Matthew 9:16

Matthew 9:16, οὐδεὶς … παλαιῷ. No one putteth a patch of an unfulled, raw piece of cloth (ῥάκος from ῥήγνυμι) on an old garment. τὸ πλήρωμα αὐτοῦ, the filling, the patch which fills; of it, i.e., the old garment, not of the unfulled cloth (Euthy., Grotius, De W., etc.). αἴρει ἀπὸ, taketh from = tears itself away by contraction when wetted, taking a part of the old garment along with it. καὶ … γίνεται, and so a worse rent takes place. This looks in the direction of an apology for John and his disciples (so Weiss) = they and we are in sympathy in the main, but let them not assimilate their practice to ours; better remain as they are; imitation would only spoil a good type of piety. What is to be done with the unfulled cloth is not indicated, but it goes without saying. Let it remain by itself, be fulled, and then turned into a good new garment.