The Biblical Wineskin
Parable Refutes Jubilee 99 Works
Matthew records other events which are
directly related to the parable in Luke. Therefore, we will follow
his account. Two out-of-context verses are unnaturally taken out and
reincarnated or "fermented" into the code word for a new "wine in new
wineskins" gospel, worship and kingdom. This violence to the words of
Jesus Christ is, in fact, one of the hidden messages of this parable
as it is illustrated by raising the dead girl (church etc).
Jesus began (Mat 9:15) by denouncing the
Pharisees and others for fasting --usually for show --when there was
no natural reason for fasting. Fasting is not an act of worship: it
is something you do not do when sad or busy praying. Jesus then explained by
two examples.
First, Jesus spoke the parable of raw, new cloth which is
unnaturally attached to old cloth. In the Luke account one might tear
up a perfectly good garment (church) in order to patch up an ancient
one. When the patch shrinks it "takes from the garment." Therefore,
new "denomination forming" usually destroys itself as well as the old
which it had to rend to get material for the new.
Second,
Jesus spoke the parable of new wine (juice) which is "unshrunk" or
unconcentrated and then placed in an old bottle or wineskin. The
juice "taketh old yeast from" the old bottle, begins to ferment and
blows up the skin and spills the now-fermenting juice.
Matthew then ties the ruler and the musicians
(just minstrels) directly to this "wineskin" parable. Jesus does not
need the old wineskin music which was leaven adopted by the Jews from
the nations. He did this by ejecting the musical minstrels who were
reenacting an "old wineskin" symbol of resurrection and fertility
through the use of unnatural music. The music crowd did not leave
without mocking and murmuring which again has a musical connection.
Implicitly Jesus taught that if we are popular
and applauded or affirmed or followed like a pied piper we can be
fairly sure that we are not one of those "despised and rejected by
men."
As the Pharisees practiced a wine-and
music-induced worship to the exclusion of the Word, Jeremiah spoke of
music as the unnatural and feminine art used by those who could not
repent --
"This is what the LORD Almighty
says: "Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the
most skillful of them. Jer 9:17 This artificial emotion induced by music was
as old as Babylon and was known by Jeremiah who said:
Let them come quickly and wail
over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our
eyelids. Jer 9:18 If you cannot get the worship to bubble, and
the audience returns Sunday evening then send for the wailing or
"jubilating celebrative" women minstrels. The Bible clearly warns
against a wineskin and musical worship team:
"those who charge Jesus with
manufacturing intoxicants are "eager to mar, if by any means they
could, the image of a perfect Holiness, which offends and rebukes
them." (Lenski quoting Trench)
"This is one of the most misunderstood, and
misrepresented passages in the whole of the Gospels...The
misunderstanding has arisen from imposing upon the ancient Greek
text, and ancient Jewish habits of food and drink, and relying
entirely upon the modern and Northern European conception, that the
word 'wine' always means intoxicating liquor." Quoted by J. L.
Kachelman, Jr. (unpublished paper)
"The Jews do not, in their feasts
for sacred purposes, including the marriage feast, ever use any kind
of fermented drinks..." (Dr. S. M. Issacs, a Jewish rabbi of the last
century, quoted by Patton, p. 83).
Before looking at "the rest of the story" from
which the proof-texts are lifted, it is important to understand that
there are many ancient "paradigms" circulating out there. These are
identical to many ancient formulas for getting a "fizz" out of
worship which Christ never put in it.
The New Unshrunk Patch on an Old
Garment How can we substitute fermenting wine for the
Bible as the Word of God which is always compared to food and water?
The pattern is simply taken without authority right out of the mouth
of Jesus. This New Wineskins pattern for the gospel and the kingdom
is really refuted with a parallel statement about patching clothes.
For instance, Moses warned that God knew what
He was saying and therefore Israel must not "veer off" either to the
right or left. After they fell into their "wineskin" and music
worship of Apis, Moses said --
Now what I am commanding you today
is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. Deu 30:11
He denied that they had to ascend to heaven or
cross the sea (ancient Babylonian and Egyptian musical rituals). Nor
must an expert be trained to explain it to the simple -- No, the word is very near you; it
is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. Deu 30:14
Paul quotes this in Romans 10 to the Jews who
could not understand God's word and sought to establish their own. If
the gospel is "beyond your reach" as it has been revealed then
perhaps you are busy building new structures rather than submitting
as a "stone" in the temple or body of Christ which has no seats for
pride.
In another way, Jesus warned against anything
which "Shrinks" the gospel or "expands" the gospel. Of the shrinking,
the NIV says -- "No one sews a patch of unshrunk
cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the
garment, making the tear worse. Mat 9:16 The KJV makes the "cloth" and the "wine" hang
together. It notes that the new cloth just fills the patch as
the wine just fills the bottle. When it shrinks it "taketh from the
garment" as the wine takes yeast from the bottle. That is, the patch
"implodes" the garment while the "wine" explodes the bottle. New
"leaven" does this.
The "Unshrunk" Juice or New Wine in a
New Wineskin If you put "unshrunk" or un-fumigated juice
into an old skin, it will begin to ferment because of the old leaven
in the wineskin. The juice "taketh leaven away from the skin" and
begins to ferment. It will be spoiled and the skin will explode. The
juice spoils itself and the skin by fermenting and it is lost and the
skin is useless. The object was to put pure juice in a pure skin and
it would keep all year.
By analogy, by trying to add the Canaanite
influence of wine and music to the Old Covenant the church is
paganized and the Old Covenant loses its value. That primary teaching
value was that wine, women and song are the three ingredients of
paganism.
The KJV uses the word "bottles" but the new
"wineskin" gets its magical code word from the NIV. Of the wineskins
Jesus said --
Neither do men pour new wine
(pure) into old wineskins (containing yeast). If they do, the skins
will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.
No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved." Mat
9:17
Jesus knew that if you put fermenting wine in
a new, sealed skin it will burst. He knew that if you use an old,
sealed skin it will burst. Therefore, Jesus was saying that the skin
was sealed. If we were to use this as a model of the gospel we would
conclude that the juice was pure when it went into a
ceremonially-pure "vessel of clay" and we dare not disturb it or we
will add leaven.
The idea of preserving the fresh fruit of the
vine was symbolic of Christ putting the juice into a sterilized
container which no human has the right to "take out and inspect" or
"open up to denominationalism" or break
down the walls of the skin. To
preserve the juice is to obey the once-for-all delivered Words of
Christ which He said "are spirit and life" (Jn 6:63).
New Wine in a New Wineskin to Preserve -
Not Ferment To Preserve is: Suntereo (g4933) soon-tay-reh'-o; from 4862 and 5083; to keep
closely together, i.e. (by impl.) to conserve (from ruin);
ment. to remember (and
obey): - keep, observe,
preserve.
By putting new, fumigated or boiled wine
(complete and sanctified gospel) into a new, sealed skin Jesus knew
that the goal was to keep the wine (gospel) from fermenting.
Our moms washed the new fabric by boiling it
in lye water. It shrank and did not pull away from the old garment.
In the same way "moms," then and now, boiled the juice to kill the
yeasts and concentrate the sugar content so that it was preserved and
did not ferment. Can't we see this lady even now as she "rewove" old
or new cloth while she shrunk the juice to
preserve it?
"Superior honey comes from fresh comb, and
from young shoots; the red honey is inferior, and owes its
inferiority to the comb in which it is deposited, just as wine is apt
to be spoiled by its cask; consequently, one should have it looked to
and dried. Aristotle History of
Animals 626b.1 The Bible, history and common sense are
agreed. The best wine was "shrunken" wine which was aged to oxidize
the impurities and even reduce remaining alcohol --
The Lacedaemonians (Spartans) used
to boil their wines upon the fire until the fifth part was consumed;
then after four years were expired began to drink them." (Grecian
Archaeology, Vol. 2, Pg 364, Potter)
The failure to grasp the Bibles teaching of
Jesus about the wineskin may be a sign that the church is already in
a deep sleep. In fact, many have heard the sermons and already
believe that better wine is more intoxicating wine. This, in turn,
fuels a lot of "worship improvement" discussions. Campbell (and Paul)
note that the dead symbols have the power to bypass the rational part
of the brain and cause even intelligent people to fall into a virtual
ecstasy over the "wisdom" of the person who flashes the dead symbol.
This happens until the
brain kicks in!
"The ancients filtered their wines repeatedly before they could have fermented, and thus the
(leaven) which nourish the strength of the wine being taken away, they
rendered the wine itself more liquid, weaker, lighter, and
more PLEASANT to drink." (Delphian commentary on Horace, Book 1, Ode 17).
The ancient goal was to prevent fermentation
because this would surely lead to the wine spoiling in most cases.
If, however, the wine in the sealed skin began to ferment (bubble
with excitement) they took it out and fumigated it with sulfur
or by boiling to utterly destroy the elements which created the
wine-destroying excitement. If our churches as "wineskins" are in
danger from a "fermenting gospel" then perhaps we need to imitate
these wise people and "fumigate" the gospel and remove the leaven.
By taking the "wine" out of the skin Jesus
provided and "breaking down the walls" to outside leaven, it is easy
to see why musical worship teams and other compromises are made. No
one wants to compromise their principles in order to fellowship
churches of Christ. However, weak and immature members of the
churches of Christ always have to accommodate to other groups. This
is the God-explained result of breaking
down the walls.
By putting the new wine in the ceremonially
pure jars at Cana Jesus could produce something which a new bride
could consume without harming her new child. Later, it is noted that
the new "wine" which Jesus brought as He fulfilled Passover would be
uncontaminated by leaven: no leaven, no alcohol. Lenski notes that it
would remain pure and unchanging --
"Sour old wine is an abomination,
praise it as a man will; the sweet new wine of Jesus remains sweet
forever, it is changeless in its purity and excellence, beyond the
praise of even those who realize this" (Lenski, Commentary on Luke,
p. 320).
Almost by definition, wine could not be sweet and
still fermenting without eventually losing its sweetness. However,
"fermenting" worship always goes down smoothly. It gets them back,
applauds the effort and gets the new temple built. But in the end, it
"floats like a butterfly and stings
like a bee."
The juice was pure when it went into the jars.
The ancients watched their wine and when it began to ferment
they did not look for a bigger
skin. They took the wine out, boiled
or fumigated it to stop the "bubbling" and and fumigated the old. The
fermentation would destroy a primary food crop as a giddy, effete
worship necessarily replaces the "ensnared" Word which we couldn't
understand anyway?
No sealed wineskin can contain
fermenting wine Just ask Elihu who proved that spirit fills
the human skin rather than the wineskin -- For I am full of words, and the
spirit
within me compels me; Job 32:18 inside I am like
bottled-up wine, like new wineskins ready to burst. Job 32:19 I must speak and find relief; I
must open my lips and reply. Job 32:20 The spirit God put into people was not a
little person. Rather, the spirit--as the New Testament confirms--was
the mental disposition of
God delivered in words which "are
spirit and life" (Jn 6:63).
Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will
pour out my spirit on
you; I will make my words known to
you. Pr.1:23 That you turn your spirit against God,
And let such words go out of your
mouth? Job15:13 To whom have you uttered words? And whose
spirit
came from you? Job 26:4 For I am full of
words; The spirit within me compels
me. Job 32:18 Those who find their gospel beginning to
"bubble"
should know that foreign
"leaven" has crept in. They will
never
find a wineskin big enough for such a gospel. If they leave it
"unsealed" so that all kinds of "yeasts" (doctrines) can come in its
sweetness will turn to wine, then
vinegar
and then rot.
The new, and exciting, bubbly
worship service will grow old, there will be less and less Biblical
preaching and more and more little morally plays and effeminate
dances. As in Amos 8, the people will travel over land and sea --
from this new group to that new group, from California to Nashville
-- and they will try to find the word but because they want it
bubbly, they will never find it. In the end, they will hunger and
thirst for the Word, perhaps in a "set on seven hills."
Kenneth Sublett
