Imamat 23:17

23:17 From the places where you live you must bring two loaves of ¹  bread for a wave offering; they must be made from two tenths of an ephah of fine wheat flour, baked with yeast, ²  as first fruits to the Lord.

Amos 4:5

4:5 Burn a thank offering of bread made with yeast! ³ 

Make a public display of your voluntary offerings! ⁴ 

For you love to do this, you Israelites.”

The sovereign Lord is speaking!

Matius 13:33

The Parable of the Yeast

13:33 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with ⁵  three measures ⁶  of flour until all the dough had risen.” ⁷ 

Matius 13:1

The Parable of the Sower

13:1 On that day after Jesus went out of the house, he sat by the lake.

Titus 1:4

1:4 To Titus, my genuine son in a common faith. Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior!

[23:17]  ¹ tc Smr, LXX, Syriac, Tg. Onq., and Tg. Ps.-J. insert the word חַלּוֹת (khallot, “loaves”; cf. Lev 2:4 and the note there). Even though “loaves” is not explicit in the MT, the number “two” suggests that these are discrete units, not just a measure of flour, so “loaves” should be assumed even in the MT.

[23:17]  ² tn Heb “with leaven.” The noun “leaven” is traditional in English versions (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), but “yeast” is more commonly used today.

[4:5]  ³ sn For the background of the thank offering of bread made with yeast, see Lev 7:13.

[4:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “proclaim voluntary offerings, announce.”

[13:33]  ⁵ tn Grk “hid in.”

[13:33]  ⁶ sn This measure was a saton, the Greek name for the Hebrew term “seah.” Three of these was a very large quantity of flour, since a saton is a little over 16 pounds (7 kg) of dry measure (or 13.13 liters). So this was over 47 lbs (21 kg) of flour total, enough to feed over a hundred people.

[13:33]  ⁷ tn Grk “it was all leavened.”

[13:33]  sn The parable of the yeast and the dough teaches that the kingdom of God will start small but eventually grow to permeate everything. Jesus’ point was not to be deceived by its seemingly small start, the same point made in the parable of the mustard seed, which preceded this one.