A Question about Fasting

¹⁴ Then John’s disciples came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?”^(A)

¹⁵ Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests^[a] be sad while the groom is with them? The time^[b] will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. ¹⁶ No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth, because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse. ¹⁷ And no one puts^[c] new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. But they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

A Question about Fasting

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.”^[a]

³⁴ Jesus said to them, “You can’t make the wedding guests^[b] fast while the groom is with them, can you? ³⁵ But the time^[c] will come^(A) 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. ³⁷ And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, it will spill, and the skins will be ruined. ³⁸ But new wine should be put into fresh wineskins.^{[d] 39} And no one, after drinking old wine, wants new, because he says, ‘The old is better.’”^[e]