“Watch out!” Jesus told them. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
We have here Christ's discourse with his disciples concerning bread, in which, as in many other discourses, he speaks to them of spiritual things under a similitude, and they misunderstand him of carnal things. The occasion of it was, their forgetting to victual their ship, and to take along with them provisions for their family on the other side of the water; usually they carried...
Commenting on Matthew 16:5-12
Then Jesus said unto them,.... Either taking occasion from the disciples observing that they had forgot to take bread with them, or on account of what passed between him and the Pharisees and Sadducees, he gave the following advice to his disciples; take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Verses 6-8. Take heed, etc. That is, be cautious, be on your guard. The leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Leaven is used in making bread. Its use is to pass through the flour, and cause it to ferment or to swell, and become light. It passes secretly, silently, but certainly. None can see its progress. So it was with the doctrines of the Pharisees.