On Fasting

¹⁸ And John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and said to him, “Why^[a] do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁹ And Jesus said to them, “The bridegroom’s attendants^[b] are not able to fast while the bridegroom is with them, are they?^[c] As long a time as they have the bridegroom with them, they are not able to fast. ²⁰ But days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. ²¹ No one sews a patch of unshrunken cloth on an old garment. Otherwise^[d] the patch pulls away from it—the new from the old—and the tear becomes worse. ²² And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise^[e] the wine will burst the wineskins and the wine is destroyed and the wineskins too. But new wine is put into new wineskins.”