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Παλαιός describes what is old, aged, worn, former, or belonging to an earlier condition. Jesus' garment saying contrasts an old cloth with an unshrunk patch, warning against treating the new reality of His presence as a repair to existing patterns.
Reader summary
Full entry for παλαιός (G3820) · Open the biblical lexicon
Παλαιός describes what is old, aged, worn, former, or belonging to an earlier condition. Jesus' garment saying contrasts an old cloth with an unshrunk patch, warning against treating the new reality of His presence as a repair to existing patterns.
The BSB source-word alignment has 19 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include old (11), an old (4), [the] old (2), . . . (1), old [wine ] (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 9:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (5), Mark (3), Matthew (3), 1 Corinthians (2).
Παλαιός describes what is old, aged, worn, former, or belonging to an earlier condition. Jesus' garment saying contrasts an old cloth with an unshrunk patch, warning against treating the new reality of His presence as a repair to existing patterns. Paul says the old self was crucified with Christ so slavery to sin might be broken, and he commands the church to remove old leaven in light of Christ the Passover sacrifice.
The adjective does not teach that everything earlier is inferior or that the Old Testament is defective. Context identifies whether oldness means worn material, a former sinful identity, corrupt influence, or an arrangement unable to contain the new situation Christ brings.
Παλαιός marks old or former realities. Worn garments illustrate incompatibility, while the old self and old leaven name sin-governed patterns displaced by Christ's death and a new communal life.
No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. For the patch will pull away from the garment, and a worse tear will result.
An unshrunk patch pulls against an old garment and worsens the tear, illustrating why Jesus' presence cannot be reduced to a minor adjustment within inherited expectations.
No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, and a worse tear will result.
Mark's concise form keeps the incompatible materials in view and belongs with the bridegroom and wineskin sayings about the newness of Jesus' ministry.
He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will tear the new garment as well, and the patch from the new will not match the old.
Luke notes damage to both garments and their mismatch, warning against destroying the new in an attempt to preserve the old arrangement unchanged.
We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.
The old self is crucified with Christ so sin's enslaving body may be rendered powerless, grounding changed obedience in union with His death.
Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
Old leaven represents tolerated corrupting sin that must be removed because Christ the Passover lamb has been sacrificed and the church already has a new identity.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Worn out or obsolete by age or use, contrasting with new or fresh; often theological.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 19 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
old, ancient, worn out
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Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 10 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 19 lexical occurrence verses.
παλαιός is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Oldness in these passages is relational, not a universal verdict on age or tradition. A worn garment cannot receive an unshrunk patch without greater damage, and Jesus uses that ordinary incompatibility to announce that His presence is not a decorative repair. Paul locates the decisive break in union with Christ: the old self was crucified so believers need not remain enslaved to sin.
In Corinth, old leaven names tolerated evil whose influence contradicts the community constituted by Christ's Passover sacrifice. The new life is therefore gift and calling. Churches should resist cosmetic reform that leaves sin's rule intact, while also refusing to label biblical heritage, older believers, or inherited wisdom obsolete merely because the adjective can mark a former corrupt condition.
Matt.9.16
Παλαιός is an adjective for something old or former, often in contrast with νέος or καινός. The noun it modifies and the comparison determine whether age, wear, prior identity, or obsolescence is in view.
God's covenant promises develop through continuity and fulfillment, not contempt for His earlier word. The prophets promise renewal that Christ establishes through His death.