Section 8:14–21

Jesus warned his disciples about the Pharisees and Herod

In the previous story, the Pharisees again showed that they did not believe in Jesus. In this story, Jesus warned his disciples about them and about King Herod. He told the disciples to be careful about their “leaven,” or “yeast.” Yeast is a substance that spreads throughout bread dough and causes it to rise.

In this story Jesus used yeast as a metaphor, but the disciples thought he referred to literal yeast. The Jews often spoke of yeast as a figure of speech to refer to any influence that spread rapidly. In this context it is clear that the ways that the Pharisees and King Herod influenced people were harmful. Other Gospels make two of these ways explicit:

(a) In Luke 12:1, the yeast of the Pharisees was hypocrisy.

(b) In Matthew 16:12 the yeast of the Pharisees was their teaching.

In this context the “yeast” of the Pharisees may have been their stubborn refusal to believe in him. The Pharisees had asked Jesus for a sign from God in order to discredit him. Herod also had refused to believe John the Baptist and had ordered his soldiers to kill him. Jesus warned his disciples that they should not be like the Pharisees and King Herod, who did not understand who he was, or believe in him.

It is good to translate this section before you decide on a heading for it.

Here are some other possible headings for this section:

Beware of the attitudes of the Pharisees and Herod that spread like yeast
-or-
The yeast of the Pharisees and Herod
-or-
The disciples did not yet understand what Jesus’ miracles showed about him

There is a parallel passage for this section in Matthew 16:5–11. Luke 12:1 also contains a reference to the yeast of the Pharisees.

Paragraph 8:14–16

8:14a

Now: In Greek, this verse begins with the common conjunction that is often translated as “and.” In this context, it introduces background information for the conversation in 8:15–21. The Berean Standard Bible translates the conjunction as Now because that is a common way to introduce background information in English. Some English versions do not use a connector here. Use a natural way in your language to introduce background information at the beginning of a new section. In some languages it may be helpful to repeat the information from 8:13b that they were crossing the lake:

They were crossing the lake. The disciples had forgotten to bring bread…

the disciples: See how you translated this term at 2:15b and 8:1c. See also disciple in the Glossary for more information.

had forgotten to take bread: The disciples apparently had forgotten to bring enough bread for their trip when they got back into the boat in 8:13.

bread: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as bread can also refer to food in general. In this context, it refers specifically to bread. Later in the story this will be important, since Jesus refers to yeast, which is used to make bread. See how you translated bread in 8:4b–c.

8:14b

except for one loaf: The word loaf refers to a single large unit or piece of bread. There was one loaf of bread in the boat when they arrived at the region of Dalmanutha in 8:10.

See how you translated “loaves” in 8:5a and 6:38.

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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