Week 3
Day 1

    Listen:

New cloth, new wineskins

Luke 5:33–39 (also Matthew 9:14–17, Mark 2:18–22)

And they said to Him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees, but Thine eat and drink? And He said to them, Can you make the sons of the wedding fast while the Bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast in those days.

And He also told a parable to them: No one patches an old garment with a patch¹ from a new garment; otherwise both the new rips the old, and the patch from the new does not agree with the old.

And no one pours young wine into old bottles²; otherwise the young wine will tear the bottles and spill out, and the bottles will perish. But young wine is poured into new bottles, and both are preserved.

And no one, having drunk the old, straightway desires young, for he says, The old is more agreeable.

Sons of the wedding with the Bridegroom

AC 9182:10. Those are called “sons of the wedding” who are in the truths of the church, and receive good, for the good which is from the Lord is “the bridegroom.” That “the sons of the wedding do not mourn so long as the bridegroom is with them” denotes that they are in a blessed and happy state, thus with the Lord, when they are in truths conjoined with their good. “They shall fast when the bridegroom is taken away from them” denotes that they are in an unhappy state when good is no longer conjoined with truths. This state is the last state of the church, but the former is its first state.

Old and new garments

AC 9212:7. The Lord used this comparison to describe the truth of the new church and the truth of the old church, for the “garment” denotes truth. To “sew” or “add” one to the other is to destroy both....

AE 195:15. Because a “garment” signifies truth, the Lord compared the truths of the former church, which was a church representative of spiritual things, to a piece of an old garment, and the truths of the new church, which were spiritual truths themselves, to a piece of a new garment. He compared them likewise to bottles of wine, because “wine” in like manner signifies truth, and “bottles” mean the knowledges that contain truth.

Old and young wine and wineskins

AR 316:3. “New wine” is the Divine truth of the New Testament, thus of the new church, and “old wine” is the Divine truth of the Old Testament, thus of the old church.

TCR 784. Just so far as the new heaven, which constitutes the internal of the church with man, increases, so the New Jerusalem, that is, the New Church, descends from it. Consequently, this cannot take place in a moment, but it takes place to the extent that the falsities of the former church are set aside. For where falsities have already been implanted what is new cannot enter until the falsities have been rooted out, and this will take place with the clergy, and so with the laity; for the Lord said, “No one puts young wine into old wineskins....”

AE 376:28. This comparison, like all others in the Word, is from correspondences, “wine” signifying truth, “old wine” the truth of the old or Jewish Church, and “wine-skins” things that contain, “old wine-skins” the statutes and judgments of the Jewish Church, and “new wine-skins” the precepts and commandments of the Lord. That the statutes and judgments of the Jewish Church, which related especially to sacrifices and representative worship, are not in agreement with the truths of the Christian Church is meant by “they do not put young wine into old wine-skins, or else the wineskins burst and the wine is spilled; but they put [young] wine into new wine-skins, and both are preserved together.” That those who have been born and educated in the externals of the Jewish Church cannot be brought immediately into the internals belonging to the Christian Church is signified by “no man having drunk old wine straightway desires new; for he says, “The old is more useful.”

¹ “Patches ... with a patch” is literally “throws upon... what is thrown upon” in the Greek.

² made of animal skin

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