Mark 2:22

22. The text is much confused, but the reading which is best attested, and best explains variations, is ῥήξει ὁ οἶνος τοὺς�. This text is supported throughout by [342][343] joined in different details by other witnesses. After καινούς many witnesses add βλητέον (from Lk.); [344][345] omit. A few add καὶ� (from Mt.).

[342] Codex Vaticanus. 4th cent., but perhaps a little later than א. In the Vatican Library almost since its foundation by Pope Nicolas V., and one of its greatest treasures. The whole Gospel, ending at Mark 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1889.

[343] Codex Regius. 8th cent. An important witness. At Paris. Contains Mark 1:1 to Mark 10:15; Mark 10:30 to Mark 15:1; Mark 15:20 to Mark 16:20, but the shorter ending is inserted between Mark 16:8 and Mark 16:9, showing that the scribe preferred it to the longer one.

[344] Codex Sinaiticus. 4th cent. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the Monastery of St Katharine on Mount Sinai. Now at St Petersburg. The whole Gospel, ending at Mark 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1911.

[345] Codex Vaticanus. 4th cent., but perhaps a little later than א. In the Vatican Library almost since its foundation by Pope Nicolas V., and one of its greatest treasures. The whole Gospel, ending at Mark 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1889.

22. καὶ οὐδεὶς βάλλει. This second parable (1) puts the lesson that a new system needs a new form more strongly, and (2) carries it further. (1) The ἐπίβλημα is only a piece of the new system, the οἶνος νέος is the whole of it. The new piece is wasted and the old garment is made worse, but the new wine and the old skins perish utterly. (2) In Mt. and Lk. certainly, and probably in Mk, although [403] a b ff i omit, the right method is pointed out. Here again, Mt. and Lk. agree against Mk. They both say that the wine is spilled, while Mk merely says that it perishes as well as the skins; instead of abbreviating Mk (Mark 1:32) they both expand him. Hawkins, Hor. Syn.2 p. 210; Burkitt, Gosp. Hist. p. 42. Βάλλει illustrates the tendency of words to become weaker in meaning; not “throws,” but simply “puts,” as in Mark 7:33; John 13:5 is parallel; cf. Matthew 9:2; John 20:25; John 20:27; James 3:3.

[403] Codex Bezae. 6th cent. Has a Latin translation (d) side by side with the Greek text, and the two do not quite always agree. Presented by Beza to the University Library of Cambridge in 1581. Remarkable for its frequent divergences from other texts. Contains Mark, except Mark 16:15-20, which has been added by a later hand. Photographic facsimile, 1899.

οἶνον νέον. Wine recently made, in which fermentation might still continue. Quemadmodum musto dolia ipsa rumpuntur, et omne quod in imo jacet in summam partem vis caloris ejectat (Seneca, Ep. lxxxiii. 14).

ἀσκοὺς παλαιούς. Old skins, already stretched to the utmost and perhaps patched; of. Psalms 119:83; Job 13:28; and esp. Joshua 9:4-5; Joshua 9:13.

ἀλλὰ οἶνον νέον κ.τ.λ. See crit. note. Another instance of Mk’s rough brevity; see on Mark 1:27. Only in this passage is it worth while to mark in translation the difference between νέος and καινός: But new wine into fresh wine-skins. Vulg. ignores it in all three Gospels; vinum novum in utres novos. Papyri do not observe it.

We have now had four instances of Christ’s parabolic teaching; Fishers of men, the Bridegroom, the Garment and the Patch, the Wine and the Wine-skins (Mark 1:17; Mark 2:19; Mark 2:21-22), all very brief. The last two form a pair, like the Mustard-seed land the Leaven, the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, the Unwise Builder and the Unwise King; cf. Matthew 13:44-46. See Hort, Judaistic Christianity, pp. 22f.