The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew9:16–17

The Patches and the Wineskins

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Matthew 9:16–17 — 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.

16

No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. For the patch will pull away from the garment, and a worse tear will result.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Oudeis epiballei epiblēma agnaphou rhakous epi palaiō himatiō gar to plērōma autou airei apo tou himatiou kai cheiron schisma ginetai

Word by word21 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
δέ: but, and Cambridge: the particle is dropped by the English Version, yet it marks a turn in the argument. Pulpit calls it "slightly adversative." The saying is not a fresh topic but a rebuttal.
ΟὐδεὶςOudeisNo oneG3762
√ οὐδείς — not even one (man, woman or thing), iAdjectiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἐπιβάλλειepiballeisewsG1911
√ ἐπιβάλλω — to throw upon (literal or figurative, transitive or reflexiveVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ἐπιβάλλω: to throw upon A present indicative used gnomically: not "nobody is sewing" but "nobody ever does this." The verb governs its own cognate object (ἐπίβλημα), the Greek equivalent of "patching a patch," which Pulpit notes. Christ argues from what every listener already knows about cloth, so the force is that of common sense, not revelation: the irrationality is theirs.
ἐπίβλημαepiblēmaa patchG1915
√ ἐπίβλημα — a patchNounAccusative Neuter Singular
ἐπίβλημα: a patch The noun of the very verb just used, and the whole diagnosis of the Pharisaic proposal. Ellicott reads the garment as "that which is outward, the life and conversation of the man"; Pulpit, more sharply, makes the patch the teaching itself: "My teaching is intended to be more than a patch."
ἀγνάφουagnaphouof unshrunkG46
√ ἄγναφος — properly, unfulled, iAdjectiveGenitive Neuter Singular
ἄγναφος: unfulled, undressed A rare technical adjective from the fuller's trade: cloth that has not yet been shrunk and dressed, and therefore still at full strength and still ready to contract. Benson gives the reason precisely: such cloth "is consequently much harsher than what has been washed and worn." Barnes adds the mechanism: wet it, and it draws off the garment it was meant to save. The new thing is not blamed for being weak; it is dangerous because it is strong.
ῥάκουςrhakousclothG4470
√ ῥάκος — a "rag," iNounGenitive Neuter Singular
ῥάκος: a rag Not a fabric but a scrap. The word keeps the illustration in the world of the poor, which Ellicott thinks was the world in the room: the guests at Matthew's table came "from the lower and less decently-habited classes," so the picture was in front of their eyes.
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
παλαιῷpalaiōan oldG3820
√ παλαιός — antique, iAdjectiveDative Neuter Singular
παλαιός: antique, worn by age The unit's hinge word, used of the garment here and of the skins in v. 17, and the lexeme the Verifier finds shared with 1 Corinthians 5:7, Ephesians 4:22 and 1 John 2:7. It does not mean bad; it means worn thin by time. Cambridge names the referent flatly: "The old garment is Judaism." Gill dissents, reading it instead of Pharisaic legal righteousness, "full bad enough of itself." The word itself decides neither reading; it only insists the fabric has no strength left to take a strain.
ἱματίῳhimatiōgarmentG2440
√ ἱμάτιον — a dress (inner or outer)NounDative Neuter Singular
γὰρgarForG1063
√ γάρ — properly, assigning a reason (used in argument, explanation or intensificationConjunction
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
πλήρωμαplērōmapatchG4138
√ πλήρωμα — repletion or completion, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
πλήρωμα: fulness, completion Strong's gives the sense as "repletion or completion," and the noun is the one Paul later carries into his largest statements about the fulness of God and of Christ. Here it is spent on a scrap of raw cloth, and the sentence turns it against itself: the fulness lifts away and leaves a larger emptiness. A filling that is not of one piece with what it fills does not complete, it subtracts. ⚙ The English, saying "patch" for both ἐπίβλημα and πλήρωμα, hides the fact that the second clause is naming the scrap by its intended function rather than its shape.
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
αἴρειaireiwill pull awayG142
√ αἴρω — to lift upVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αἴρω: to lift up, take away Present active, and transitive: the patch is the subject and the garment is the victim. Ellicott gives the physics: "on the first strain" the new cloth tears the old beside it. Nothing here is passive or accidental; the new stuff does the tearing.
ἀπὸapofromG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Singular
ἱματίουhimatiougarmentG2440
√ ἱμάτιον — a dress (inner or outer)NounGenitive Neuter Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
χεῖρονcheirona worseG5501
√ χείρων — from an obsolete equivalent (of uncertain derivation)AdjectiveNominative Neuter SingularComparative
χείρων: worse A comparative, and a relatively uncommon one (11 verses). The repair does not merely fail; it leaves the garment in a state worse than the hole it was called to fix. Ellicott: "Better, there comes a worse rent."
σχίσμαschismatearG4978
√ σχίσμα — a split or gap ("schism"), literally or figurativelyNounNominative Neuter Singular
σχίσμα: a split, a gap Rare (8 verses) and the harshest word in the verse. Cambridge draws the line to church history: this is the word "used of the 'schisms' in the Corinthian Church, 1 Corinthians 1:10, and has so passed into ecclesiastical language; it is the English 'schism.'" Read with Cambridge's identification of the garment as Judaism, the worse tear is not a wardrobe accident but a division in the people of God, and the Verifier confirms this lexeme is shared with the Markan parallel.
γίνεταιginetaiwill resultG1096
√ γίνομαι — to cause to be ("gen"-erate), iVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
γίνομαι: to come to be Middle or passive present: the tear is not made by anyone, it happens. The grammar quietly removes the tailor from the blame and puts it on the mismatch.
17

Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will spill, and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Oude ballousin neon oinon eis palaious askous ei de mē¦ge hoi askoi rhēgnyntai kai ho oinos ekcheitai kai hoi askoi apollyntai alla ballousin neon oinon eis kainous askous kai amphoteroi syntērountai

Word by word31 · parsed
ΟὐδὲOudeNeitherG3761
√ οὐδέ — not however, iConjunction
βάλλουσινballousindo [men] pourG906
√ βάλλω — to throw (in various applications, more or less violent or intense)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
βάλλω: to throw, to cast Present active, gnomic again, and again the verb of casting rather than careful handling. The parallel with ἐπιβάλλει in v. 16 is structural: both parables open with a foolish act of putting something where it does not belong.
νέονneonnewG3501
√ νέος — "new", iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
νέος: new in time, young Wine still working. Pulpit, citing Trench, reads νέος as "suggesting the latest vintage," which is why the hazard is fermentation and not merely volume. What is new here is new because it is alive: it has not finished doing what it is doing, and it will break anything that cannot move with it.
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
παλαιός: old, worn by age The same adjective as the garment of v. 16, binding the two parables into one argument. Gill makes the identification explicit and harsh: "by 'old bottles' are meant, the Scribes and Pharisees," natural men "no other than as they were born." Cambridge is gentler and more precise about who is meant: "the old bottles those, who trained in Judaism, cannot receive the new law."
ἀσκοὺςaskouswineskinsG779
√ ἀσκός — a leathern (or skin) bag used as a bottleNounAccusative Masculine Plural
ἀσκός: a skin bag Rare (4 verses). Barnes supplies the material culture in detail, down to Bruce's sixty-gallon ox-skin in Arabia, and lists the Hebrew Scriptures where the same object appears: Joshua 9:4, Job 32:19, Psalm 119:83. Job's "my belly is ready to burst, like new bottles" is the closest Old Testament analogue to this very verse.
εἰeiIf they doG1487
√ εἰ — if, whether, that, etcConjunction
δὲde. . .G1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
μή¦γεmē¦ge. . .G1490
√ εἰ δὲ μή(γε) — but if notParticle
εἰ δὲ μή γε: but if not A compressed idiom, "otherwise." BSB's "If they do" inverts it into a positive to keep the English moving.
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἀσκοίaskoiskinsG779
√ ἀσκός — a leathern (or skin) bag used as a bottleNounNominative Masculine Plural
ῥήγνυνταιrhēgnyntaiwill burstG4486
√ ῥήγνυμι — G2608 (κατάγνυμι) being its intensive (with the preposition in composition), and G2352 (θραύω) a shattering to minute fragmentsVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Plural
ῥήγνυμι: to burst, to rend A rare and forceful verb (7 verses): Strong's places it in the family of words for breaking and shattering to fragments. Pulpit notes where the weight falls: "The stress is on 'burst;' the thought is therefore not yet of the bottles, but of the fate of the wine." The Verifier finds this same rare lexeme in the convulsion accounts (Mark 9:18, Luke 9:42) and in Matthew 7:6, always of violent tearing.
καὶkaiG2532
√ 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
ἐκχεῖταιekcheitaiwill spillG1632
√ ἐκχέω — to pour forthVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
ἐκχέω: to pour forth Present middle or passive: the wine is spilled out. The same root is the New Testament's word for blood and for the Spirit being poured out, which makes the loss in this parable more than an economic one: the living thing is what runs into the ground.
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
ἀσκοὶaskoiwineskinsG779
√ ἀσκός — a leathern (or skin) bag used as a bottleNounNominative Masculine Plural
ἀπόλλυνταιapollyntaiwill be ruinedG622
√ ἀπόλλυμι — to destroy fully (reflexively, to perish, or lose), literally or figurativelyVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Plural
ἀπόλλυμι: to destroy fully, to perish Strong's gives it as "to destroy fully (reflexively, to perish, or lose)," and it is the New Testament's standard verb for perishing, used here of leather. Its weight raises the stakes of the whole image: the mismatch does not merely waste wine, it destroys the vessel too. Both sides lose. This is the exact negative of συντηροῦνται at the end of the verse, and the parable is built to make the reader feel the difference between the two words.
ἀλλὰallaInsteadG235
√ ἀλλά — properly, other things, iConjunction
βάλλουσινballousinthey pourG906
√ βάλλω — to throw (in various applications, more or less violent or intense)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
νέονneonnewG3501
√ νέος — "new", iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Singular
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
καινούςkainousnewG2537
√ καινός — newAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
καινός: new in kind, unused Not merely recent but unimpaired. Pulpit, again with Trench: καινός says "that the skins are absolutely unimpaired." Cambridge draws the conclusion for persons: "The new wine of Christianity requires new vessels to contain it," and Gill spells out what a new vessel is, a sinner "regenerate[d] and renew[ed]" with "new hearts, and new spirits." The word will not let the container be merely repaired; it must be of another sort.
ἀσκοὺςaskouswineskinsG779
√ ἀσκός — a leathern (or skin) bag used as a bottleNounAccusative Masculine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀμφότεροιamphoteroibothG297
√ ἀμφότερος — (in plural) bothAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἀμφότεροι: both The last argument of the parable, and the merciful one. The concern is not only for the wine. Poole states the principle: "to proportion the thing containing to the thing contained."
συντηροῦνταιsyntērountaiare preservedG4933
√ συντηρέω — to keep closely together, iVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Plural
συντηρέω: to keep closely together, preserve A genuinely rare verb: the Verifier finds it in only three verses in the whole New Testament. The other two are Mary keeping all these sayings in her heart (Luke 2:19) and Herod keeping John safe (Mark 6:20). The compound means to guard by holding together, which is exactly the opposite of the four verbs of rupture, spilling and destruction that precede it. The parable does not end with a warning but with a promise of conservation, and it is the fitness between wine and skin, not the strength of either, that does the preserving.

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 particle that turns the argument — 9:16

The unit opens on a word most English Bibles drop. Cambridge flags it: the particle δέ "is omitted in E. V.; it marks a turn in the argument," and Pulpit agrees that the "and" is "slightly adversative." What follows is therefore not a new subject but a counter-move. Pulpit reconstructs the rebuttal in two steps: fasting "treated as an addition, it injures the religion of the day (ver. 16)," and treated as a rule for all comers "regardless of their moral fitness for it, it is itself wasted, and also ruins those who so accept it (ver. 17)." ⚙ That reading is worth keeping in front of us, because it explains why two illustrations are needed rather than one: the first parable protects the old thing from the new, the second protects the new thing from the old.

ii. The rag that never went to the fuller — 9:16

Four witnesses converge on the same technical point and none of them needs the others. Geneva glosses ἄγναφος as "Raw, which was never processed by the fuller." Benson quotes the Greek and explains the consequence: such cloth "is consequently much harsher than what has been washed and worn; and therefore, yielding less than that, will tear away the edges to which it is sewed." Barnes adds moisture to the mechanism: "if wet, it would 'contract' and draw off a part of the garment." Ellicott states the outcome: "on the first strain, tear the cloth near it." ⚙ The shared conclusion is a reversal of the obvious moral. The new material is not rejected for weakness. It is rejected because it is the stronger of the two, and strength sewn onto exhaustion is how things tear.

iii. A fulness that empties, a tear called schism — 9:16

The Greek uses two different nouns where English says "patch" twice. The second is πλήρωμα, fulness, completion, which Pulpit renders "that which should fill it up." ⚙ The sentence then does something deliberate: the fulness lifts away and leaves a hole larger than the one it came to fill. And the resulting damage carries a loaded name. Cambridge: the word for rent "is used of the 'schisms' in the Corinthian Church, 1 Corinthians 1:10, and has so passed into ecclesiastical language; it is the English 'schism.'" ⚙ If Cambridge is also right that "The old garment is Judaism," then the worse tear is not a household accident at all; it is a division running through the people of God. Ellicott turns the same edge on the church itself, listing "Sacramental ordinances or monastic vows, or Puritan formulae, or Quaker conventionalities" engrafted onto unconverted lives, with the contrast "glaring, and the 'rent' made worse." His alternative is the one thing a patch cannot do: to take the old garment "and to transform it, as by a renewing power from within, thread by thread."

iv. Young wine, fresh skins, and the argument that will not be settled — 9:17

Pulpit, citing Trench, preserves the distinction the English loses: νέος of the wine "suggesting the latest vintage," καινός of the skins meaning "that the skins are absolutely unimpaired," and he observes that all three Gospels keep the change. Barnes and Ellicott supply the object itself, hides "retaining, to a great extent, the form of the living animals," which crack as they dry. But the commentators split hard on the referent, and the split is worth keeping open. Benson and Henry read pastorally: our Lord would "kindly proportion their work to their strength," and Henry warns that "duties are to be urged as they are able to bear them." Gill refuses this outright, arguing that the disciples cannot be the old skins since they were "renewed by the Spirit and grace of God," and making the old bottles "the Scribes and Pharisees" instead. Cambridge takes a third road, individual rather than polemical: "the old bottles those, who trained in Judaism, cannot receive the new law." ⚙ We do not adjudicate. Note only that the parable itself names no persons; it names a fitness, and every reading above is an attempt to say who the ill-fitting party is.

v. Both are preserved — 9:17

The verse ends on συντηροῦνται (G4933), a verb that occurs in only three New Testament verses: here, of Mary keeping all these sayings in her heart (Luke 2:19), and of Herod keeping John safe (Mark 6:20). It means to guard by holding together. ⚙ Set against the four preceding verbs (burst, poured out, destroyed, and before them lifted away and torn), the parable's last word reverses the whole direction of the unit. Poole names the principle without sentiment: "to proportion the thing containing to the thing contained." What is preserved is not the wine alone. It is ἀμφότεροι, both.

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

⚙ Reading only what stands in the text, and offering this to be tested: the parables are not about the value of old things or the superiority of new ones. Both parables are about strain. In v. 16 the failure is located in a present-tense verb, αἴρει, the patch lifts away; in v. 17 in four present middle or passive verbs where nobody is the agent. Nothing is condemned. Something simply cannot hold. And the unit is careful to make the new thing the strong one: the rag is refused because it has never been shrunk, the wine is refused because it is still working. Which means the question Christ puts to John's disciples is not "is fasting good?" but "what is it being sewn onto?" ⚙ If that is right, the sharpest application falls where Ellicott aimed it, on the church rather than on Judaism: a gospel handled as an improvement to an existing life is a patch, and the honest outcome of a patch is a worse tear than the one it was meant to close. The text's own alternative is not a better patch. It is καινός, another kind of vessel altogether. ⚙ Held under Sola Scriptura, we also record what this passage does not say: it does not say the old garment is worthless, it does not say who the old skins are, and it does not say the new wine is Christ. The commentators supply all three, and each of those supplements should be weighed on evidence from elsewhere, not read out of these two verses.

The patch is refused not because it is weak, but because it is the stronger of the two, and strength sewn onto exhaustion is how things tear.

⚙

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 rag, the same schism verbal / quotation: confirmed

All three synoptists carry this pair of parables, and the Verifier's strongest candidates are the Markan and Lukan parallels. The shared vocabulary is not generic: Mark 2:21 shares σχίσμα (G4978, only 8 verses in the New Testament) and χείρων (G5501, 11 verses) along with παλαιός; Luke 5:37 and Mark 2:22 share the rare ῥήγνυμι (G4486, 7 verses). Poole confirms the relation from the text side: "Mark hath this same history, almost in the same words, Mark 2:18-22," and Luke "varying little." Luke also adds two lines Matthew lacks, which Poole and Ellicott both record: "the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old," and "No man also having drank old wine, straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better."

Mark 2:21 · Mark 2:22 · Luke 5:36 · Luke 5:37 · Luke 5:38 · Luke 5:39

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G4978 σχίσμα (in 8 vv) and G5501 χείρων (in 11 vv) with Mark 2:21, plus G4486 ῥήγνυμι (in 7 vv) with Mark 2:22 and Luke 5:37, and G3820 παλαιός (in 15 vv) across all. Greek to Greek, three rare lexemes: a verbal link, being parallel transmission of one discourse, not a citation of one text by another.

συντηρέω: the three things that are kept whole verbal / quotation: confirmed

The closing verb of v. 17 is one of the rarest in the unit. συντηροῦνται (G4933, "to keep closely together") stands in only three New Testament verses, and the Verifier returns both of the others as candidates: Mary, who kept all these sayings and pondered them in her heart (Luke 2:19), and Herod, who kept John safe while he feared him (Mark 6:20). ⚙ The three uses agree on a shape: something valuable is held intact against a force that would break or scatter it, and in each case the preserving is done by the container rather than by the thing contained. We note the link as vocabulary, not as allusion; there is no sign that any evangelist is quoting another here.

Luke 2:19 · Mark 6:20

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4933 συντηρέω (in 3 vv), that is, the entire New Testament usage of the word. Greek to Greek, maximally rare, so the verbal link is secure even though no quotation is claimed.

παλαιός and καινός: the apostolic old and new structural / thematic: confirmed

The adjective that carries this unit, παλαιός (G3820), becomes a structural term in the epistles, and the Verifier surfaces three of its habitats: the old leaven purged out that the lump may be new (1 Corinthians 5:7, which also shares G3501 νέος), the putting off of the old man (Ephesians 4:22), and the commandment that is at once old and new (1 John 2:7, sharing G2537 καινός). Matthew 13:52 sets the same pair in the mouth of the householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old. ⚙ The link is a shared frame of thought rather than a citation: Christ's parable supplies the images (garment, vessel) that Paul and John later use for conversion and for the commandment. Note honestly that παλαιός occurs in fifteen verses and καινός in thirty-six, so these are not rare words and no quotation can be argued from them.

1 Corinthians 5:7 · Ephesians 4:22 · 1 John 2:7 · Matthew 13:52

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G3820 παλαιός (in 15 vv), G3501 νέος (in 21 vv) with 1 Corinthians 5:7, G2537 καινός (in 36 vv) with 1 John 2:7 and Matthew 13:52. Real shared vocabulary, but common enough that only a shared motif (old put off, new put on) is claimed, never a quotation.

ῥήγνυμι: the verb of things torn apart verbal / quotation: confirmed

ῥήγνυνται (G4486) is a hard word, and Strong's places it among the verbs of shattering. It appears in only seven verses, and the Verifier returns three of the others: the swine that turn and rend the one who cast pearls before them (Matthew 7:6, which also shares βάλλω, the very verb of "casting" the wine), and the convulsion accounts where a spirit tears the boy (Mark 9:18; Luke 9:42). ⚙ The common element is not theological doctrine but a picture: something is put where it cannot be held, and violence follows. That is precisely the hazard of v. 17, and Pulpit locates the emphasis there: "The stress is on 'burst'."

Matthew 7:6 · Mark 9:18 · Luke 9:42

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G4486 ῥήγνυμι (in 7 vv), rare, plus G906 βάλλω with Matthew 7:6. Greek to Greek verbal link on a rare lexeme; the sense (violent rupture) is consistent across all four, and no citation of one passage by another is claimed.

The wineskins of the Hebrew Scriptures structural / thematic: confirmed

The vessel Christ names was already in the Hebrew Scriptures, and Barnes cites the passages by name: the Gibeonites who took "wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up" (Joshua 9:4); Elihu's "my belly is ready to burst, like new bottles" (Job 32:19); and the psalmist's "I am become like a bottle in the smoke" (Psalm 119:83), which Barnes explains as a skin bottle hung in a smoky tent. Gill independently names Joshua 9:4 and Psalm 119:83, and Pulpit sends the reader to Job 32:19. ⚙ Elihu's line is the closest analogue anywhere in Scripture to Matthew 9:17: new wine and a skin under pressure, used as a figure for speech that cannot be contained.

Joshua 9:4 · Job 32:19 · Psalm 119:83

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so no shared Strong's lexeme is possible and no verbal tier can be claimed. The recorded basis is the explicit citation of these three verses by Barnes (all three), Gill (Joshua 9:4, Psalm 119:83) and Pulpit (Job 32:19), resting on the shared material object and the shared image of a skin under pressure.

Ellicott's Pentecost link: recorded, not verified flagged: verify source

Ellicott reads the new wine as "the new energies and gifts of the Spirit, which, as on the day of Pentecost, were likened to new wine (Acts 2:13)." ⚙ We record the association and flag it. The Verifier's candidate list for this unit returns no shared lexeme with Acts 2:13, so nothing verbal supports the tie; it rests entirely on Ellicott's own association between the mockers' charge at Pentecost and this parable. It is a suggestive reading and it may well be right about the theology, but it is not a link this apparatus can confirm, and it should not be repeated as though the two texts share a word.

Acts 2:13

basis: Asserted by Ellicott only. The Verifier returns no shared Strong's lexeme between Matthew 9:16-17 and Acts 2:13, so the basis is one commentator's association rather than a recorded verbal or citation link. Flagged so the reader can check the Greek of Acts 2:13 directly before relying on it.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The new wine and the Bridegroom who is the reason for it ancient/widely-held

The parables do not float free; they answer a question about fasting that Christ has just answered by calling himself the bridegroom, and Poole records the disciples' own source for the title: "Your master John hath compared me to a bridegroom, John 3:29." Ellicott sees the three images as one chain: "The wedding-feast suggested the idea of the wedding-garment, and of the wine which belonged to its joy." ⚙ On that reading the new wine is not an abstraction called Christianity but the joy of a particular person's presence, which is why fasting is out of place while he is at the table and appropriate when he is taken away. Cambridge states the content: "The new wine is the new law, the freedom of Christianity." Gill states it in terms of grace received: the new wine is "the love and favour of God," and "the Gospel of the grace of God, and the blessings of it," newly manifested rather than newly invented, "for it is an ancient Gospel." ⚙ Both are saying that the newness in this parable is the newness of the covenant Christ brings, and that it cannot be added to what stood before without destroying both.

John 3:29 · Luke 5:38

Not a patched garment but a given one ancient/widely-held

Ellicott makes the redemptive move inside his comment on v. 16: a patch of new cloth is not what the old garment needs, "not so He answers again when He implicitly makes the king who gives the feast the giver also of the garment (Matthew 22:2)." ⚙ That is the point at which the parable stops being prudential advice and becomes gospel. If the outward life is a worn garment and no patch will hold, then the only remedy the New Testament offers is a garment received rather than repaired. Gill arrives by the opposite road at the same place: the works of the old covenant were "filthy rags", while those Christ calls have "the beautiful robe of Christ's righteousness" put on them. Paul's language of putting off the old man (Ephesians 4:22) belongs to the same figure, and the Verifier confirms he uses this unit's own adjective, παλαιός, to do it. ⚙ Ellicott's own preferred image, transformation "thread by thread" from within, sits in some tension with the imputed-robe reading; we record both and adjudicate neither.

Matthew 22:2 · Ephesians 4:22

Both preserved: a machine reading of the last verb novel

⚙ Offered as our own fallible reading, and marked as such. The parable ends with ἀμφότεροι συντηροῦνται, both are kept whole, and the rare verb συντηρέω describes guarding by holding together. Read christologically, the question the parable leaves open is who performs that keeping, since every other verb in v. 17 is agentless. The text does not answer. But the grammar refuses to let the wine preserve itself, and it refuses to let the vessel take credit: what preserves is the fitness between them. ⚙ If Cambridge is right that the new vessels are those "fitted to live under that law," and Gill right that they are sinners whom Christ "renews by his Spirit and grace," then the preserving fitness is itself something Christ makes, and the parable's happy ending is a work of God on the container and not merely a warning about storage. We mark this as novel synthesis: no commentator in this unit's sources draws the argument from συντηρέω, and a reader should test it against the Greek rather than accept it from us.

Luke 2:19 · Mark 6:20

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:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: BSB (CC0) with the Berean interlinear and Strong's numbers; the parse and gloss for every word above come from that apparatus and nothing has been supplied from memory. Commentary is verbatim public domain: Ellicott (1878), Benson (1810s), Henry (1706), Barnes (1834), JFB (1871), Poole (1685), Gill (1746 to 1763), Geneva (1599), Cambridge (1880s), Pulpit (1880s).

What is thin here: the JFB entry for both verses is only a cross-reference to Luke 5:33-39 and carries no comment, so JFB is not quoted. The Geneva entry is chiefly the verse text plus a one-line gloss on "new" and is cited only inside the commentary, not as a standing voice. The Gill and Poole entries were capped in the source brief; we have quoted only from the portions supplied and have not reached past the cap.

What is genuinely uncertain, and left uncertain: the referent of the old garment and the old skins. Cambridge says Judaism and those trained in it; Gill says the Scribes and Pharisees and expressly rejects the reading that the disciples are meant; Benson and Henry read the weak young convert. These are incompatible at the level of reference though compatible at the level of principle, and the Greek decides none of them, since the parable names a fitness and no persons. Our own sola reading takes the strain, not the referent, as the load-bearing element, and that too is fallible.

On the badges: the synoptic, συντηρέω and ῥήγνυμι threads are tiered verbal on rare shared Greek lexemes computed by the Verifier, all Greek to Greek. The παλαιός and καινός thread is deliberately downgraded to structural because those lexemes are too common to carry a quotation claim. The Hebrew Scriptures wineskin thread cannot be verbal at all, being cross-Testament, and rests on named citations by Barnes, Gill and Pulpit. Ellicott's Acts 2:13 tie is flagged because nothing but his own association supports it.

✦ = 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)