Bible Study on Matthew 16, verses 1 to 12, leaven as doctrine

 

Matthew 16:1 ¶  The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven. 2  He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. 3  And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? 4  A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

 

Here, Jesus really mocks the religious elite’s sarcastic questioning. They wanted a magic trick but He gave them wisdom. Notice how He refers to Jonah (Jonas from Greek) and his three days in the whale’s belly. Remember back in chapter 12 in His encounter with the scribes and Pharisees. He’s already been over this ground with them.

 

Matthew 12:40  For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

 

Matthew 16:5 ¶  And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. 6  Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. 7  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. 8  Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? 9  Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? 10  Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? 11  How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? 12  Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

 

Here is an example of how Jesus and the Bible use typology to describe something. Jesus has likened the leaven of bread to the doctrine of the religious elite. What does leaven do? Yeast, as a biological leavening agent eats sugar and secretes carbon dioxide, important for bread makers, and alcohol, important for beermakers. But this leaven makes the flour something different from what it was. It is a pollutant, a necessary pollutant, for us to enjoy bread. But when comparing leavened to unleavened bread God has used the typology of corruption previously.

 

Matthew 13:33  Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

 

Paul will use a similar point about corruption using a Greek word for adulterated wine, kap-ale-yoo-o.

 

2 Corinthians 2:17  For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

 

Another issue is presented here regarding the numbers of food before and the baskets leftover. Jesus is pointing to this as having some deeper significance. This is worth considering as I have previously talked about the possible meaning of the numbers regarding the leftover food.