Mark 2:18-22

A Question About Fasting

18 Now ¹John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, ²"Why do John's disciples and ³the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"

19 And Jesus said to them, ⁴"Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

20 ⁵The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and ⁶then they will fast in that day.

21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.

22 And no one puts new wine into old ⁷wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins--and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins."^[a]

Cross References

• 1. Matthew 11:2; John 4:12">1John 4:12; Luke 11:1; John 1:35; John 3:25; John 4:1; [Acts 18:25; Acts 19:3]
• 2. [Mark 7:5]
• 3. Luke 18:12
• 4. John 3:29
• 5. See Luke 17:22
• 6. [John 16:20]
• 7. Joshua 9:4

Footnotes

• [a]. Some manuscripts omit But new wine is for fresh wineskins