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AND “WINESKINS'' OF LUKE 5:36-39 |
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by Doug Ward |
During his earthly ministry, Jesus often reached out to
help people who were excluded or marginalized by the Jewish society of the
time. This aspect of Jesus' activities is given special emphasis in the Gospel
of Luke. It is Luke who records the well-known words of Jesus, ``For the Son of
Man came to seek and to save what was lost'' (Luke
Our Savior's concern for the outcast is evident in his selection of the tax
collector Levi (a.k.a. Matthew) as one of the Twelve, a select group of
disciples (Luke
When Jesus asked Levi to become his disciple, the tax collector did not
hesitate. Giving up his lucrative position, he ``left everything'' (Luke
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Questions about Fellowship and Fasting |
Jesus was the guest of honor at the banquet, which was also
attended by some of Matthew's fellow tax collectors (v. 29). Jesus' presence
there soon became known to some members of the sect of the Pharisees who were
keeping close tabs on his activities. They had come from as far away as
A little background about the beliefs and practices of the Pharisees will
help us understand their concerns. According to current scholarly opinion (see
[3, pp. 117-122]), the Pharisees hoped to see
``In order to help each other achieve this ideal, the Pharisees organized societies, havurot, with the main purpose of enabling all members to maintain their purity and share their meals at a completely kosher table. It is possible that the name Pharisee originated with the emergence of this phenomenon. It means `one who separates himself,' namely from unclean things and persons, which included the majority of the people'' [3, pp. 120-121].
Given the priorities of the Pharisees, it is no wonder that they were surprised at Jesus' behavior. Sharing a meal with someone implied approval of that person. In their eyes, associating with tax collectors and other undesirables was conduct unbefitting a rabbi, let alone the Messiah.
But in his reply to them, Jesus suggested that a more inclusive approach
would better accomplish their overall goal of lifting
``It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance'' (vv. 31-32). 1
Jesus and his disciples also drew criticism for an apparent lack of
attention to the discipline of fasting. While Pharisees and disciples of John
the Baptist fasted as much as twice a week (Luke
He answered his critics by comparing his time on earth to a wedding banquet.
Here he made an implicit claim that the messianic age had arrived-see Matt.
25:1-10 for a similar analogy-and added a prophecy of his coming death.
Feasting and celebration were only to be expected in the presence of
Jesus then told a two-part parable:
``No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, `The old is better.''' (vv. 36-39).
What did Jesus mean by these cryptic statements about garments and patches, wine and wineskins? To gain some insight into the meaning of this perplexing parable, let's look at some of the ways in which it has been interpreted, keeping in mind its context as part of Luke 5-6.
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An Anachronistic |
One fairly common interpretation of Luke 5:36-39 identifies the
old garment and old wineskins with Judaism and the new garment and new wine
with the gospel message. According to this view, Jesus was saying that his
disciples didn't follow the customs of the Pharisees or John the Baptist's
disciples because his new message of the
However, there are serious problems with such a reading of the parable. For one thing, the Pharisees and disciples of John the Baptist actually were innovators, people trying to promote spiritual revival within Judaism. Their customs could hardly be described as ``an old rigid system.'' Second, Jesus said that his disciples would themselves fast after his death (v. 35). Indeed, we have historical evidence of at least some early Christians who observed their own twice-weekly fasts (e.g., Didache 8:1). Third, the first Christians were faithfully observant Jews who saw the gospel as the truest expression of Judaism, not as some new religion. This point is one of Luke's main emphases in the book of Acts (see e.g. Acts 2:46; 3:1; 18:18; 21:20; 22:12; 23:1,6; 24:14-16; 25:8; 26:6-7, 22-25; 28:17).
The reading of Jesus' parable that equates the old garment and old wineskins
with Judaism seeks to justify one of the most unfortunate aspects of Christian
history-the alienation between church and synagogue that gradually occurred
over the first several centuries A.D. This reading implies that the regrettable
severing of Christianity from its Jewish roots was somehow inevitable and even
carried Jesus' seal of approval. But in addition to being unscriptural, such a
view is anachronistic, coming from a vantage point colored by the centuries of
history that have passed since the time of Jesus and the early church. It is a
product of Christian supersessionism, the belief that
the church has displaced
Many modern exegetes have recognized the problems with a supersessionist interpretation of Luke 5:36-39. As a result, a number of explanations of the parable have been given that seek to avoid these problems. In this article, I will examine three such explanations. Two of the three, in my view, have serious problems of their own. Still, I believe that an examination of all three will help us to take a fresh look at the parable and reach a more accurate understanding of its meaning.
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A Modern Messianic Model |
One thought-provoking interpretation of the parable has been given by Messianic Jewish scholar David H. Stern in [4]. Stern identifies the old garment with Judaism and the new one with Christianity, as in some traditional readings, but he draws a decidedly nontraditional lesson from the first part of the parable. Just as the new cloth must be properly treated in order to successfully patch the old garment, he says, so Christianity must be well adapted to its Jewish roots in order to be effective and accomplish its purpose:
``The implication is that one must
shrink the new cloth-adapt Messianic faith to Judaism- for Yeshua
does not imply that there is anything wrong with patching an old coat! The
early Messianic Jews did adapt Messianic faith to Judaism, but the later
In the second part of the parable, Stern identifies the new wine with Christianity and the old wineskins with ``traditional Judaism,'' but he again reaches a nontraditional conclusion about the meaning of the second half of the parable. Stern interprets this part of the parable as a statement that Judaism must be suitably ``renewed'' or ``reconditioned'' in order to successfully absorb the new wine of faith in Yeshua (i.e., Jesus) as the Jewish Messiah. In support of his interpretation, he notes that the Greek word for ``new'' in the phrase translated ``new wineskins'' in v. 38 (``kainos'') has the sense of renewal in quality rather than newness in time. Stern concludes,
``As rendered here the point is that the only vessel which can hold the new wine of Messianic life in a Jewish setting is a properly renewed, restored, reconditioned and refreshed Judaism, such as Messianic Judaism was in the first century and aims to be now'' [4, p. 37].
I find David Stern's explanation of Luke 5:36-39 to be clearly preferable to the supersessionist interpretations mentioned earlier. I also agree with his views on the importance of Christianity and Judaism adjusting to each other. I don't believe, however, that Stern's model gives the original intended meaning of the parable. His explanation of the first part of the parable, especially, seems to rely on hindsight just as much as the antijudaic readings do. His model reflects concerns of modern Messianic Judaism that just wouldn't have occurred to first-century Jews.
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``The Old is Better'' |
Another novel interpretation of Jesus' parable comes from Dr.
Brad H. Young of
``Jesus desired to see new wineskins--that is, a revitalized people--enjoying the best of the old wine. The old wine is best. A spiritual renewal is needed. The new fasts may contribute something toward this goal, but the future of the spiritual renewal will be linked more to Jesus and his disciples as they teach about God's reign than to the new innovative fasts being called for by John the Baptist and the Pharisees'' [5, p. 158].
Young's reading is noteworthy for its attention and sensitivity to the Jewish background of the New Testament. He correctly characterizes the parable as part of an intra-Jewish discussion rather than as the kind of blanket condemnation of Judaism described in some traditional interpretations.
Still, there are problems with Young's explanation of the parable. First, his explanation actually alters the parable by saying that the wineskins must be renewed in order to receive the old wine. In the parable, on the other hand, the wineskins are reconditioned to be able to contain the new wine.
A second weakness of Young's model is its reliance upon Luke 5:39 to support
the idea that the old wine in the parable is better than the new. This verse
does say that one who has tasted old wine will consider it to be better, but it
does not say that the old wine actually is better. In fact, Young's
interpretation assigns a meaning to Luke's version of the parable that couldn't
possibly be shared by the close parallels in Matthew (
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The Parable in Context |
A third interpretation is presented by Daniel Thomas Lancaster
in [1].
(i) The section of scripture
containing the parable (Luke 5:1-6:16) is largely devoted to issues connected
with the disciples of Jesus, including the calling of the Twelve (Luke 5:1-11,
27-28;
(ii) In rabbinic literature, wine is often used as a metaphor for the teachings of Torah, with students of Torah pictured as wine containers.
One example of (ii) is cited by Young in [5]:
``One does not feel the taste of the wine at the beginning, but the longer it grows old in the pitcher, the better it becomes; thus also the words of the Torah: the longer they grow old in the body, the better they become (Soferim 15:6).
A second example comes from Pirkei Avot, the most famous tractate of the Mishnah:
``Rabbi Yose
ben Yehudah of the city of
``Rabbi (Meir) said: `Do not pay
attention to the container but pay attention to that which is in it. There is a
new container full of old wine, and here is an old container which does not
even contain new wine''' (Pirkei Avot
Although these sayings were compiled in written form two hundred years or more after the time of Jesus, similar metaphors were probably familiar in Jesus' day.
Taking into account (i) and (ii),
``No one takes a lesson meant for a new student and tries to teach it to an old (already educated) student. If he does, he will fail to teach the new student, and the lesson meant for the new student will be rejected by the old student.
``No one teaches new Torah-teaching to old (previously educated) students. If he does, the new teaching will be rejected, the student will be lost. No. Instead new Torah-teaching must be taught to new students. And no one after receiving old teaching (previous education) wants the new, for he says, `The old teaching is better''' ([5, p. 19]).
In
``Elisha ben Avuyah said: `He who studies as a child, unto what can he be compared? He can be compared to ink written upon a fresh [new] sheet of paper. But he who studies as an adult, unto what can he be compared? He can be compared to ink written on a smudged [previously used and erased] sheet of paper.'''
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References: |
1. D. Thomas Lancaster, “Yeshua’s New Wine: The Double Parable of Luke 5:33-39 Re-examined, Bikurei Tziyon, Issue 76 (2003), pp. 16-20.
2. Walter L. Liefeld,
Luke, Expositor's Bible Commentary, Zondervan,
3. Oskar Skarsaune, In the
Shadow of the
4. David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament
Commentary, Jewish New Testament Publications,
5. Brad H. Young, Jesus
the Jewish Theologian, Hendrickson Publishers,
1With this
reply, he pointed his listeners toward the best of Pharasaic
teaching. Hillel the Great, a famous Pharisee whose life overlapped with that
of Jesus, is known for saying, ``Be of the disciples
of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving mankind and bringing them
nigh to the Law'' (Pirkei Avot
2R.T. France, The Gospel of Mark,
File translated from
