what do the metaphors of the garments and wineskins mean?
A new piece of cloth would not “fit” being sown as a patch on an old garment. Likewise the Pharisees would not even be able to understand Jesus being the Messiah unless and until they accepted that the Messiahs coming would be a new thing. It might seem obvious to us that the coming of the Messiah would be a very new thing, but it was not for those who had no room in their thinking for the Messiah. As Jesus said in John 8:37, the Pharisees had no room in their hearts for His word. The metaphor of the wineskins is very similar, except that it goes even farther. The old cannot contain the new, and a person who will only remain with the old will either burst or not contain the new. Q: In Lk 5:37-39, was “new wine” alcoholic? A: The Hebrew word for wine is yayin. It is used of drunkards in Joel 1:5. The Greek word for wine is oinos. Here is what OBrien in Todays Handbook for Solving Bible Difficulties p.366-369 says: Noah did not drink too much grape juice (Genesis 9:21), Paul did not warn
A new piece of cloth would not “fit” being sown as a patch on an old garment. This is because after it got wet the new cloth would shrink and the old cloth would not. Likewise the Pharisees would not even be able to understand Jesus being the Messiah unless and until they accepted that the Messiahs coming would be a new thing. It might seem obvious to us that the coming of the Messiah would be a very new thing, but it was not for those who had no room in their thinking for the Messiah. As Jesus said in John 8:37, the Pharisees had no room in their hearts for His word. The metaphor of the wineskins is very similar, except that it goes even farther. The old cannot contain the new, and a person who will only remain with the old will either burst or not contain the new. Q: In Lk 5:37-39, was “new wine” alcoholic? A: The Hebrew word for wine is yayin. It is used of drunkards in Joel 1:5. The Greek word for wine is oinos. Here is what OBrien in Todays Handbook for Solving Bible Difficulties
