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NASB | Matthew 13:33 ¶ He spoke another parable to them, "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 13:33 ¶ He told them another parable, "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and worked into three measures of flour until all of it was leavened." [Gen 18:6; Luke 13:21] |
Subject: How is kingdom of heaven like leaven? |
Bible Note: Here is a little more on Matthew 13:33.. "13:33 Leaven is almost always a symbol of evil in the Bible. In this parable the case would seem to be no different. The kingdom has evil hidden within which multiplies until it is found throughout the kingdom. The remarkable fact is that the kingdom still overcomes." (Believer's Study Bible) "13:33 The Parable of the Yeast points to the hidden but effective power of the gospel." (Cambridge Annotated Study Bible) "Roman cities had bakeries, but the image here is that of a rural Galilean woman. Leaven, or yeast, would be mixed through the meal. Three pecks of flour, roughly a bushel, was all that a woman could knead, and the resulting bread would feed about a hundred people." (IVP Bible Background Commentary: NT) "Parable It was common practice to retain a lump of leavened or fermented dough from a former baking and use it to leaven new dough. Under the Mosaic law, however, yeast was forbidden in bread used in the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover (Exo 12:8, 15-20; Lev 23:6-8), and similar exclusion of yeast applied to offerings placed on the altar (Exo 23:18; 34:25; Lev 2:11; 6:17). The only exceptions were the use of yeast in the two wave loaves offered as firstfruits (Lev 23:17) and some of the cakes of bread offered with the fellowship offerings (Lev 7:13, note). Yeast, which brings about fermentation, is uniformly regarded in Scripture as typifying the presence of impurity or evil (Exo 12:15, 19; 13:7; Lev 2:11; Deu 16:4; Mat 16:6, 12; Mark 8:15; Luke 12:1; 1 Cor 5:6-9; Gal 5:9). The two wave loaves, representing Israel and the Gentiles as forming the Church, contained yeast in recognition of imperfections in the believers (see Lev 23:17, note). The use of yeast in the flour seems intended likewise to represent evil within the kingdom of heaven. The teaching that yeast in this parable represents the beneficent influence of the Gospel pervading the world has no Scriptural justification. Nowhere in Scripture does yeast represent good; the idea of a converted world at the end of the age is contradicted by the presence of weeds among the wheat and bad fish among the good in the kingdom itself. Although Biblical truth has a beneficial moral influence on the world, the mingling of yeast is not the method of divine salvation or enlargement of the kingdom. Weeds never become wheat. The parable is, therefore, a warning that true doctrine, represented by the flour, would be corrupted by false doctrine (cp. 1 Tim 4:1-3; 2 Tim 2:17-18; 4:3-4; 2 Pet 2:1-3). Summary: (1) Yeast, as a symbolic or typical substance, is always mentioned in the O.T. in an evil sense (Gen 19:3, note). (2) The use of the word in the N.T. explains its symbolic meaning. It is “malice and wickedness” as contrasted with “sincerity and truth” (1 Cor 5:6-8). It is evil doctrine (Mat 16:12) in its threefold form of Pharisaism, Sadduceeism, and Herodianism (Mat 16:6; Mark 8:15). The yeast of the Pharisees was externalism in religion (Mat 23:14-16, 23-28); of the Sadducees, skepticism as to the supernatural and as to the Scriptures (Mat 22:23, 29); of the Herodians, worldliness—a Herod party among the Jews (Mat 22:16-21; Mark 3:6). And (3) the use of the word in Mat 13:33 is congruous with its meaning elsewhere in the Scriptures, as denoted in the paragraphs above." (New Scofield Study Bible) --Nolan |