New Testament · Gospel

Luke 5:36

Fishers of Men

He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will tear the new garment as well, and the patch from the new will not match the old. Luke 5:36 · Berean Standard Bible

What It Means

Luke 5:36, in plain English

Jesus told a parable: 'Nobody cuts a piece from a new garment to patch an old one. You'd ruin the new and the patch wouldn't match the old anyway.'

Why it's here

Jesus was explaining that what He brought couldn't be squeezed into the old religious system. It was something entirely new.

Who's speaking

Jesus uses everyday imagery to explain a profound spiritual truth.

Where it sits in the story

What Jesus offers isn't a fix for the old way of doing things — it's something completely new. You can't patch your old life with Jesus and expect it to work. He invites you into something fresh and whole.

A Closer Look

The scholarly reading

The parable of the patch illustrates the incompatibility of Jesus' new covenant reality with the old religious framework. Tearing a new garment to patch an old one destroys the new without repairing the old (ou symphōnēsei, "will not match").

Language and setting

This parable addresses the broader question of Jesus' relationship to existing religious structures. His message cannot be reduced to a reform of Pharisaism.

Voice

Jesus teaches through parabolic imagery about the nature of His ministry.

Significance

Jesus explains that His movement is not a patch on Judaism but an entirely new garment. Attempting to merge the two damages both. The kingdom He brings requires new structures to contain it.

In context

Luke 5:34–38

34Jesus replied, “Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while He is with them?

35But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.”

36He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will tear the new garment as well, and the patch from the new will not match the old.

37And 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.

38Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins.

Read all of Luke 5 — Peter hauls in a miraculous catch, a leper is cleansed, and a paralyzed man is lowered through a roof. Jesus is rewriting the rules of who belongs.

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