Matthew 13:33

Leaven] i.e. the influence of Christ, the power of Christianity. The figure is taken from the power of leaven ('yeast') to make the dough light and wholesome, and to spread through an enormous mass of it with great rapidity. Generally leaven is used as a figure for wickedness (Matthew 16:6, etc.), and some wrongly so regard it here, taking the woman for the apostate Church, and the leaven as the 'mystery of iniquity' with which she corrupts the purity of the gospel.

Three measures] lit. 'three seahs,' a seah containing 1½ pecks. Since this was the usual quantity to be baked at once (Genesis 18:6 : cp. also Judges 6:19; 1 Samuel 1:24, where the equivalent amount, an ephah, is mentioned), no special significance attaches to the number 'three.' The meal is mankind, as uninfluenced by the gospel. Took] i.e. from elsewhere, for Christianity is not of this world, but introduced from without. Till.. was] The past tense is a prophetic way of speaking of the certainty of the result.

34, 35. Christ's parabolic teaching (Mark 4:33).

Parable of the Leaven (Luke 13:20). The leaven (or 'yeast') is here the Spirit of Christianity working secretly in the world until the whole is leavened. Devotionally the parable may be applied to individual souls. St. Ambrose says, 'May the Holy Church, who is figured under the type of this woman in the Gospel, whose meal are we, hide the Lord Jesus in the innermost places of our hearts, till the warmth of the divine wisdom penetrate into the most secret recesses of our souls.'