The Leaven of the Pharisees and Scribes

Matthew 16:5-12

From The Exegetical Commentary on Matthew, AMG Publishers, 2006.

[5] Now the scene changed. In Mark 8:13 we are informed that Jesus left the disciples on the east coast of the Sea of Galilee with the plan to meet them on the other side where He had fed thousands of people, “And having left (apheís, the aorist participle of aphíēmi [863], to leave) them, and having entered (embás, the aorist participle of embaínō [1684], to enter in) into the ship again, He departed (apēlthen, the aorist indicative of apérchomai [565]) to the other side” (Mark 8:13, a.t.).

He sailed; they walked. The disciples forgot (epeláthonto, the aorist middle indicative of epilanthánomai [1950], to forget) not only to carry bread with them but also to stock the ship Jesus traveled on with more than one loaf (Mark 8:14). But He used even what they had forgotten to make an important point concerning false teaching.

[6] It is important for us to understand what Jesus meant by His words, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.”

The first verb, translated “Take heed,” is horáte (the present imperative of horáō [3708], to see and perceive). The present tense is gnomic; that is, it teaches a general principle. The disciples needed to see the difference between the false teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees and the truth of the Gospel, especially if the former had a leavening (penetrating) impact on people. The word “gnomic” comes from the Greek gnōmē ([1106], opinion, a determined mindset). Jesus wanted to make His disciples aware of the fundamental difference between law and grace, so they could clearly teach it later.

The second verb is “beware” (proséchete, the present tense of proséchō [4337], to take heed, to guard against; from prós [4314], toward or near, and échō [2192], to have). Coupled with the first verb, it gave the sense that the disciples should be wary of false teaching when they were “near” the Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus wanted the disciples to understand that the Pharisees and Sadducees were hypocrites. The only reason they came to Him was to tempt Him by asking for more signs to provide credentials for what He had already proven.

[7] The disciples did not immediately understand Jesus’ words. “They were reasoning (dielogízonto, the imperfect of dialogízomai [1260], to dialogue, reason; from diá [1223], through—an intensive preposition expressing thoroughness; and logízomai [3049], to reckon, figure out) among themselves, saying, ‘It is because we have taken no bread’” (a.t.).

What a lack of bread had to do with being cautious around the Pharisees and Sadducees showed just how little they understood Jesus’ metaphor. They were also removed from recent miracles. Jesus had just miraculously fed more than 4,000 people. Why would He now be concerned that the disciples had brought no bread?

[8] Jesus called them, literally, “little-faiths” (oligópistoi [3640]), a term not equivalent to “unbeliever” (ápistos [571]). Jesus never called His disciples faithless. Faith (pístis in the New Testament) has several objects and therefore can be qualified as great or little depending on the number of biblical propositions to which a believer assents.

From what follows in verse 9, we see that the disciples did not seem to understand the full sovereignty of the Lord Jesus. That was why He asked them to remember the feeding of both the 5,000 (v. 9) and the 4,000 (v. 10). Besides missing the whole point of the “leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees,” the disciples forgot that lack of bread would never be an obstacle for Jesus.

[9, 10] Accordingly, Jesus asked, “Do you not yet (hoúpō [3768], from ou [3756], the absolute not; and pō [4458], how) understand (noeíte, the present tense of noéō [3539], to think, comprehend; synonymous with dialogízomai, to reason) neither remember (mnēmoneúete, the present tense of mnēmoneúō [3421], to recall) the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up, neither the seven loaves of bread of the four thousand and how many baskets you took up?” (a.t.).

[11] Jesus continued, “How (pōs [4459]) is it that you understood (noeíte) not that I spoke (eípon, the aorist tense of légō [3004], to intelligently speak) to you not concerning bread, that you should beware (proséchein) of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?” (a.t.).

The Lord Jesus wanted the disciples to know that the false teachings of the Pharisees and scribes were a powerful leavening agent they should guard against. Today, as then, the leaven of legalism works its way through the church, distracting people from the Gospel of grace.

In biblical days, leaven (zúmē [2219]) was a catalytic agent like yeast that caused fermentation in dough, making it rise. Frequently, Jesus used this permeation process to describe the spread of sin. However, on one occasion, He also analogously described the penetration of the kingdom of God in the world: “The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened” (Matt. 13:33).

Properly understood, the two leavens, the kingdom of God and the legalistic teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees, penetrate daily life, spreading and advancing automatically, not necessarily with conscious effort. This process compares with that expressed in the Greek verb auxánō ([837], to grow), which presupposes the organism of life.

Concerning false teaching spreading throughout the world, Paul wrote: “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13) and “Their word will spread like gangrene” (2 Tim. 2:17; a.t.). Peter added, “There shall be false teachers among (en [1722], within, among) you” (2 Pet. 2:1). Because the tares grow alongside the wheat until the time of the harvest, we can anticipate that legalism will be with us until Christ returns. In the interim, we are called to overturn legalism with grace.

[12] Now Jesus clearly identified leaven with “doctrine” (didachēs [1322]), the singular Greek noun emphasizing the unity of Pharisaism. At the bottom of Pharisaism—its laws, rituals, external conformities—lay their simple doctrine of justification by works. The Pharisees and Sadducees were arrogant and hypocritical because their theology was false. False teaching is the root of bad motives and behaviors. People think, choose, plan, and behave what they believe.

Didachē is the content that persons learn on their own or from others. Like the “doctrine” of the Pharisees and Sadducees, the teaching of Christ has an underlying unity, so it is frequently called by the singular didaskalía ([1319], teaching). Jesus never taught the Law from one side of His mouth and grace from the other, justification by works on one day and justification by faith on the next, nor did He ever waver. He always taught the same, consistent Gospel of grace everywhere He went. Teachings (didaskalíai, the plural of didaskalía), by contrast, are human productions.

Finally, “they understood” (sunēkan, the aorist tense of suníēmi [4920], to understand, literally, “to put it all together”; from sún [4862], together; and híēmi [n.f.], to send, to comprehend).

Dr. Spiros Zodhiates (1922-2009) served as president of AMG International in Chattanooga, Tennessee for over 40 years, was the founding editor of Pulpit Helps Magazine, and authored dozens of exegetical books.