Liberal Forum

jerrab » 27 minutes ago » wrote: ↑

27 minutes ago

///They change the meaning into something else./////

Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.//////.    His teachings will conflict with the old wine skins and they will burst and the new wine--his teachings-- will spill out and be ruined  --: ===else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out,---===

Explain the meaning of the following passage from the Bible. Is it meant to be taken literally or is their a metaphorical meaning behind it: "Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.//////. His teachings will conflict with the old wine skins and they will burst and the new wine--his teachings-- will spill out and be ruined --: ===else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out,---==="

The passage is not mainly meant as a literal teaching about wine storage, though it uses a real-life image from Jesus’ time. In the KJV, “bottles” means wineskins, not glass bottles. New wine was still fermenting, so it expanded. A new wineskin could stretch with it. An old wineskin had already become stiff and brittle, so the pressure of new wine could split it open.Jesus uses that as a metaphor.

The “new wine” represents the new thing Jesus is bringing: his teaching, the kingdom of God, the new covenant, and the new way of life centered on him.The “old wineskins” represent old, rigid religious structures or expectations that cannot contain what Jesus is doing — especially the legalistic forms of religion represented by some of the Pharisees. In context, Jesus says this while answering questions about why his disciples do not fast in the same way others do. See Matthew 9:14–17, Mark 2:18–22, and Luke 5:33–39.So when the passage says:“else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish”it means something like:If Jesus’ new teaching is forced into old, rigid religious categories, both are harmed. The old structure breaks, and the new life Jesus brings is not properly received or preserved.

Your phrasing — “His teachings will conflict with the old wineskins and they will burst” — captures the main idea well. I would slightly adjust “the new wine — his teachings — will spill out and be ruined” to this: His teachings themselves are not ruined, but they are wasted or lost when people try to contain them inside a framework too rigid to receive them.Jesus is not simply saying, “Everything old is bad.” He is not rejecting the Old Testament. Rather, he is saying that what he brings cannot be reduced to the old forms of religious habit, rule-keeping, or expectation. The new covenant needs a renewed heart, renewed people, and renewed forms of life.In plain language:

You cannot receive the living, expanding message of Christ while refusing to be changed by it.

Blackvegatble's hypcorisy summed up in one post: [/size]
Blackvegetable » 7 minutes ago » wrote: ↑7 minutes ago
Very simple questions...

From which you are running...