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Matthew 16:5
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3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’1 Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.  
4 aA wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of1 the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.  

The Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees

5 Now awhen His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.  
6 Then Jesus said to them, a“Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”  
7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have taken no bread.”
8 But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you1 have brought no bread?  
9 aDo you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up?  
10 aNor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up?  
11 How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to beware of the1 leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”  
12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the1 doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.  

Peter Confesses Jesus as the Christ

13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, a“Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”  
14 So they said, a“Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or bone of the prophets.”  
Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
<< Matthew 16:4   Matthew 16:6 >>


Matthew 16:5-12

The account in these verses is also recorded in Mark 8:13-21.

Matthew 16:5

And when his disciples were come to the other side - That is, to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

Mark says that he entered into a ship again, and departed to the other side. The conversation with the Pharisees and Sadducees had been on the western side of the Sea of Galilee. See the notes at Matthew 15:39. They crossed from that side again to the east.

Had forgotten to take bread - That is, had forgotten to lay in a sufficient supply. They had, it seems, not more than one loaf, Mark 8:14.

Matthew 16:6-11

Take heed ... - That is, be cautious, be on your guard.

The leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees - Leaven is used in making bread.

It passes secretly, silently, but certainly through the mass of dough. See the notes at Matthew 13:33. "None can see its progress." So it was with the doctrines of the Pharisees. They were insinuating, artful, plausible. They concealed the real tendency of their doctrines; they instilled them secretly into the mind, until they pervaded all the faculties like leaven.

They reasoned ... - The disciples did not understand him as referring to the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees, because the word "leaven" was not often used among the Jews to denote doctrines, no other instance of this use of the word occurring in the Scriptures. Besides, the Jews had many particular rules about the leaven (yeast) which might be used in making bread. Many held that it was not lawful to eat bread made by the Gentiles; and the disciples, perhaps, supposed that he was cautioning them not to procure a supply from the Pharisees and Sadducees.

O ye of little faith! - Jesus, in reply, said that they should not be so anxious about the supply of their temporal wants. They should not have supposed, after the miracles that he had performed in feeding so many, that he would caution them to be anxious about procuring bread for their necessities. It was improper, then, for them to reason about a thing like that, but they should have supposed that he referred to something more important. The miracles had been full proof that he could supply all their wants without such anxiety.

Matthew 16:12

Then understood they ... - After this explanation they immediately saw that he referred to the doctrines of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Erroneous doctrines are like leaven in the following respects:

1.They are at first slight and unimportant in appearance, just as leaven is small in quantity as compared with the mass that is to be leavened.

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.




Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Matthew 16:5:

Mark 8:11-21

 

<< Matthew 16:4   Matthew 16:6 >>

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