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Parable of Leaven
Matt.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.
Luke 13:20,21
And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?
It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

Notes on Customs

      It was the Jewish household custom that early in the morning the woman of the house or maidservant would prepare the bread for the household. This was done on a daily basis with the exception of the Sabbath. Only a day’s supply would be prepared and baked except for Friday, when two days ration would be made for that Friday and the following Sabbath day. Baking on the Sabbath would be breaking the sabbatical law. So with the exception of the Sabbath each day would have freshly made bread. This adds a little more meaning in the Model Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

      The amount of bread made was in proportion to the number of people in the house and during the times when extra laborers were required for the farming needs additional bread was furnished for their meals.

      A measure is commonly reported as 1˝ pecks dry measure. A peck is 8 quarts. Three measures would then equal 36 quarts. Not accounting for the water added to the meal, after fermentation the dough would increase between 2 to 3 times its original volume. If it only doubled in size that would produce 72 quarts or 18 gallons of dough. The normal amount of dough to make one loaf of bread is 3 cups. There are 4 cups in a quart. So the 3 measures of leavened meal would make at the minimum, 96 loaves of bread. One person would normally consume a loaf of bread in one day then there would be bread for 96 people. This is an extraordinary amount of meal for one woman of the house to prepare, even accounting for a temporary addition of farm labors.


Points of the Parable

      The word “hid” is regarded as something secretly concealed. Which is done in this story by placing the leaven in the meal and covering it with the dough. Many writers have commented that the woman was being devious by hiding the leaven in the meal. Stating that her actions were underhanded and deceitful. But, in what other way could she have properly added the leaven other than to insert it within the meal and fold it into the dough? This is how leavened dough is prepared. The leaven is not placed on the dough but in the dough. So it is naturally concealed, or hid to the eye.

      There are 6 points in the parable: the woman, the leaven, the meal, the action of the woman adding the leaven, the action of the leaven on the meal and the time for the leaven to work. There is nothing remarkable about any of these points with the exception of the enormous amount of meal being used. This exaggerated amount would have caught the immediate attention of anyone in the audience who was familiar with bread making.


Given Interpretations

      There are only two interpretations I have found of this parable. They are in exact opposition with each other. One view is that the leaven is a good thing, the Kingdom of God, or the Church, and the meal is the world. The second is that the leaven is evil and the meal is the Kingdom of God or the Church.

      The first view is that the leaven is good (the Kingdom of God, the church universal, Christendom, the gospel, etc.), and that it has been inserted in the world and will eventually secretly, silently spread until the world becomes converted.

      The next view takes the opposite position. That the leaven is evil and it is inserted into the Kingdom of God, or the Church, causing it to become entirely as the leaven, evil.

      With this last view much is said about the woman in many commentaries and how wicked she is. Several examples of evil women in the Bible are used as a comparison to her. They make her to be like Jezebel, Ahab’s wife and the woman in the church of Thyatira (Rev. 2:20-23). Also, she is equated to the Great Whore of Revelation chapter 17, suggested to be the Roman Catholic Church. Thus the act of her inserting leaven is evil and treacherous.

      Those who hold this view believe leaven is absolutely, consistently used as a type of evil throughout the Scriptures. (See note on leaven at the end of this lesson) So the leaven hid in the meal was an evil corrupting agent. This leaves the meal to represent the Kingdom of God and/or the Church. The conclusion of this interpretation is that some evil source has secretly introduced diabolical wickedness, and defilement into the Kingdom of God or His Church. Once the evil was planted its effects are thorough, irreversible and complete.

      Careful consideration must be given to what is being presented in both of these views. They both agree that whatever the meal was originally it became what the leaven is. The leaven once placed would continue to spread until all was leavened. So if the leaven were good, i.e. the Kingdom of God, then the entire world would become the Kingdom of God. But this is contrary to the prophesied world conditions preceding the return of Christ to earth and also the conditions at the end of the millennium. The world is said to wax worse and worse in its spiritual state. If the leaven were evil and the meal the Kingdom of God or Church, then the entire Kingdom of God or Church would eventually become evil. Remember, there is no separation of the mass. It is not partial leaven and unleavened but the whole becomes leavened. So that view is forced to conclude that all that is godly becomes evil (till the whole was leavened). Neither one of these explanations hold true or are consistent with the collective Word of God, and must be rejected.


The Interpretation

      If we consider the story without allegorizing any of the elements, the woman, the leaven, or the meal, we avoid all the pitfalls of misunderstanding the parable. Let the woman just be a woman, the leaven is only leaven, and the meal is simply meal. Allow them to stand for themselves without any hidden or double meaning. They don’t represent anything else; they are what they are, and nothing more.

      So what does that give us? There is a small word that is generally ignored by every commentator or is passed over with little consideration - it is the word “till.” “Till” signifies the passage of time. The Kingdom of God is liken to the fact that just as leaven needs and takes time to work the whole meal, so it also will take time for it to come to its completion in the work it must and will do. The subject is not what the Kingdom of God will do but rather the time it takes before it completes it. The parable of the mustard seed taught the ultimate greatness of the Kingdom of God in the world and this parable teaches that it will not be immediate but sometime in the future when it happens. For an observation, the extra large amount of meal takes an extended amount of time, longer than required for the usual amount of dough prepared for a household. This may be signifying a point that an extensive amount of time will pass until the Kingdom of God is visibly established on earth. In retrospect we know this to be true.


The Application

      God’s people should not be discouraged or lose heart over the apparent prolonged coming of Christ. Jesus preached in the beatitudes that for those who anguish in this sinful age will be comforted and satisfied. We are to wait patiently for our Lord to return and watch. Peter wrote that the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, and Daniel was given to know that all these things are sealed, or appointed their time. It will happen!


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A Commentary on Leaven.

      It is a very popular opinion that wherever leaven is mentioned in the Scriptures it always stands for evil, sin, or some moral corruptness. However, in Leviticus 17:13 the sacrifice of thanksgiving of a person’s peace offering was to be with leavened bread. So this absolute usage of leaven being evil does not appear to be consistent. Nothing unclean or a corrupt thing was to be offered to the Lord or placed upon His altar.

      This question needs to be asked, if, in God’s mind, leaven is always evil, then why did He command that it be offered to Him in Leviticus 17:13? Again, if leaven is always evil then it must always be unclean. But there are no laws prohibiting the touching, preparing, or eating of leavened bread or cakes. It is clear that at times leaven is considered unclean, such as during the Passover Feast. The houses were to be searched and thoroughly cleansed from all leaven during that feast. This command presupposes that leaven would be in the home and it was legally allowed in the house at other times. It was not consistently considered an evil thing.

      In this parable what the woman was doing was a common everyday household duty. It was regularly done in every home at least as far back as Sarah. It took preparation from the day before to have the leaven since a portion of the previous day’s leavened dough was used. Using leaven or having leavened bread in the normal day-to-day custom is not condemned in Scripture. It cannot be said that the use of leaven is consistently acceptable or condemned. It depended upon circumstances and holydays.

      Both Christ and Paul gave warnings. using leaven figuratively of something to avoid and be aware of. Jesus warned of the leaven of the Pharisees, of the Sadducees and of Herod. Paul warned of the leaven of unchecked, allowed, known fornication within the Corinthian Church. Paul also warned of the leaven of substituting law bondage for faith in the Christian life. The leaven of the Pharisees was that of their doctrines and teaching for the commandments of God the traditions of men. The leaven of the Sadducees was also that of their doctrines and of not knowing the Scriptures, or the power of God. They denied the power of God in the resurrection. The leaven of Herod is considered as the love of material wealth, riches and self-importance, the glory of this world.

      The one thing that all the above have in common in their usage of leaven is that of harmful, corrupt, and sinful influence. It is not necessarily the sins themselves but their influence they exert which we are to carefully to avoid.

      We may have very little weakness for the actual doctrine of the Pharisees but the influence of their kind of doctrine can be and very often is a very powerful influence. Any time the commandments of men gain a foothold within a church they exert influences to hold to those commandments in spite of Scriptural testimony against them, and they weaken the church to withstand any further substitution of the traditions of men against the commands of God.

      The influence of the Pharisees and Sadducees are closed mindedness and not having a love of the truth. People constantly deny the power of God and that kind of thinking can influence our attitudes. This leads to doubting God and a destruction of faith.

It would be hoped, and expected, that because one case of fornication within a church the entire church membership would not be led to engage in fornication. But the fact that such a gross sin is tolerated in a church is very influential on all and can likely cause the rest to give up their vigilance against sin in other areas of life.



      Whenever a church generates its own laws or policies they end up either ignoring them or they slavishly keep them and destructively hurt people. This is the influence against love and compassion. The warning - do not to be influenced by any of these things!


Next: The Twin Parables of The Treasure Hid in a Field, and The Pearl of Great Price




This page last updated September 14, 2004 at 11:19am





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