Matthew 13:33

Matthew 13:33. Leaven. In those days a piece of the leavened loaf was put amongst the new dough to cause fermentation. This illustrates the power of pervading and assimilating foreign substances. The figure is generally applied to evil influences, but here probably to gracious ones, see below.

A woman. There may be no significance in this part of the figure, though some find in it a reference to the Church.

Took and hid. Two important points: ‘took, ' from without; ‘and hid,' i.e., put it where it seemed lost in the larger mass.

Three measures of meal, probably the usual amount taken for one baking, an ephah (comp. Genesis 18:6; Judges 6:19; 1 Samuel 1:24). A large mass is to be pervaded and assimilated by the small piece of leaven. ‘Three' is not necessarily significant, though referred by some to ‘body, soul, and spirit,' by others to the three sons of Noah; the first not applicable historically, the second far-fetched.

Till it was all leavened. The length of time not indicated; the transformation of the whole mass is the one fact stated. This influence triumphs. ‘Leaven. ‘therefore does not represent evil here, as is usually the case. The parables indeed affirm a development of evil side by side with that of the kingdom, but the kingdom itself ‘is like leaven.' Leaven is used in a good sense (Leviticus 23:17); in household economy it has a wholesome influence. The parable indicates that the influence is internal and noiseless, not dependent upon external organization so much as upon quiet personal agency and example, since the leaven transforms the dough lying next, until it is ‘all leavened.' The last clause is not to be interpreted absolutely, since an evil development is set forth in the second and seventh parables, and hinted at in the third.