Matthew 13:33-35
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
The Parable of the Yeast. 33 He spoke to them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast[a] that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.”(A)
The Use of Parables. 34 [b](B)All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables, 35 to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:[c]
“I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation [of the world].”(C)
Footnotes
- 13:33 Except in this Q parable and in Mt 16:12, yeast (or “leaven”) is, in New Testament usage, a symbol of corruption (see Mt 16:6, 11–12; Mk 8:15; Lk 12:1; 1 Cor 5:6–8; Gal 5:9). Three measures: an enormous amount, enough to feed a hundred people. The exaggeration of this element of the parable points to the greatness of the kingdom’s effect.
- 13:34 Only in parables: see Mt 13:10–15.
- 13:35 The prophet: some textual witnesses read “Isaiah the prophet.” The quotation is actually from Ps 78:2; the first line corresponds to the LXX text of the psalm. The psalm’s title ascribes it to Asaph, the founder of one of the guilds of temple musicians. He is called “the prophet” (NAB “the seer”) in 2 Chr 29:30, but it is doubtful that Matthew averted to that; for him, any Old Testament text that could be seen as fulfilled in Jesus was prophetic.
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