The Fallible Study Bible

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Mark2:21–22

The Patches and the Wineskins

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Mark 2:21–22 — The Patches and the Wineskins. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

21

No 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.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Oudeis epiraptei epiblēma agnaphou rhakous epi palaion himation ei de mē to plērōma airei to kainon tou palaiou ap’ autou kai cheiron schisma ginetai

Word by word24 · parsed
ΟὐδεὶςOudeisNo oneG3762
√ οὐδείς — not even one (man, woman or thing), iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
oudeis: not even one The parable opens by appeal to universal practice, not to a command. Nobody does this; the hearer is expected to agree before he sees where the agreement leads.
ἐπιράπτειepirapteisewsG1976
√ ἐπιῤῥάπτω — to stitch upon, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
epirraptō: to stitch upon A compound of epi (upon) plus the verb to sew, so the force is stitching onto a surface rather than mending into a weave. The patch is laid over an existing thing and fastened to it, which is exactly the relation Gill assigns to the traditions of the elders set over the commands of God.
ἐπίβλημαepiblēmaa patchG1915
√ ἐπίβλημα — a patchNounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἀγνάφουagnaphouof unshrunkG46
√ ἄγναφος — properly, unfulled, iAdjectiveGenitive Neuter Singular
agnaphos: unfulled, undressed The fuller's work shrank and thickened new-woven cloth. Untreated cloth still holds all its contraction in reserve, so it will move when the garment cannot. Pulpit states the mechanism plainly: its strength or fullness takes away from the old garment to which it is sewn. The flaw is not that the patch is bad but that it is young.
ῥάκουςrhakousclothG4470
√ ῥάκος — a "rag," iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
rhakos: a rag Strong's gives it as "a rag," and the Verifier finds it in only 2 verses of the New Testament, the rarest lexeme among the bases computed for this unit. That rarity does double duty. It carries the sense (what is sewn on is a torn-off scrap, not a bolt of fabric) and it carries the evidence: a word this scarce shared with Matthew 9:16 is what makes the synoptic relation a verbal one rather than a family resemblance. Note the genitive chain, a patch of unfulled rag: the rag is the material out of which the patch is cut, so the hearer is looking at something both new and worthless.
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
παλαιόνpalaionan oldG3820
√ παλαιός — antique, iAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
palaios: antique, old The adjective governs the whole unit: it returns in v. 21 for the garment and again twice in v. 22 for the skins. The Verifier finds it in 15 verses, among them Ephesians 4:22, Colossians 3:9 and 1 Corinthians 5:7, where Paul uses the same word for the old man and the old leaven. Mark's Jesus is using a word the apostolic writers will later use for an entire superseded order.
ἱμάτιονhimationgarmentG2440
√ ἱμάτιον — a dress (inner or outer)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
εἰeiIf he doesG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
The protasis ei de mē ("but if not") is elliptical: if he does not refrain. BSB renders it "If he does."
δὲde. . .G1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
μήmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
πλήρωμαplērōma[new] pieceG4138
√ πλήρωμα — repletion or completion, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
plērōma: fullness, completion The noun names what should have completed the garment. The irony is grammatical before it is theological: plērōma is the subject of airei, so the filler is the agent of the subtraction. Gill applies it to a righteousness of one's own that becomes worse, not purer, for the addition.
αἴρειaireiwill pull awayG142
√ αἴρω — to lift upVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
airō: to lift up, take away Present Indicative Active, and Strong's root sense is to lift up, so the patch does not merely come loose, it raises the old cloth away with itself as it contracts. The tense is the pressure point: BSB's "will pull away" makes this one anticipated mishap, while the Greek present states a standing property of the materials. Pulpit's rendering of the clause, following the Revised Version, keeps the direction of the action clear (that which should fill it up takes from it), which means the subject of the taking is the filler and the object is the garment it was sent to save.
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
καινὸνkainonG2537
√ καινός — newAdjectiveNominative Neuter Singular
kainos: new (in kind) The first of the unit's two words for new. Here the new is the offender; in v. 22 (kainous askous) the same word names the remedy. The parable does not condemn newness, it refuses mixture.
τοῦtoufromG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
παλαιοῦpalaiou[the] oldG3820
√ παλαιός — antique, iAdjectiveGenitive Neuter Singular
ἀπ’ap’G575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
αὐτοῦautouG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Neuter 3rd Person Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
χεῖρονcheirona worseG5501
√ χείρων — from an obsolete equivalent (of uncertain derivation)AdjectiveNominative Neuter SingularComparative
cheirōn: worse Comparative. The outcome is not a failed repair but a measurably deteriorated garment: the attempt costs more than the abstention would have.
σχίσμαschismatearG4978
√ σχίσμα — a split or gap ("schism"), literally or figurativelyNounNominative Neuter Singular
schisma: a split, gap The word that gives English "schism," used elsewhere in the New Testament for division in a body. Mark keeps it at the level of cloth, but the choice of noun is not neutral: the cost of stitching new onto old is described with the vocabulary of rupture.
γίνεταιginetaiwill resultG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
ginomai: to come to be Present middle or passive. The tear is not made by the mender in this clause; it comes to be, as a result no one intended.
22

And 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.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai oudeis ballei neon oinon eis palaious askous ei de mē ho oinos rhēxei tous askous kai ho oinos kai hoi askoi apollytai alla neon oinon eis kainous askous

Word by word29 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οὐδεὶςoudeisno oneG3762
√ οὐδείς — not even one (man, woman or thing), iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
oudeis: not even one The same universal appeal as v. 21, binding the two pictures into one argument.
βάλλειballeipoursG906
√ βάλλω — to throw (in various applications, more or less violent or intense)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ballō: to throw, put Present active. The Verifier finds this lexeme in 107 verses, so it is common and carries no special weight of violence by itself; its force here is contextual, the act that triggers the bursting.
νέονneonnewG3501
√ νέος — "new", iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
neos: new, young New with respect to time, young, and the Verifier finds the lexeme in 21 verses. This is not the word used of the skins at the end of the verse (kainous, G2537), and holding the two apart is the key to the parable. Cambridge takes neos here of unfermented wine, which is what makes the picture work: the wine is not finished, so its youth is not a quality but an active force still working. The Verifier also pairs this lexeme with 1 Corinthians 5:7, where Paul sets a fresh lump against the old leaven, another case where what is young is what is still rising.
οἶνονoinonwineG3631
√ οἶνος — "wine" (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
παλαιούςpalaiousoldG3820
√ παλαιός — antique, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
palaios: old, antique Accusative Masculine Plural. The skins are not merely aged but spent: the same adjective that named the garment in v. 21 now names leather that has already given all its stretch.
ἀσκοὺςaskouswineskinsG779
√ ἀσκός — a leathern (or skin) bag used as a bottleNounAccusative Masculine Plural
askos: a leathern bag used as a bottle Rare (the Verifier finds it in 4 verses). Pulpit insists the older English "bottles" is better rendered wine-skins, and the correction matters: a glass bottle is rigid and either holds or breaks, while a skin is a once-flexible thing whose capacity to yield has been used up. The parable turns on elasticity, not on strength.
εἰeiIf he doesG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
δὲde. . .G1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
μήmē. . .G3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
οἶνοςoinoswineG3631
√ οἶνος — "wine" (literally or figuratively)NounNominative Masculine Singular
ῥήξειrhēxeiwill burstG4486
√ ῥήγνυμι — G2608 (κατάγνυμι) being its intensive (with the preposition in composition), and G2352 (θραύω) a shattering to minute fragmentsVerbFuture Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
rhēgnumi: to break, burst Future active, and rare (7 verses by the Verifier's count). Strong's places it in a family with katagnumi (to break down) and thrauō (to shatter to fragments), so the sense is rupture rather than a leak. Pulpit names the physics: fermentation inside a container that cannot expand.
τοὺςtoustheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
ἀσκούςaskousskinsG779
√ ἀσκός — a leathern (or skin) bag used as a bottleNounAccusative Masculine Plural
καὶkaiand [both]G2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
οἶνοςoinoswineG3631
√ οἶνος — "wine" (literally or figuratively)NounNominative Masculine Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἀσκοίaskoiwineskinsG779
√ ἀσκός — a leathern (or skin) bag used as a bottleNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἀπόλλυταιapollytaiwill be ruinedG622
√ ἀπόλλυμι — to destroy fully (reflexively, to perish, or lose), literally or figurativelyVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
apollymi: to destroy fully, to perish or lose Present Middle or Passive. Strong's gives the full weight: destroyed utterly, or lost. The loss is double, as Pulpit says, both the skins and the wine, and Mark's Greek makes wine and skins a single compound subject of one verb, so the two perish together in one clause.
ἀλλὰallaInsteadG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
alla: but, other things The pivot of the unit. Everything before it is diagnosis of what cannot be done; this one conjunction turns to what is done instead, and the clause it introduces carries no verb.
νέονneonnewG3501
√ νέος — "new", iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
οἶνονoinonwine [is poured]G3631
√ οἶνος — "wine" (literally or figuratively)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
καινούςkainousnewG2537
√ καινός — newAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
kainos: new, fresh (in kind) Not the same word as the wine's neos. The solution is not youth matched to youth but a container of a different kind, unspent. Gill reads these fresh skins as hearts renewed in the Spirit; Cambridge reads them as disciples not yet baptized into the Spirit and therefore still being prepared. Both make the skins something made, not found.
ἀσκοὺςaskouswineskinsG779
√ ἀσκός — a leathern (or skin) bag used as a bottleNounAccusative Masculine Plural

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The patch that takes away — 2:21

⚙ The first picture is domestic and undramatic, and Jesus assumes agreement: Οὐδεὶς, not even one person, does this. What is sewn on is a ῥάκος, a rag, and the Verifier finds that noun in only two verses of the New Testament. The rag is ἄγναφος, which Strong's glosses properly as unfulled. Cambridge translates it literally uncarded or unteazled; Pulpit specifies cloth newly woven, before it has been dressed by the fuller. Both are describing the same fact: the cloth has not yet been shrunk, so all its contraction is still in it. Pulpit then states the mechanism in full, that a patch of new material draws and tears the old to which it is sewn, so that the old and the new do not agree. Mark's grammar carries the irony. The subject of the verb of taking away is πλήρωμα, the fullness, the very thing meant to complete: the filler subtracts. And both verbs are present, αἴρει and γίνεται, so this is not a warning about one future mishap but a statement of how cloth behaves. Gill reads the patch as the traditions of the elders and the garment as a righteousness of law-keeping, and concludes that the old garment became worse for the addition. Henry, commenting on the whole block, keeps to the setting: strict professors are apt to blame all who do not come up to their own views.

ii. The skins that have no give left — 2:22

⚙ The second picture repeats the structure and changes the physics. Pulpit corrects the older English at the outset, insisting that "bottles" is better rendered wine-skins (ἀσκούς, a lexeme the Verifier finds in only four verses), and the correction is the exegesis: a skin is a thing that once yielded and has now spent its yielding. Pulpit supplies the mechanism, fermentation inside a container not strong enough to resist it, and names the result a twofold loss, both the skins and the wine. Mark's Greek has already made that single loss grammatical: wine and skins stand as one compound subject of one verb, ἀπόλλυται, which Strong's renders to destroy fully, to perish or lose. The tenses are worth hearing before they are smoothed. ῥήξει is future, the bursting is coming; ἀπόλλυται is present, the ruin is already the state of the case. Cambridge turns the picture pastorally toward the disciples, saying they were not yet strong and had not yet been baptized into the Spirit, and points to Romans 14 as the practical commentary; Gill turns it soteriologically, making the new wine the blessings of the new covenant and the new skins hearts renewed in the Spirit. Pulpit draws the covenantal conclusion outright, that grafting the living energy of the gospel onto a legal ceremonial about to pass away would be as fatal as either picture.

iii. ἀλλά: the clause with no verb — 2:22b

⚙ Everything to this point is what cannot be done. Then comes one conjunction, ἀλλά, and a clause with no verb in it: young wine into fresh skin-bags. BSB brackets its supply honestly, "[is poured]"; Pulpit supplies an indefinite plural, they put. The verblessness is not a defect. It makes the line sound less like a sentence and more like a rule, and the two adjectives do the work. The wine is νέος, new in time, young, still fermenting; the skins are καινός, new in kind, unused. English flattens both to "new" and loses the asymmetry: the container is not matched to the wine by age but by not having been spent. Gill and Cambridge agree on the implication from opposite directions, Gill that the skins are hearts renewed, Cambridge that the disciples were still being made ready. Neither can be read off Mark's Greek alone, and both are honest applications of it.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Offered as the tool's own fallible reading, to be tested against the text. Both parables are usually heard as warnings about mixing, and they are that. But notice what neither picture says. Neither says the old thing was worthless: the garment is a garment and the skins once held wine. And neither says the new thing is safe. In v. 21 the new is the thing that tears; in v. 22 the young wine is what bursts and is itself lost in the bursting. What Jesus describes is not the triumph of new over old but a shared destruction, and Mark's grammar insists on it by putting wine and skins under one verb, ἀπόλλυται. So the parables are not a license to discard; they are a refusal of the particular arrangement in which something living is asked to be held by something that has no give left. Then the ἀλλά. The answer is not less wine, or older wine, or gentler wine. The answer is a container that has not been spent, and nobody in the picture finds such a container lying about; skins are made. If that is right, the question the passage puts to a reader is not whether he is old or new but whether he is still capable of expanding, and that is not a capacity anyone manufactures in himself. Gill and Cambridge both reach for the Spirit at exactly this point, and the text leaves room for them without compelling them. What the text does compel is this much: the fasting question of v. 18 was never about a calendar. It was about whether the questioners could stretch.

The wine is not the danger and the skin is not the villain; the danger is asking what is still fermenting to be held by what has no give left.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The synoptic triple: the same two parables in Matthew and Luke verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ Mark's two pictures stand in Matthew 9:16-17 and Luke 5:36-38 as well, and the Verifier's computed bases show why this is a real verbal relation and not a family resemblance. With Matthew 9:16 Mark shares ῥάκος (G4470), a lexeme found in only 2 verses of the New Testament, together with πλήρωμα (G4138, 17 verses); with Luke 5:38 he shares ἀσκός (G779, 4 verses) alongside both words for new, καινός and νέος. Rare shared vocabulary in the same argument is what a verbal link looks like. Luke alone adds a further line at 5:39, which the Verifier links by a doubled παλαιός: no one having drunk the old wants the new, because he calls the old good. That is not in Mark, and the difference is worth marking rather than harmonizing away. Barnes and JFB both decline to comment here at all, referring the reader to the parallels, so the earliest move in the commentary tradition on this unit is itself a cross-reference.

Matthew 9:16 · Matthew 9:17 · Luke 5:36 · Luke 5:37 · Luke 5:38 · Luke 5:39

basis: Verifier: shared rare Greek lexemes across Greek texts, G4470 ῥάκος (in 2 vv) and G779 ἀσκός (in 4 vv), plus G4138 πλήρωμα (17 vv), G2537 καινός (36 vv), G3501 νέος (21 vv), G3820 παλαιός (15 vv), G906 βάλλω (107 vv), G3762 οὐδείς (221 vv), G2440 ἱμάτιον (58 vv). All refs are New Testament, so the link is Greek to Greek; the rarity of ῥάκος and ἀσκός within a single shared argument is the recorded basis.

παλαιός: the old garment and the old man structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The adjective παλαιός carries the unit, naming the garment once and the skins twice, and the Verifier finds it in only 15 verses of the New Testament. Several of those are Paul using it for an entire superseded condition: the old man to be put off at Ephesians 4:22 and Colossians 3:9, the old leaven to be purged at 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 where it stands against a fresh (νέος) lump. Matthew 13:52 pairs the same two adjectives positively, of a scribe bringing out of his treasure things new and old, and 1 John 2:7 plays on them again, writing no new commandment but an old one. The shared lexeme is genuine and the Verifier records it; what is not claimed is quotation. Mark's Jesus is talking about cloth and leather, Paul about a self and a lump, John about a commandment. Gill already reads Mark's old garment as the Jews' own righteousness, which is a move in Paul's direction, and Pulpit reads it as the legal ceremonial about to pass away. Those are interpretations built on the motif, not on a citation.

Ephesians 4:22 · Colossians 3:9 · 1 Corinthians 5:7 · 1 Corinthians 5:8 · Matthew 13:52 · 1 John 2:7

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G3820 παλαιός (in 15 vv), in several candidates doubled, with G2537 καινός (36 vv) and G3501 νέος (21 vv). Greek to Greek, so the lexeme link is real, but the domains differ (cloth and skins versus the old self, old leaven, old commandment): a shared motif and vocabulary, no quotation claimed.

ῥήγνυμι: what else bursts in the Gospels structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The verb of the skins' rupture, ῥήγνυμι, is rare: the Verifier finds it in 7 verses. Strong's places it in a family with katagnumi, to break down, and thrauō, to shatter to fragments, so the force is tearing apart rather than leaking. Its other appearances in the Verifier's candidates go in different directions. At Mark 9:18 and Luke 9:42 the same root is used of a spirit convulsing a boy, a body torn by a power inside it. At Galatians 4:27 it is the barren woman told to break forth into joy. At Matthew 7:6 it stands with βάλλω, of swine that turn and tear. The link is lexical and the lexeme is rare, but the senses diverge sharply, so nothing here is a quotation or even a deliberate echo. What the word does establish is the register: in Mark's picture the skins do not merely fail, they are torn open from within by a content that will not be contained.

Mark 9:18 · Luke 9:42 · Galatians 4:27 · Matthew 7:6

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4486 ῥήγνυμι (in 7 vv), with G906 βάλλω (107 vv) at Matthew 7:6. Greek to Greek and genuinely rare, but the applications differ (convulsion, breaking forth into song, rending by animals), so the tier is deliberately held at structural rather than verbal: no quotation and no demonstrable intentional echo.

Old skins and bursting wine in the Hebrew Scriptures structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Mark 2:21-22 quotes no Old Testament text and cites none, and that should be said plainly. The imagery does have Hebrew background, but only background. Job 32:19 has Elihu saying his belly is like new wine needing vent, ready to burst its container; Joshua 9:4 and 9:13 have the Gibeonites carrying old and rent wineskins as the evidence of a long journey, which shows that worn-out skins were a stock item of Israelite experience and could function as a sign. Neither passage is being interpreted or invoked by Jesus here. No shared Strong's number can be computed across the two languages, and the Verifier offered no Hebrew candidate for this unit, so the connection rests entirely on a shared physical picture that any wine-making culture would know. It is offered as background, not as an argument.

Job 32:19 · Joshua 9:4 · Joshua 9:13

basis: Cross-Testament Greek to Hebrew, so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible and no verbal tier is available. Basis is a shared physical image only (new wine bursting its container at Job 32:19; worn out wineskins at Joshua 9:4 and 9:13). The Verifier computed no Hebrew candidates for this unit, and Mark makes no quotation or citation; the link is offered as cultural background at the weakest usable strength.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Bridegroom is the new wine ancient/widely-held

⚙ The parables answer a question about fasting (Henry and JFB both head the whole block 2:18-22 as one discourse on that subject), and the answer Jesus has just given is that the guests do not fast while the bridegroom is with them. So the new wine is not a doctrine in the abstract. It is the presence that has arrived. Gill names it directly, taking the new wine as the love of God, or the blessings of the new covenant, or the Gospel which brings an account of both, and he identifies the old skins with the Scribes and Pharisees, the whole who need no physician. Pulpit reaches the same place by the covenantal route, judging it vain to mingle the spiritual freedom of the gospel with the old ceremonies of the Law, and fatal to try to graft the living energy of the gospel onto a ceremonial now about to pass away. Cambridge, reading the disciples rather than the opponents, has our Lord saying they are not yet strong and have not yet been baptized into the Spirit. On all three readings the content that cannot be contained is Christ himself and what he brings, and the containers are people. This is the ordinary reading of the tradition recorded in this brief.

Mark 2:19 · Mark 2:20

He does not patch; He makes καινός ancient/widely-held

⚙ The unit's last word is καινούς, new in kind, and it is applied to containers, not to content. That is the redemptive-historical shape of the thing: the answer to a spent skin is not a repair but a replacement, and Gill takes exactly this step when he makes the new skins hearts of sinners renewed in the Spirit of their minds, newborn babes. The same adjective carries the apostolic vocabulary of new creation and new covenant, in Paul's new creation at 2 Corinthians 5:17 and in the enthroned Christ's word at Revelation 21:5 that he makes all things new, while Hebrews 8:13 uses the cognate of παλαιός to say the first covenant has been made old and is passing away. Those three references are my own, offered as a reading: the Verifier computed no basis for them in this unit, and Mark makes no such argument. What Mark does supply is the grammar of it. The old skins do not become new. New ones are used.

2 Corinthians 5:17 · Revelation 21:5 · Hebrews 8:13

The loss that the ἀλλά reverses novel

⚙ A reading I offer as my own and mark accordingly. Mark puts wine and skins under a single verb, ἀπόλλυται, to destroy fully, to perish or lose, so in the failed arrangement the wine perishes with its container. Pulpit calls it a twofold loss. Then ἀλλά, and the wine is not lost: it is poured, into skins that can hold it. If the wine is what Gill says it is, the blessings of the new covenant, then the clause with no verb in it is quietly a statement about the security of the gospel. The Word does not fail for lack of a vessel; vessels are provided. Gill himself moves this way at the end, saying of the new skins that in them these things remain and abide, and they themselves are saved with an everlasting salvation. Still, Mark's sentence is about wine and leather, and this application goes beyond what he states. It is offered to be tested, not asserted.

Mark 2:22

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Honesty notes for this unit. (1) Sources. Four of the eight commentators in the brief say almost nothing here. Barnes refers the reader to his notes at Matthew 9:15-17; JFB refer to Luke 5:33-39; Poole's entry for 2:21 is a pointer to itself and his 2:22 entry records no text at all; the Geneva entries reproduce the verse with the heading EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES) and offer no gloss. Substantive comment in this unit therefore comes from Gill, Cambridge, Pulpit and (for the surrounding block only) Henry, and the voices reflect that. Poole and Geneva are not cited because there is nothing of theirs to cite. (2) Old Testament. Mark 2:21-22 contains no Old Testament quotation and no clear citation. The background noted in the threads (Job 32:19, Joshua 9:4, Joshua 9:13) is imagery only, and since the link crosses from Greek to Hebrew no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed for it; nothing here is tiered verbal. (3) Translation. BSB levels several present-tense Greek verbs to the future (αἴρει, γίνεται in v. 21) and levels the genuine tense change in v. 22 (future ῥήξει, present ἀπόλλυται). It also renders both νέος and καινός as "new," hiding the deliberate contrast between new in time and new in kind. BSB is honest about its two supplied phrases, bracketing "[new] piece" for πλήρωμα and "[is poured]" for the verbless final clause. (4) What is uncertain. The referents are not stated by the text. Gill assigns the patch to the traditions of the elders and the old garment to Jewish righteousness; Pulpit assigns the new material to the gospel and the old to the Law's ceremonial; Cambridge applies the skins to the disciples' immaturity rather than to the opponents. These are incompatible in detail, all are defensible, and the machine layer does not adjudicate between them. (5) The Verifier's candidate lines appear to report at most three shared lexemes per reference, so no argument in this synthesis treats the absence of a lexeme from a candidate line as evidence that the word is absent from that verse.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)