The Life of Jesus in Harmony |
Index
wineskins
A bag for holding and dispensing wine, made from the skin of a goat or another
animal (Job 32:19). In Bible times, wineskins were manufactured from whole
animal hides.
Jesus used the analogy of wineskins to show that the Jewish legalism of the Old
Testament was inflexible and outdated: "No one puts new wine into old wineskins;
or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the
wineskins are ruined" (Mt 9:17; Mk 2:22; Lk 5:37-38).
The "old wineskins" of Judaism and legalism could not contain the dynamic new
faith of Christianity and freedom.