Mark 2:18-22

Contemporary English Version

People Ask about Going without Eating

(Matthew 9.14-17; Luke 5.33-39)

¹⁸The followers of John the Baptist and the Pharisees often went without eating.^[a] Some people came and asked Jesus, “Why do the followers of John and those of the Pharisees often go without eating, while your disciples never do?”

¹⁹Jesus answered:

The friends of a bridegroom don't go without eating while he is still with them. ²⁰But the time will come when he will be taken from them. Then they will go without eating.

²¹No one patches old clothes by sewing on a piece of new cloth. The new piece would shrink and tear a bigger hole.

²²No one pours new wine into old wineskins. The wine would swell and burst the old skins.^[b] Then the wine would be lost, and the skins would be ruined. New wine must be put into new wineskins.

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Footnotes

2.18 without eating: The Jewish people sometimes went without eating (also called “fasting”) to show their love for God or to show sorrow for their sins.
2.22 swell and burst the old skins: While the juice from grapes was becoming wine, it would swell and stretch the skins in which it had been stored. If the skins were old and stiff, they would burst.