No man putteth, etc. Two illustrations follow to show the folly of patching up, or reforming, an old, worn out religion like Judaism. Cloth that has been shrunk. In shrinking it would tear the old cloth around it, and make a worse rent than before. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles.
New wine is unfermented wine.
The bottles were not of glass, but of skin, the kind that is still used in Palestine, where nothing changes. Old skin bottles would become tender with age and burst during the fermentation of the wine. There came a certain ruler. One of the elders and presiding officers, who convened the assembly, preserved order, invited readers and speakers. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all give this account.