LEAVEN

- Used in making bread Ho 7:4 - Diffusive properties of 1Co 5:6 - FORBIDDEN . During the feast of the passover Ex 12:15-20 . To be offered with blood Ex 34:25 . To be offered, Le 2:11; 10:12 - Used with thank offerings Le 7:13; Am 4:5 - First fruits of wheat offered with Le 23:17 - ILLUSTRATIVE OF . The rapid spread of the gospel Mt 13:33; Lu 13:21 . Doctrines of Pharisees, Mt 16:6,12 . Ungodly professors 1Co 5:6,7 . False teachers Ga 5:8,9 . Malice and wickedness 1Co 5:8

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Sourdough which is kept over from one baking to another, in order to raise the new dough. Leaven was forbidden in the Hebrews during the seven days of the Passover, in memory of what their ancestors did when they went out of Egypt, they being then obliged to carry unleavened meal with them, and to make bread in haste, the Egyptians pressing them to be gone, Ex 12:15,19. They were very careful in cleansing their houses from it before this feast began, 1Co 5:6. God forbade either leaven or honey to be offered to him in his temple, Le 2:11. The pervading and transforming effect of leaven is used in illustration of the like influence on society, exerted by the purifying principles of the gospel, or by false doctrines and corrupt men, Mt 12:23 16:6-12 1Co 5:6-8.

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Leaven. Leaven
(1.) Heb. seor (Ex. 12:15, 19; 13:7; Lev. 2:11), the remnant of dough from the preceding baking which had fermented and become acid.

(2.) Heb. hamets, properly “ferment.” In Num. 6:3, “vinegar of wine” is more correctly “fermented wine.” In Ex. 13:7, the proper rendering would be, “Unfermented things [Heb. matstsoth] shall be consumed during the seven days; and there shall not be seen with thee fermented things [hamets], and there shall not be seen with thee leavened mass [seor] in all thy borders.” The chemical definition of ferment or yeast is “a substance in a state of putrefaction, the atoms of which are in a continual motion.”

The use of leaven was strictly forbidden in all offerings made to the Lord by fire (Lev. 2:11; 7:12; 8:2; Num. 6:15). Its secretly penetrating and diffusive power is referred to in 1 Cor. 5:6. In this respect it is used to illustrate the growth of the kingdom of heaven both in the individual heart and in the world (Matt. 13:33). It is a figure also of corruptness and of perverseness of heart and life (Matt. 16:6, 11; Mark 8:15; 1 Cor. 5:7, 8).

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general references to Ex 12:15; 12:19; Le 2:11; De 16:4; Mt 13:33; 16:6 Lu 13:21; Ga 5:9 --SEE Unleavened Bread, BREAD

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leaven. Leaven, v.t. to ferment, raise, taint

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Leav″en (?), n. [[OE. levain, levein, F. levain, L. levamen alleviation, mitigation; but taken in the sense of, a raising, that which raises, fr. levare to raise. See Lever, n.]] 1. 1. Any substance that produces, or is designed to produce, fermentation, as in dough or liquids; esp., a portion of fermenting dough, which, mixed with a larger quantity of dough, produces a general change in the mass, and renders it light; yeast; barm.
2. 2. Anything which makes a general assimilating (especially a corrupting) change in the mass.
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Luke xii. 1.