In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus warned the disciples of leaven. Each passage is a little different, indicating that Jesus issued the warning more than once. Each passage warns of the leaven of the Pharisees. Matthew adds the Sadducees and Mark adds Herod. What were the disciples supposed to learn from the warnings? And what do they mean to us today, when the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herod are all ancient history?

First, we need to look at the passages and their context.

“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” – Luke 12:1 NASB. Jesus has just pronounced woes on the scribes and Pharisees. Scribes, by the way, were professional teachers of the law. Some were Pharisees, some were Sadducees, and some were neither. Jesus did not explicitly warn of the leaven of the scribes, perhaps because he did not distinguish it from the errors of the two major sects. A large crowd was present, but Jesus spoke these words primarily to the disciples.

“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” – Matthew 16:6, 11. Representatives of both groups had just demanded a sign.

“Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” – Mark 8:15. Herod is not mentioned in the immediate context, but the warning of the leaven of Herod is unique to Mark.

Matthew and Mark, but not Luke, quote the warning sometime after the feeding of the 4,000, which Luke does not mention. At that time, the disciples thought that Jesus was scolding them for not buying bread before they got in the boat. He rebuked them for that anxiety, as if they thought he could not supply what they needed.

We must, therefore, be careful not to interpret the warnings as carelessly and cluelessly as they did.

The meaning of leaven

Leaven makes wheat, rye, or other gluten-containing dough rise. Nowadays, we can use either yeast or baking powder. Dough or batter when first mixed look the same with or without leaven. In the presence of sufficient liquid, yeast breads rise in an hour or so. Baking powder in quick breads or pancakes works almost immediately.

In either case, the effect of the leaven becomes visible, and no part of the grain remains unaffected by it. Its influence is both unseen and pervasive.

Symbolically, therefore, leaven stands for something with an all-pervasive effect on something else. In Scripture, more often than not, leaven is associated with sin. That is why Jews had to cleanse their homes to remove every bit of leaven in preparation for Passover.

As the ancient Israelites left captivity in Egypt, they had to eat unleavened bread because they had no time to wait for the dough to rise. Thereafter, the law prohibits the use of leaven in sacred ritual with just a few explicit exceptions.

Jesus’ warnings about the leaven of three identifiable groups of people, therefore, must be taken as warnings about three different varieties of evil.

Three varieties of evil in the New Testament

Leaven characterizes three identifiable groups that bitterly opposed each other in terms of allegiance to Rome and other issues of the day. They united in their opposition to Jesus.

Pharisees

We know about Pharisees today, or at least we think we do. They were the people in New Testament times who cared the most about holy living. They were so careful not to transgress the law that, metaphorically, they erected fences around it—additional rules based on unwritten traditions. When they observed these fences, they could be sure of not transgressing the law, but they neglected love.

Therefore, we see in them people convinced of their righteousness as if it gave them permission to condemn anyone who appeared less holy. They carefully observed the minutest detail of ceremonial purity but neglected the greater commandments to love God and others. Their rabbis preached these commandments, but taken as a group, Pharisees did not live them.

Holiness was just for show and for pride. Pharisees insisted on the importance of obedience to law and at the same time made little effort to obey what they readily acknowledged was the greatest commandment. Thus, Jesus explicitly calls the leaven of the Pharisees hypocrisy.

As far as the government was concerned, Pharisees had little interest in politics and no preference about government so long as rulers didn’t interfere with their strict legalism.

Sadducees

Sadducees comprised the ruling priestly establishment of Jesus’ time. Where Pharisees added to the written Scripture, Sadducees subtracted from it and acknowledged only the books of Moses as authoritative. Despite the witness of the prophets, psalms, and wisdom literature, they did not believe in angels, afterlife, God’s activity in the lives of individuals, or, basically, anything supernatural.

From the time of the return from Babylonian captivity, the high priests had served at the pleasure first of the Persians, then of the Greeks, and finally the Romans. Depending on the support of foreign overlords, Sadducees were more worldly than the Pharisees and, by Jesus’ time had become a wealthy and utterly corrupt elite. Implicitly, then, we can identify the leaven of the Sadducees as elitism and unbelief in God’s revelation.

Herod

“Herod” is a family name. Mark Antony named Herod the Great as a tetrarch over Galilee, and Octavian (later called Augustus Caesar) expanded his privileges. He didn’t become king until after his armies captured Jerusalem in 37 BC. Near the end of his life, he attempted to murder the infant Jesus. Subsequent emperors granted rulership to subsequent generations of Herods.

The Herod who ruled while Jesus warned against his leaven was Herod Antipas, son the Herod the Great. He lacked his father’s cruelty and was a less able ruler. He was sneaky, ambitious, and utterly without principles. The Bible records one crime: he married Herodias, the sister of one of his half-brothers. Then, when John the Baptist rebuked this immorality, Herod imprisoned John and ultimately executed him.

Scripture also mentions the Herodians, Jews who supported the Herod dynasty. They were more a political group than a religious sect. Scripture says little about them beyond their opposition to Jesus, but they probably insisted that good Jews ought to support whichever Herod was in power, as if the stability of Jewish society depended on him. More than anyone else, they supported Roman rule, because the Herods reigned at the pleasure of Caesar.

The leaven of Herod and, implicitly, the Herodians can be identified as the spirit of worldly compromise and neglect of matters of the spirit.

The three leavens in the modern church

Modern Pharisees

Jesus called out the leaven of the Pharisees in three gospel accounts and the others in one each. That indicates the greater importance of being aware of the leaven of the Pharisees. It may be impossible to avoid it entirely.

I recall hearing about a children’s Sunday school class about the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee prayed, “I thank you that I am not like other men, such as this publican.” The teacher ended the lesson saying, “Let’s thank God that we’re nice children, not like that nasty Pharisee.” Someone missed the whole point!

Scoffers reject the church because of all the hypocrites in it, and the best we can say is, “There’s always room for one more.”

The leaven of hypocrisy manifests itself today in legalism and arrogance. Paul says that all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable (1 Corinthians 6:12; 10:23). Legalists have a whole list of things good Christians would never do. Some of them come from Scripture, others from reaction to the surrounding culture, and others even contradict Scripture. For example, some insist that Christians must obey all of Old Testament law despite Paul’s teaching to the contrary.

In any case, legalists feel morally superior to anyone who doesn’t live according to the same strictness—including other legalists who live according to some different strictness.

Modern Sadducees

Modern-day Sadducees pit parts of Scripture against others. Have you ever heard anyone say that they follow Jesus and not Moses? They can’t understand either one, but it allows them to pick their favorite scriptures to obey, ignore others, and counsel other people to ignore them, too. In effect, they make a new morality out of the old immorality. If they do not entirely reject God’s supernatural activity, they certainly reject whatever clashes with their moral choices.

Ancient Sadducees were a social elite, set apart from the rest of society by their wealth and influence. Modern Sadducees often seem to consider themselves an intellectual elite. Just as the ancient Sadducees took over operation of the temple, modern Sadducees seem to have taken over universities and seminaries. They can, therefore, claim that their teachings are backed up by the sure results of modern scholarship and thus look down on any benighted people who don’t agree.

Modern Herodians

Who are Herodians today? The ancient Herodians depended on Herod to rule wisely and take care of them. There was no alternative ruler to Herod. Rome saw to that. Today, we have a spectrum of political parties and programs. And we have plenty of church leaders who tell us how to vote. Depending on which specific church you listen to, you might hear the message that society depends on good Christians voting Republican or Democratic. It is the same error in either case.

God has not yet drawn up a political platform or formed a political party. Therefore, no political platform or party truly speaks for God. None will protect from evil.

The ancient Pharisees had more in common with Jesus than did other sects. At least in their non-involvement in matters of who should govern, they make a better role model than modern Herodians. We must not even hint that the kingdom of God will arrive on the earth if only we would elect the right people.