Mark 2:22

Mark 2:22, in plain English

He continued, 'And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. The wine would burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins would be ruined. New wine needs fresh wineskins.'

Why it's here

New wine expands as it ferments. Old wineskins are rigid and can't stretch anymore. Jesus' point: what He's bringing is alive and growing, and it needs room to expand.

Who's speaking

Jesus offers a second illustration making the same point: the new reality He brings requires new containers.

Where it sits in the story

The good news of Jesus' kingdom is like new wine—alive, expanding, full of energy. It can't be forced into rigid old systems. It needs fresh, flexible forms that can grow along with it.

The scholarly reading

Similarly, new wine (oinon neon) poured into old, brittle wineskins (askous palaious) will burst them, destroying both wine and skins. New wine requires new wineskins (askous kainous).

Language and setting

Fermenting new wine expands; old, inflexible wineskins cannot accommodate the expansion and rupture. The metaphor teaches that the dynamic, expansive kingdom of God requires new structures and forms.

Voice

Jesus extends the new/old incompatibility theme with a second parable about wineskins.

Significance

Both parables deliver the same message: the kingdom Jesus inaugurates is not a reform of Judaism but a new creation that requires new vessels. The old forms, while valuable in their time, cannot contain what God is now doing.

20But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

21No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, and a worse tear will result.

22And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins.”

23One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain as they walked along.

24So the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

Read all of Mark 2 — Jesus forgives sins, eats with outcasts, and lets his disciples skip fasting. The religious leaders can barely keep up with the offenses.