This parable is found in the Gospel of Matthew and Luke.
Matthew 13:33
He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”
Luke 13:20-21
20 And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”
Reference of leaven in scripture with negative conations:
1 Corinthians 5:6-8
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Meaning/Conclusion:
*The negative spin on this parable which some theologians and scholars believe to mean (I disagree with this assessment/interpretation):
Example excerpt from some commentary with a negative perspective:
"Physically, leaven is a lump of old dough in a high state of fermentation, or a substance that causes dough to rise (yeast). A natural reason for leaven's negative symbolism is the idea that fermentation implies a process of corruption. In the Old Testament, it is generally symbolic of sin and evil. In every instance that leaven appears in the Bible it represents evil; the only exception, some say, is Jesus' use of leaven in this parable. Knowing its Old Testament significance, however, He would have used the symbol in the same way."
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*ACTUALLY NOT TRUE here in the Old Testament leaven is not representing evil but is in use in ceremonies administered by Levite priests - Leviticus 7:13 permits leaven in Peace offerings & Leviticus 23:17 in First fruits of grain.
Leviticus 7:13 - With the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving he shall bring his offering with loaves of leavened bread.
Leviticus 23:17 - You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waived, made of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven, as firstfruits to the Lord.
*Context is key, and the use of leaven being likened to the Kingdom of Heaven does not line up (in my opinion) with what the commentators who say it is to represent false teaching being spread.
*The positive translation on this parable that many scholars believe to be the meaning (I also agree):
Next, Jesus compares the kingdom to leavening stirred into an enormous batch of flour. Leavening is anything that causes a chemical reaction that makes dough rise. This can include baking soda, baking powder, or yeast. Once it is added to the flour, the flour and leaven cannot be separated again. As the woman continues to stir, the leavening spreads throughout the flour until every bit is affected.
Matthew 24:14
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Example excerpt from some commentary with a positive perspective:
Although leaven is often a metaphor for something negative (Luke 12:1; 1 Corinthians 5:6; Galatians 5:7–9), here it is positive. The kingdom of God will permeate the entire world. Just as a little leaven works its way through the entire batch, once the kingdom of God is introduced its eventual completion is inevitable. The very nature of the world has been changed with Jesus' arrival and will continue to be through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
The woman in the parable takes leaven and hides it in the meal (Matthew 13:33). Hid is translated from the Greek word enkrupto, from which comes the English word "encrypt." The root word, krupto, means "to conceal".
This parable to me speaks of how the world is in darkness yet the message of the Gospel is active and at work in the earth and is spreading regardless of those that know it is even occurring. Also it's spread can’t be stopped, figured out, or thought about properly without God’s Spirit revealing it to us.
1 Corinthians 2:10-14
10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Thus it was in the world. The apostles, by their preaching, hid a handful of leaven in the great mass of mankind, and it had a strange effect; it put the world into a ferment, and in a sense turned it upside down (Acts 17:6), and by degrees made a wonderful change in the taste and relish of it
~Matthew Henry Commentary
Thus will the Gospel leaven the world and grace the Christian
~John Wesley
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