with "the minister of the synagogue", and which is his mistake; for these were two different officers (u): the former was the lecturer, or preacher; and the latter, a sort of a sexton to keep the synagogue clean, open and shut the doors, and do other things before mentioned. This Jairus was a man of great power and significance; who in such a very humble manner prostrated himself at the feet of Jesus, and expressed such strong faith in him:

saying, my daughter is even now dead, but come and lay thine hand upon her, and she shall live. Luke says, she was "his only daughter": and Mark calls her his "little daughter": though both he and Luke say, she was about "twelve" years of age, and that with strict propriety, according to the Jewish canons, which (w) say; that

"a daughter, from the day of her birth until she is twelve years complete, is called "a little one" and when she is twelve years of age, and one day and upwards, she is called "a young woman".''

Her case seems to be differently represented; Mark says, she was "at the point of death", or "in the last extremity"; and Luke, that she "lay dying": but Matthew here says, that she was "even now dead", which may be easily reconciled: for not to observe, that signifies "near", and the phrase may be rendered, "she is near dead", or just expiring, the case was this; when Jairus left his house, his daughter was in the agony of death, just ready to give up the ghost; so, that he concluded, by the time he was with Jesus, she had made her exit; as it appears she had, by a messenger, who brought the account of her death, before they could get to the house. The ruler's address to Christ on this occasion, is a very considerable, though not so great an instance of faith as some others; that he, who was a ruler of a synagogue, should apply to Christ, which sort of men were generally most averse to him; that he should fall down and worship him, if not as God, since as yet he might be ignorant of his deity, yet behaved with the profoundest respect to him, as a great man, and a prophet; that he should come to him when his child was past all hope of recovery; yea, when he had reason to believe she was actually dead, as she was; that even then, he should believe in hope against hope; he affirms, that he really believed, that if Christ would but come to his house, and lay his hand upon her, an action often used in grave and serious matters, as in blessing persons, in prayer, and in healing diseases, she would certainly be restored to life again.

(q) Vid. Rhenfurd. de decem otiosis dissert. 2. c. 7. (r) T. Bab. Gittin, fol. 60. 1. (s) Jarchi & Bartenora in Misn. Yoma, c. 7. sect. 1. & Sota, c. 7. sect. 7. (t) Misn. Sota, c. 7. sect. 7. & Bartenora in ib. (u) Vid. Rhenfurd, dissert. 1. p. 81, etc. (w) Maimon. Hilchot lshot, c. 2. sect. 1. & Bartenora in Misn. Nidda, c. 5. sect. 6.

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

17 Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.

Ver. 17. Neither do men put new wine] In the year of grace 340 arose certain heretics called Ascitae or Utricularii, bottle bearers, because they bare a bottle on their backs, affirming that they were no true Christians that did not so; and alleging this text for themselves, as if they were the only new bottles filled with new wine. So those districtissimi monachi, Puritan monks (as one translateth it), who made themselves wooden crosses, and carried them on their backs, continually pleaded Mat 16:24; to make for them. This was, as Mr Tyndale saith in another case, to think to quench their thirst by sucking the ale bowl.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

New wine into old bottles.[3] These vessels were made of skins, or were leather bottles, in which wine used to be carried and kept. (Witham) --- They were made of goat-skins prepared and sewed together, as is common in Spain and other southern countries to this day. (Haydock) --- they were to wait till they were renewed by the Holy Ghost, before they could enter with advantage on the hard ways of penance. (Bible de Vence)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

In uteres, Greek: eis askous, uteres ex corio.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

17. New wine — Which has yet to ferment. Old bottles — These bottles or flasks were made of leather skins. When old and rigid, they were liable to burst from the fermentation of the newly made wine. As here again the new wine is the symbol of the new dispensation of joy, and the old bottles are the symbol of the old dispensation of shadows; so the truth is again illustrated that new Christianity, with its living spirit, cannot afford to remain enveloped in the old skin of ascetic Judaism. And this is the answer to the disciples of John, who wonder at the new fashion of Christ’s disciples, who do not disfigure their faces, according to the old custom with much fasting.

Luke (Luk_5:39) adds a sort of apology by our Lord for the prejudices expressed in the query of John’s disciples. “No man also having drunk the old wine straightway desireth the new; for he saith, The old is better.” So it takes a while for the disciple of the old dispensation to accommodate his feelings to the new order of things. His attachments to the institutions so mellowed, like wine, by time, induce him to prefer them from their very antiquity. He saith the old is better. There is, indeed, an excellence about the old, there is something exciting and fermenting about the new; but the old must be worn out and disappear. The new is truly an advance in excellence, and it is a mere customary taste that induces the man to repeat the constant saw “The old is better.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Neither do men put new wine into old bottles; wine-skins (Revised Version); cf. Job_32:19. (For rabbinic comparisons of the Law to wine, cf. Dr. Taylor, "Aboth," 4:29) Else (Mat_6:1, note) the bottles (skins, Revised Version) burst. The stress is on "burst;" the thought is therefore not yet of the bottles, but of the fate of the wine. And the wine runneth out (is spilled, Revised Version; ekceitai), and the bottles (skins, Revised Version) perish. It ruins the vessels in which it is placed (ver. 16, note). But they put new wins into new; fresh (Revised Version); kainouv . The change from neov of the wine to kainov of the skins is maintained in all three accounts, neov suggesting the latest vintage, kainov that the skins are absolutely unimpaired (cf. Trench, "Syn.," Bottles (wine-skins, Revised Version), and both are preserved.

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

New - Fermenting wine will soon burst those bottles, the leather of which is almost worn out. The word properly means vessels made of goats' skins, wherein they formerly put wine, (and do in some countries to this day) to convey it from place to place. Put new wine into new bottles - Give harsh doctrines to such as have strength to receive them.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

17. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles. New wine is unfermented wine. The bottles were not of glass, but of skin, the kind that is still used in Palestine, where nothing changes. Old skin bottles would become tender with age and burst during the fermentation of the wine.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Jesus continues to answer the question that disciples of John had asked.

Neither do people put new wine into old wineskins

Jesus uses another proverb to answer John's disciples. This means the same as the proverb in Matthew 9:16.

Neither do people put

"Neither does anyone pour" or "People never put"

new wine

This refers to wine that has not fermented yet. If grapes are unknown in your area, use the general term for fruit. AT: "grape juice" (See: Translate Unknowns)

old wineskins

This refers to wineskins that have stretched and dried out because they were already used for fermenting wine.

wineskins

"wine bags" or "skin bags." These were bags made out of animal skins.

the wine will be spilled, and the wineskins will be destroyed

This can be stated in active form. AT: "and this will ruin the wineskins and spill the wine" (See: Active or Passive)

the skins will burst

When the new wine ferments and expands, the skins tear open because they can no longer stretch out.

fresh wineskins

"new wineskins" or "new wine bags." This refers to wineskins that no one has used.

both will be preserved

This can be stated in active form. AT: "this will keep safe both the wineskins and the wine" (See: Active or Passive)

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.

17. οἶνον νέον εἰς ἀσκοὺς παλαιούς. The Oriental bottles are skins of sheep or goats. Old bottles would crack and leak. This may be regarded as a further illustration of the doctrine taught in the preceding verse. But it is better to give it an individual application. The new wine is the new law, the freedom of Christianity. The new bottles are those fitted to live under that law. The old wine is Judaism, the old bottles those, who trained in Judaism, cannot receive the new law, who say ‘the old is better’ (or ‘good’), Luk 5:39.

Our Lord’s answer then is threefold, (1) specially as to fasting, (2) as to Christianity in regard to Judaism, (3) as to individuals trained in Judaism.

(1) This is a joyous time, not a season for fasting, which is a sign of sorrow.

(2) Christianity is not a sect of Judaism, or to be judged according to rules of Judaism.

(3) It is not every soul that is capable of receiving the new and spiritual law. The new wine of Christianity requires new vessels to contain it.

εἰ δὲ μήγε, ‘otherwise.’ Literally, ‘unless he acts thus.’ Cp. Epict. Diss. I. 15, οὐκ ἐπαγγέλλεται ἔφη φιλοσοφία τῶν ἐκτός τι περιποιήσειν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ εἰ δὲ μὴ κ.τ.λ., where εἰ δὲ μὴ = nisi ita esset ut ego dico. (Schweighäuser).

οἶνον νέον. ‘New wine,’ i.e. wine of this vintage. ἀσκοὺς καινούς, ‘new skins,’ i.e. that have not been used before; cp. καινὸν μνημεῖον, a sepulchre that had never been used, not one that had been lately hewn out; νέα διαθήκη, a covenant that is quite recent; καινὴ διαθήκη, one that is distinct from the old covenant. See Trench, Synonyms, part 2, § 10.

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.

17.] This parable is not a repetition of the previous one, but a stronger and more exact setting forth of the truth in hand. As is frequently our Lord’s practice in His parables, He advances from the immediate subject to something more spiritual and higher, and takes occasion from answering a cavil, to preach the sublimest truths. The garment was something outward; this wine is poured in, is something inward, the spirit of the system. The former parable respected the outward freedom and simple truthfulness of the New Covenant; this regards its inner spirit, its pervading principle. And admirably does the parable describe the vanity of the attempt to keep the new wine in the ἀσκὸς παλαιός, the old ceremonial man, unrenewed in the spirit of his mind: ῥήγνυνται οἱ ἀσκοί: the new wine is something too living and strong for so weak a moral frame; it shatters the fair outside of ceremonial seeming; and ὁ οἶνος ἐκχεῖται, the spirit is lost, the man is neither a blameless Jew nor a faithful Christian; both are spoiled. And then the result: not merely the damaging, but the utter destruction of the vessel,—οἱ ἀσκοὶ ἀπολοῦνται.

According to some expositors, the new patch and new wine denote the fasting; the old garment and old bottles, the disciples. ὃ δὲ λέγει, τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν· οὔπω γεγόνασιν ἰσχυροὶ οἱ μαθηταί, ἀλλʼ ἔτι πολλῆς δἐονται συγκαταβάσεως· οὔπω διὰ τοῦ πνεύμτος ἀνεκαινίσθησαν. οὕτω δὲ διακειμένοις οὐ χρὴ βάρος ἐπιτιθέναι ἐπιταγμάτων. Chrysostom, Hom. in Matt. xxx. 4, p. 353. This view is stated and defended at some length by Neander, Leben Jesu, p. 346, note; but I own seems to me, as to De Wette, far-fetched. For how can fasting be called ἐπίβλημα ῥάκους ἀγνάφσυ, or how compared to new wine? And Neander himself, when he comes to explain the important addition in Luke (on which see Luk 5:39, and note), is obliged to change the meaning, and understand the new wine of the spirit of the Gospel. It was and is the custom in the East to carry their wine on a journey in leather bottles, generally of goats’ skin, sometimes of asses’ or camels’ skin. (Winer, Realwörterbuch, ‘Schlauch.’)

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(M) 17. Nor do they put new wine into old skins. Otherwise the skins are burst, and the wine is poured out, and the skins are destroyed. But they put new wine into fresh skins, and both are preserved.]—οὐδὲ βάλλουσιν] for Mk.’s καὶ οὐδεὶς βάλλει.—ῥήγνυνται οἱ ἀσκοί] Mk. has ῥήξει ὁ οἶνος τοὺς ἀσκούς.—καὶ ὁ οἶνος ἐκχεῖται καὶ οἱ ἀσκοὶ ἀπολλύνται] Mk. has καὶ ὁ οἶνος ἀπόλλυται καὶ οἱ ἀσκοί. We should expect Mt. to omit the second and redundant ὁ οἶνος. But he retains it, and furnishes it with an appropriate verb.—βάλλουσιν] Mk., in his abrupt manner, has no verb. Mt. inserts to make the Greek smooth, and adds καὶ ἀμφότεροι συντηροῦνται to describe the effect of this better course of action.

The verse carries on the thought of the preceding, but from a new point of view. To graft Christianity on to Judaism would not only increase the rents in the latter, and ultimately destroy its forms and ordinances; it would also be disastrous for Christianity itself, which, confined in the forms of Judaism, would burst them asunder and be dissipated like wine poured on the ground. Forms such as fasting could not hold the wine of the new Christian spirit. The last clause, “and both are preserved,” can only give expression to the thought that if Christianity be allowed to develop independently of Jewish modes, both Christianity and Judaism are preserved. But the thought of the preservation and continuance of Jewish modes of religion is foreign to the context. The clause is doubtless due to the editor, who is thinking rather of completing the literary parallelism than of the meaning underlying the words which he records.

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

Bottles [ασκους] . Rev., rightly, wine - skins, though our word bottle originally carried the true meaning, being a bottle of leather. In Spanish, bota means leather bottle, a boot, and a butt. In Spain wine is still brought to market in pig - skins. In the East, goat - skins are commonly used, with the rough side inward. When old, they break under the fermentation of the wine.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.