Mark 2:18-22

English Standard Version

A Question About Fasting

¹⁸ Now ^(A)John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, ^(B)“Why do John's disciples and ^(C)the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁹ And Jesus said to them, ^(D)“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. ^20 (E)The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and ^(F)then they will fast in that day. ²¹ No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. ²² And no one puts new wine into old ^(G)wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”^[a]