leaven

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “leaven” (or “yeast”) in English is translated in Tzotzil as “the thing that swells the stomach of bread” and in Mairasi “bread cooking ingredient” (source: Enggavoter 2004)

In the occurrences in Mark 8:15 it is translated in Wantoat as “salt.” (Source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.)

See also leaven (1Cor 5:6).

complete verse (Luke 13:21)

Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 13:21:

  • Noongar: “It is like this. A woman took a little bit of yeast and mixed the yeast in a large bowl of flour so all of the bread rose.'” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
  • Uma: “A woman took a little yeast, and mixed it with much flour. After a while, it all rose/expanded.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “God’s ruling over his people is figuratively like yeast taken by a woman and mixed into twenty five kilo flour. Then she makes a dough. Then the whole dough rises.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The increase of the people that God rules over is also like yeast. If there is a woman who is making bread, she gets some yeast and she mixes it with a basket of flour and that yeast permeates that flour, and that flour gets bigger.'” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “It is like yeast/baking-powder that a woman mixed in a lot of flour in order to make-it-all -rise.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “It is like raising-agent which was mixed by a woman in a lot of flour, so that a whole bake-load would rise well.'” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Luke 13:21

Exegesis:

homoia estin zumē ‘it is like yeast,’ cf. on 12.1.

hēn labousa gunē enekrupsen eis aleurou sata tria ‘which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour.’ For the aorist tenses in v. 21 cf. on v. 19.

egkruptō ‘to hide,’ ‘to cover up,’ or, ‘to put into,’ since here the hiding of the yeast is not the purpose, but the result of the woman’s act. The purpose is indicated by the subsequent clause.

aleuron ‘wheat flour.’

saton transliteration of Aramaic sata or seah, a measure of capacity, of a little less than three gallons, or about thirteen L. (cf. Strack-Billerbeck I, 669f).

heōs hou ezumōthē holon ‘till it was all leavened.’ holon is adjective. It is modified by the subject of ezumōthē, i.e. aleuron understood from the preceding clause, and indicates that the leavening affected all of the flour.

zumoō ‘to ferment,’ ‘to leaven.’

Translation:

Leaven, see 12.1; here used as a metaphor for an all-pervading good influence.

Which a woman took … may have to become a conditional or temporal clause as in v. 19.

Hid, preferably ‘put,’ or more specifically, ‘mixed’ (e.g. Javanese), ‘kneaded,’ or another term by which the receptor language normally refers to this activity.

Three measures, or, ‘three baskets’ (Toraja-Sa’dan), “a bushel” (An American Translation, Good News Translation), ‘one barrel’ (Sranan Tongo), or any other expression designating a fairly large quantity of meal.

Meal, or, ‘wheat-flour,’ ‘rice-flour,’ has sometimes to be described, cf. ‘dry seed (that is) ground’ (Chicahuaxtla Triqui for Rev. 18.13).

Till here introduces an event that takes place some time after and a the result of the preceding act; hence, ‘(and) after-some-time’ (Bahasa Indonesia RC), or, ‘so-that’ (Malay).

It … all, i.e. ‘all the flour, or, bread dough.’

Was … leavened, or ‘became sour,’ ‘had fermented,’ ‘was swollen up,’ ‘became salted’; often dependent on the term for ‘leaven/yeast.’

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.

SIL Translator’s Notes on Luke 13:21

13:21a

It is like leaven: As in the previous parable, the clause It is like leaven is a simile. It compares the kingdom of God to what happens when leaven is mixed with bread dough. A small amount of leaven spreads through a large amount of dough and affects it in a good way. In the same way, the effect of God’s rule among a few people spreads through the whole world.

This simile is about the effect of leaven in a lump of dough. It is not simply a description of what leaven itself is like. Two ways to make this clear are:

It is like what happens when a woman mixes yeast (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
It is like this. A woman takes some yeast and mixes it (Good News Translation)

leaven: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as leaven refers to a substance that makes bread dough rise or swell. A person mixes this substance with water and flour. Then it spreads throughout the flour and makes the dough expand. The dough is then baked into bread.

If people in your area are not familiar with making dough rise, here are other ways to translate leaven:

• Use an expression that describes the yeast. For example:

what spreads to make bread rise
-or-
bread-expanding substance

• Use a term from the national language and indicate its meaning. For example:

yeast that spreads to make bread swell

• Borrow a word and explain it in a footnote. Here is an example of a possible footnote:

Yeast is something that spreads in flour dough and causes it to rise so that after the dough is baked, it is soft to eat.

The word leaven also occurs in 12:1d. If you translate leaven with a descriptive phrase in your language, you may be able to use a shorter phrase here, since the context makes explicit the effect of yeast in bread dough.

a woman took: The word took here means “picked up.” In some languages it may be unnatural to state explicitly that the woman picked up the yeast. In those languages it may be preferable to leave this implicit.

mixed into: The Greek expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates as mixed into literally says “hid in.” Use the expression that is natural in your language for distributing a very small amount of something (such as yeast or baking powder) in a large quantity of something else (such as dough or flour).

three measures of flour: The Greek text that the Berean Standard Bible translates as three measures of flour is literally “three seahs of flour.” Scholars do not agree as to exactly how much flour that was. But they do agree that it was a large amount that would have made enough bread to feed over one hundred people.

As this is only a parable or illustration, the exact quantity of flour is not important. Translate using a natural expression that refers to a large quantity of flour. For example:

a bushel of flour (Good News Translation)
-or-
a large tub of flour (New Century Version)

13:21b

until all of it was leavened: The Greek expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as until all of it was leavened means that the leaven affected all the dough. It caused it to rise and become bigger. This would usually take several hours or perhaps overnight. Other ways to translate this clause are:

until the whole batch of dough rises (Good News Translation)
-or-
it permeated every part of the dough (New Living Translation (2004))

it was leavened: The word it refers to the mixture that the woman was making of flour and other things for bread. Such a mixture is called “dough” before people cook it. After it is cooked, it becomes bread. In languages where there is no word “dough,” instead of it, it may be possible to say:

that flour
-or-
the whole bread/flour mixture

© 2009, 2010, 2013 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.