Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 16:12
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.
12. Then understood they ] The Greek word and its derivative is used specially of spiritual intelligence.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mat 16:6; Mat 16:12
Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
The leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees
I. The leaven of the Pharisees. The most numerous and popular sect among the Jews. Their corruptions may, for the sake of distinction, be summed up under three heads.
1. They were rigid predestinarians, or believers in what modern language calls philosophical necessity. Take heed.
2. They rejected the written Word of God as the only and sufficient standard of religious truth, and the guide of religious practice; and they observed the tradition of the elders, which often made this written law of node effect. Take heed, and beware of the very same leaven.
3. Their righteousness, though strict in its kind, was merely external; consisting chiefly in a multitude of ceremonious practices. How many are there like them? Beware!
II. The leaven of the Sadducees. Their heresy likewise may be described under three heads.-
1. They denied the fallen and depraved state of mankind; disputed the doctrine of hereditary corruption; and maintained that the will of man is, by nature, and without any special grace of God, as free to good as to evil
2. They not only rejected the traditions of the elders, but explained away much of the Old Testament, and thus rendered its teaching of none effect.
3. They denied the existence of angels and spirits, the resurrection of the dead, and a future state of rewards and punishments. Take heed, and beware! (J. Bunting, D. D.)
Erroneous doctrines are like leaven
in the following respects:-
1. They are, at first, slight and unimportant in appearance.
2. They are insinuated into the soul unawares and silently, and are difficult of detection.
3. They act gradually.
4. They act most certainly.
5. They will pervade all the soul, and bring all the faculties under their control. (A. Barnes.)
The influence of evil doctrine unperceived, yet injurious to our future welfare
Archbishop Whately has made reference to the remarkable fact that the caterpillars of moths and butterflies are often attacked by ichneumon flies, which pierce their skins and deposit their eggs in the caterpillars body. No immediate result follows, and no injury seems to have been done until the period when the caterpillar becomes a chrysalis. Instead of a beautiful moth or butterfly emerging from the latter, only the parasitic insects appear. The hidden butterfly has been silently destroyed. The Archbishops suggestive comment is-May not a man have a kind of secret enemy within-destroying his soul without interfering with his well-being during the present stage of his existence, and whose presence may never be detected till the time arrives when the last great change should take place.
The leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees
I. In this warning, it will be observed, Pharisaic and Sadducaic tendencies are identified. Jesus speaks not of the leavens, but of one common to both sects, as if they were two species of one genus, two branches from one stem. Superficially, the two parties were diverse-the one strict, the other easy, in morals. But here extremes meet. They were all hostile to the Divine kingdom. Thus to be a Christian it is not enough to differ superficially from either Pharisees or Sadducees, but to differ radically from both. A weighty truth not yet understood. To avoid Pharisaic strictness and superstition men run into Sadducaic scepticism, both equally far horn the truth. The spirit of unbelief which ruled in Jewish society Jesus described as leaven, with special reference to its diffusiveness.
II. Jesus next found new matter for annoyance in the stupidity of friends. The disciples misunderstood the warning word. It is because we have no bread. Had they possessed more faith and spirituality they would not have put the earthly meaning into the words. How vain it is to discourse concerning Divine things to men whose minds are preoccupied with earthly cares Leaven makes them think of loaves. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Then understood they,…. Without any further explication of his sense and meaning,
how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread: which sense they first took him in; imagining, because the Pharisees were very particular and precise what sort of leaven they made use of z, that Christ forbad them buying bread that was made with leaven according to their directions: and since their rules in everything prevailed much in all places, they were concerned what bread they must, or could buy; but now they perceived that he did not speak of this, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. It was very common with the Jews a to call the corruption and vitiosity of nature by the name of , “leaven in the lump”: hence our Lord calls their doctrine so, because it proceeded from thence, and was agreeable thereunto; and uses the phrase on purpose to expose it, and bring it into neglect and contempt.
z Misn. Pesach, c. 2. sect. 2, 3. T. Hieros. Sabbat, fol. 3. 3. a T. Hieros. Beracot, fol. 7. 4. T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 17. 1. Bereshit Rabba, fol. 29. 4. Caphtor, fol. 38. 2. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 73. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Then understood they ( ). First aorist active indicative of , to grasp, to comprehend. They saw the point after this elaborate rebuke and explanation that by “leaven” Jesus meant “teaching.”
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
12. Then they understood. The word leaven is very evidently used by Christ as contrasted with the pure and uncorrupted word of God. In a former passage, (Mat 13:33,) Christ had used the word in a good sense, when he said that the Gospel resembled leaven; (434) but for the most part this word is employed in Scripture to denote some foreign substance, by which the native purity of any thing is impaired. In this passage, the naked truth of God, and the inventions which men contrive out of their own brain, are unquestionably the two things that are contrasted. The sophist must not hope to escape by saying that this ought not to be understood as applicable to every kind of doctrine; for it will be impossible to find any doctrine but what has come from God that deserves the name of pure and unleavened Hence it follows that leaven is the name given to every foreign admixture; as Paul also tells us that faith is rendered spurious, as soon as we are
drawn aside from the simplicity of Christ, (2Co 11:3.)
It must now be apparent who are the persons of whose doctrine our Lord charges us to beware. The ordinary government of the Church was at that time in the hands of the scribes and priests, among whom the Pharisees held the highest rank. As Christ expressly charges his followers to beware of their doctrine, it follows that all who mingle their own inventions with the word of God, or who advance any thing that does not belong to it, must be rejected, how honorable soever may be their rank, or whatever proud titles they may wear. Accursed and rebellious, therefore, is the obedience of those who voluntarily submit to the inventions and laws of the Pope.
(434) See page 127 of this volume.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) The doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.Better, teaching; not so much the formulated dogmas of the sect as its general drift and tendency. The leaven was (as expressly stated in Luk. 12:1) hypocrisy, the unreality of a life respectable, rigid, outwardly religious, even earnest in its zeal, and yet wanting in the humility and love which are of the essence of true holiness. That of the Sadducees and of Herod, was, we may believe (it is not specially defined), the more open form of worldliness and self-indulgence which allied themselves with their denial of the resurrection and therefore of eternal life.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. Doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees Their rejection of His miracles, their ascription of His mighty power to Satan, and their cavilling demands for a sign from heaven. These principles were very likely to infect the minds of the disciples with scepticism.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Then they understood that he bade them not to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
So the truth finally dawned on them that He was not warning them against physical bread or bribery, but against what the Pharisees and Sadducees were teaching. Perhaps consideration on that helped to prepare them for the questions that were shortly to come.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
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.
Ver. 12. Then understood they how, &c. ] This chiding then was well bestowed. So was that, Luk 24:29 , upon the two disciples going to Emmaus, and that upon the Virgin Mary, Joh 2:5 ; she laid her hand upon her mouth and replied not. And that upon the Corinthians for conniving at the incestuous person; and that upon the Laodiceans, Rev 3:14 , for Eusebius telleth us that in his time it continued to be a flourishing church. It is said of Gerson, that he took not content in anything so much as in a plain and faithful reproof from his friend. It is a commendation to suffer the words of exhortation,Heb 13:22Heb 13:22 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mat 16:12 . , they now understood, at least to the extent of seeing that it was a question not of loaves but of something spiritual. One could wish that they had understood that from the first, and that they had asked their Master to explain more precisely the nature of the evil influences for their and our benefit. Thereby we might have had in a sentence a photograph of Sadducaism, e.g. , “doctrine”; that was in a general way the import of the . But if Jesus had explained Himself He would have had more to say. The dogmas and opinions of the two parties in question were not the worst of them, but the spirit of their life: their dislike of real godliness.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
doctrine = teaching. This was the word which the Lord had been implying in Mat 16:6, using the Figure of speech Hypocatastasis. App-6. The woman of Canaan saw what was implied in the word “dog”; and her faith was called “great” (Mat 15:28); the disciples did not understand what the Lord implied by the word “leaven”, and their faith was “little”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mat 16:12. , they understood) Our Lord still left something to be understood by His disciples. He shows them what leaven did not mean in this passage; it was their part, when they heard what it was not, to gather what it must be. Thus also in ch. Mat 17:13.- , from that of the doctrine)[726] sc. from the leaven of the doctrine.[727] The word doctrine, in opposition to bread, is taken in a wide signification, so as to mean even hypocrisy. The leaven was this hypocritical doctrine.
[726] In E. V. the verse is rendered, 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.-(I. B.)
[727] Of which a specimen occurs in Mat 16:1.-V. g.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
but: Mat 15:4-9, Mat 23:13-28, Act 23:8
Reciprocal: Exo 12:8 – unleavened Exo 12:15 – Seven Lev 2:11 – no leaven Pro 19:27 – General Mat 3:7 – the Pharisees Mat 16:6 – the leaven Mat 22:16 – the Herodians Mar 8:15 – Take Mar 8:21 – How Luk 20:27 – the Sadducees Act 4:1 – the Sadducees 1Co 5:8 – neither
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
6:12
The disciples made the correct interpretation of the comparison and applied it to the dootrine or teaching of those two sects. I shall give the description of these prominent groups of the Jews as may be learned from reliable works of reference. “What I would now explain is this, that the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by succession from their fathers which are not written in the law of Moses; and for that reason it is that the Sad-ducees reject them, and say that we are to esteem those observances to be obligatory [binding] which are in the written word, but are not to observe what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers.” Josephus, Antiquities, Book 13, Chapter 10, Section 6.
“In addition to the books of the Old Testament, the Pharisees recognized in oral traditions a standard of belief and life. They sought for distinction and praise by the observance of external rites and by the outward forms of piety, such as ablutions, fast-ings, prayers, and alms-giving; and, comparatively negligent of genuine piety, they prided themselves on their fancied good works. . . . A Sadducee, a member of the party of the Sadducees, who, distinguished for birth, wealth, and official position, and not averse to the favor of the Herod family and of the Romans, hated the common people, were the opponents of the Pharisees, and rejecting tradition acknowledged the authority of the Old Testament alone in matters pertaining to faith and morals; they denied not only the resurrection of the body, but also the immortality of the soul and future retribution, as well as the existence of angels and spirits.” These last two quotations about the Pharisees and Sadducees are the historical remarks of Thayer in his Greek lexicon, the original words being PHARISAIOS and SADDOUKAIOS. Having given an extended account of these two sects for the information of the reader, I shall summarize it by saying that the false doctrine of the Pharisees was that the tradition of the fathers was of equal authority with the written Scriptures. That of the Sadducees was that there would be no resurrection of the body and consequently no future life.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 16:12. But beware. This is the correct reading.
The teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Comp. Luk 12:1. The leaven of the Pharisees is hypocrisy. But the Sadducees, the liberal Jews of that age, went to the other extreme. The reference is, therefore, not to what they taught in common, but to the mode and spirit of their teaching. In both cases hypocrisy; in the Pharisees hypocritical formalism, in the Sadducees hypocritical liberalism. These two apparently antagonistic tendencies have been practically united ever since in opposing Christ. Without Him strict morality (Pharisees) and free inquiry (Sadducees) inevitably become hypocritical. Comp, on Mar 8:15.
The emphasis here laid on false teaching is suggestive, Principles, tendencies, teachings, are most permeating, and if evil, most dangerous. To those who after all the lessons of history, and of experience, fail to see this, we may apply the words of our Lord: How is it that ye do not perceive?