Matthew 16:11

11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? ¹Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. ”

Matthew 16:11 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 16:11

How is it that ye do not understand
That you should be so senseless and void of thought, after such instances, as to imagine, that I concerned myself about what bread you brought with you; one would think you could not but know,

that I spake it not to you concerning bread,
taken in a literal sense; but must be thought to speak figuratively and mystically, and to have an higher sense and meaning, when I said to you,

that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the
Sadducees;
how could you think that I had any regard to the leaven taken in a literal sense, the Pharisees and Sadducees approve or disapprove of?

Matthew 16:11 In-Context

9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?

10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?

11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the 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 the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is? ”

Cross References

• 1. 16:11 [See ver. 6 above]