Matthew 16:11

11 "How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But ¹beware of the leaven of the ²Pharisees 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 understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets full you picked up?

10 "Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets full you picked up?

11 "How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

12 Then they understood that He did not say 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 was asking His disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"

Cross References

• 1. Matthew 16:6; Mark 8:15; Luke 12:1
• 2. Matthew 3:7; Matthew 16:6, 12

Footnotes

• [a] Or "yeast"