Snyder notes:
"What did Jesus mean? Certainly he did not mean everything that Christians through the ages have taken from these words. Jesus distinguishes here between something essential and primary (the wine) and something secondary but also necessary and useful (the wineskins). Wineskins would be superfluous without the wine. This distinction is vital for the everyday life of the church. There is that which is new, potent, essential-the gospel of Jesus Christ. And there is that which is secondary, subsidiary, made by human hands. These the wineskins-traditions, structures and patterns of doing things have grown up around the gospel."
(Page 13, Radical renewal, the problem of wineskins today).