Paragraph 2:21

In this paragraph Jesus compared his teaching to new cloth that no one has washed yet. He compared the traditions of the Jews to an old garment. No one uses a piece of new cloth to patch an old cloth. In the same way, people should not simply add his teaching to their old ways of life.

2:21a

No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment: The word No one in the Berean Standard Bible introduces a general statement of something that is true of everyone. In some languages it may be natural to introduce this statement with a general word like “people” or with a pronoun like “you” or “they.” For example:

People do not patch their old clothes with new cloth.
-or-
You do not use a piece of new cloth to patch up an old coat.

patch: A patch is a small piece of cloth that someone sews over a hole or torn area of another cloth.

unshrunk cloth: The phrase unshrunk cloth refers to a piece of cloth that is new and has not been washed. Some types of cloth shrink (that is, get a little smaller) when they are washed for the first time. In some cultures this may be well known and it may be natural to translate this as:

new cloth
-or-
cloth that has not been washed

garment: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as garment means “clothing.” It can refer to any item of clothing a person wore, but sometimes it refers specifically to the outer robe that people wore. In this context, it probably refers generally to any piece of clothing.

2:21b

If he does: In Greek this part of the verse begins with a phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as If he does. It introduces a possibility that someone would do what 2:21a indicated that no one actually ever does. It implies here “If he were to do this (which he will not)….”

Here are some other ways to translate this:

The results of doing that, of course, would be that…
-or-
otherwise… (NET Bible)

the new piece will pull away from the old: This clause refers to how a new piece of cloth shrinks so that it pulls away from the old cloth around it. Jesus used this action as a metaphor. For more details about the meaning of the metaphor, see the note on 2:21.

the new piece: The phrase the new piece refers to the new cloth that has not been shrunk yet.

pull away: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as pull away can also be translated as “separate” or “tear.”

Here are some other ways English versions translate this:

the new patch will shrink and tear off some of the old cloth (Good News Bible)
-or-
the patch will shrink and pull away—the new patch will pull away from the old coat (New Century Version)

2:21c

and a worse tear will result: The phrase and a worse tear will result expresses the result of 2:21a–b. The cloth was already torn, and if a person tried to patch it with new cloth, it would result in a worse tear. In some languages it may be more natural to combine “pull away” in 2:21b and “making the tear worse” in 2:21c. For example, the Contemporary English Version has:

The new piece would shrink and tear a bigger hole.

General Comment on 2:21a–c

In some languages it may be necessary to make explicit some of the meaning of Jesus’ illustration about the cloth. For example:

If my teaching is mixed with the old traditions, it will be like putting a new piece of cloth on an old one. The new piece will shrink and tear the cloth. My teaching will become unusable just like the cloth.

Paragraph 2:22

In this paragraph Jesus gave another illustration to show that his new way of life was different from the old way that the Jewish leaders taught. He compared his teaching to new wine. The traditions were like old animal skins that people sewed together to make containers for storing wine. The Berean Standard Bible calls these containers “wineskins.” If a person put new wine into old wineskins, the skins would burst. Jesus’ new way was too different to fit into the old traditions of the Jewish people.

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