Matthew 16:11

11 how do ye not understand that I did not speak to you of bread -- to take heed 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 ye not yet understand, nor remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many hand-baskets ye took up?

10 nor the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

11 how do ye not understand that I did not speak to you of bread -- to take heed of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?'

12 Then they understood that he did not say to take heed of the leaven of the bread, but of the teaching, of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

13 And Jesus, having come to the parts of Cesarea Philippi, was asking his disciples, saying, `Who do men say me to be -- the Son of Man?'