Matthew 9 · a question people ask
What does Jesus mean by the patch and the wineskins (9:16-17)?
Matthew gives Jesus's words without an explanation, and these notes don't add one. John's disciples had asked, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don’t fast?" (9:14). Jesus answered with the bridegroom (9:15), and then with two pictures. "No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch would tear away from the garment, and a worse hole is made" (9:16). "Neither do people put new wine into old wineskins, or else the skins would burst, and the wine be spilled, and the skins ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved." (9:17). Matthew says no more about them, and doesn't say what John's disciples made of the answer. Mark gives the two pictures in his own words (Mark 2:21-22). Luke says, "He also told a parable to them" (Luke 5:36), and gives them in his own words (Luke 5:36-38). These notes set them side by side and don't say what the old garment, the new wine or the wineskins stand for.
The verses
“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, or else the patch shrinks and the new tears away from the old, and a worse hole is made. No one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the skins, and the wine pours out, and the skins will be destroyed; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins.””
“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.”