Luke 5:34

34 Jesus said to them, "You can't make the wedding guests ^[a] fast while the groom is with them, can you?

Luke 5:34 Meaning and Commentary

Luke 5:34

And he said unto them
The disciples of John, or the Scribes and Pharisees:

can ye make the children of the bride chamber fast, while the
bridegroom is with them?
signifying, that he was the bridegroom, and his disciples the children of the bride chamber; and that as it is unreasonable to expect, and morally impossible, that persons, attending the festivals of a nuptial solemnity, should be engaged in severe fastings; so it was not to be thought, that whilst Christ was corporeally present with his disciples, that they should be prevailed upon to live such an austere and mortified life.

Luke 5:34 In-Context

32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

33 Then they said to Him, "John's disciples fast often and say prayers, and those of the Pharisees do the same, but Yours eat and drink."

34 Jesus said to them, "You can't make the wedding guests fast while the groom is with them, can you?

35 But the days will come when the groom will be taken away from them-then they will fast in those days."

36 He also told them a parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, not only will he tear the new, but also the piece from the new garment will not match the old.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or the friends of the groom; lit sons of the bridal chamber