Matthew 9:14-17

A Question About Fasting

14 Then ¹the disciples of John came to him, saying, ²"Why do we and ³the Pharisees fast,^[a] but your disciples do not fast?"

15 And Jesus said to them, ⁴"Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? ⁵The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and ⁶then they will fast.

16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made.

17 Neither is new wine put into old ⁷wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved."

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. [Matthew 15:2]
• 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 add much, or often