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Luke 5 · a question people ask

Jesus ends the chapter with "The old is better" (5:39). What does he mean?

In the text

Luke gives the saying and no explanation. "He also told a parable to them" (5:36): a piece from a new garment on an old garment (5:36), new wine in old wineskins (5:37), and "But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved" (5:38). Then: "No man having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’" (5:39). In the WEB's quotation marks, "The old is better" is what the man who has drunk old wine says. The chapter ends there, and these notes don't explain the saying either.

The verses

“He also told a parable to them. “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old garment, or else he will tear the new, and also the piece from the new will not match the old. No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved. No man having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’””
Luke 5:36-39 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Luke 5

Luke 5: At your word

At Jesus's knees, Simon Peter calls himself "a sinful man", and Jesus answers, "Don’t be afraid." The Greek word behind sinful comes back twice before Luke 5 ends: in the question of the scribes and the Pharisees, "Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?", and in Jesus's own "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

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Last reviewed October 1, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions