What Does Matthew 9:16 Mean in the King James?
No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The patch is not merely new; it is still unfulled, so the unfinished cloth pulls the old garment into a larger tear.
THE MEANING
The attempted repair becomes the force that enlarges the damage: unfulled cloth contracts against an old garment, and the rent worsens. The verse speaks now wherever a covering is mistaken for a repair; what is joined must fit the condition of what it touches.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that anything new placed over an old tear must mend it dissolves here: a mismatched patch can pull the wound wider.
THE ROOT
ἄγναφος
agnaphos
GROWS FROM
γναφ
To card or full wool; the prefix marks cloth not yet fulled.
The cloth called “new” is specifically unfulled: its fibers have not yet been worked and settled. As it contracts, the patch pulls against the old garment, so the attempted filling becomes a force that enlarges the tear.
ALSO GROWS
gnaptō: To card or full wool.
γνάπτω
It names the working the patch has not yet undergone.
knapheus: A fuller, one who finishes cloth.
κναφεύς
The fuller’s work clarifies what is missing from the unfulled patch.
πλήρωμα
plērōma
GROWS FROM
πληρ
Full, filled, or complete.
The phrase rendered “to fill it up” is πλήρωμα, a noun of fullness. The paradox is built into the sentence: this fullness is the very thing that takes away from the garment.
ALSO GROWS
plēroō: To fill or complete.
πληρόω
It carries the action behind the fullness that is put into the tear.
plērēs: Full or complete.
πλήρης
It shows the same root describing a state of fullness, while here that fullness damages what it is meant to mend.
σχίσμα
schisma
GROWS FROM
σχιζ
To split or divide.
The “rent” is a σχίσμα, a split; the verse says it becomes worse as the patch pulls on the old cloth. The language makes the attempted repair part of the splitting mechanism.
ALSO GROWS
schizō: To split or tear apart.
σχίζω
The verb names the action that the worsening rent makes visible.
schistos: Split or cleft.
σχιστός
This branch carries the condition of being divided, the result the verse says grows worse.
THE PATTERN
A repair that only covers a breach, without fitting its actual condition, leaves the damage to break through again.
Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.Say unto them which daub it with untempered morter, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it.They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.THE THREAD
Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.The next image repeats the same mismatch: expanding wine in spent skins breaks the container. Together, the images show how forcing something still changing into a structure that cannot stretch turns the attempted joining into rupture.
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