Add parallel Print Page Options

34 Jesus answered them, ‘When a man marries a wife, you cannot stop his friends from eating. They will continue to eat while he is with them. 35 But there will be a time when people take that man away from his friends. Then they will decide to fast.’[a]

36 Jesus told them this story: ‘Nobody tears a piece of cloth from a new coat to mend an old coat. If he does that, he will have torn the new coat. Also, the piece of cloth from the new coat will not look the same as the old coat.[b]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 5:35 Jesus is teaching that his disciples will be happy while he is still with them. But he will not always be with them. Then they will be sad and they may choose to fast.
  2. 5:36 Men were teaching people about the rules that God gave to them. In this picture story the old cloth is what these men taught. The new cloth is what Jesus was teaching. God gave his rules to his people by Moses. Those that taught these rules often taught their own ideas instead. This was why Jesus so often spoke against them. He also spoke against what they taught.