Mark 2:18-22

On Fasting

18 And John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and said to him, "{Why} do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"

19 And Jesus said to them, "The {bridegroom's attendants} are not able to fast while the bridegroom is with them, [are they]? As long a time [as] they have the bridegroom with them, they are not able to fast.

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

21 No one sews a patch of unshrunken cloth on an old garment. {Otherwise} the patch pulls away from it--the new from the old--and the tear becomes worse.

22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. {Otherwise} the wine will burst the wineskins and the wine is destroyed and the wineskins [too]. But new wine [is put] into new wineskins."

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "for what" [reason]
• [b]. Literally "the sons of the bridal chamber"
• [c]. The negative construction in Greek anticipates a negative answer here, indicated in the translation by the phrase "[are they]"
• [d]. Literally "but if not"
• [e]. Literally "but if not"