5:38
In this verse, Jesus gave the conclusion to his illustration. In the metaphor, new wine represents the new way of living that Jesus was teaching. The new wineskins represent new traditions, that is, new ways of thinking and acting. Jesus’ new teaching must go along with new ways of thinking and acting.
Instead: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Instead is a conjunction that indicates strong contrast. Verse 5:37 described what people do not do. Verse 5:38 describes what people do and should do. Some ways to translate this conjunction are:
But (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
No (New International Version)
-or-
Rather (God’s Word)
Connect this verse with 5:37 in a natural way in your language.
new wine is poured into new wineskins:
The Berean Standard Bible translates the Greek phrase, which is literally “new wine is to-be-put,” as a passive clause. In some languages, it will be necessary to translate it with an active verb and provide a subject. For example:
⌊people⌋ must pour new wine into new wineskins
-or-
⌊you⌋ have to put new wine into new wineskins
new wine…new wineskins: The two Greek words that the Berean Standard Bible translates as new are not the same. The first one means “new in time” or “young.” It is used with “wine” as a phrase meaning unfermented grape juice. It is the same word that was used in 5:37a and 5:37b.
The second one means “new” in the sense of “unused, fresh.” Several English versions translate this word as “fresh.” For example:
new wine is to be poured into fresh skins (God’s Word)
General Comment on 5:37–38
You may want to add a footnote to explain some of the meaning of Jesus’ illustration about the wineskins. Some sample footnotes are:
Jesus implied that putting unfermented wine into old (dry) goatskin containers was like mixing his teaching with the old traditions. When the wine ferments, the containers will not be able to expand, and so they will burst. In the same way, his new teaching does not go with old traditions.
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