Luke 12 - Indepthbible.org

2516(...continued)Amos 4:5. Also, see the article by Hans Windisch in Theological Dictionary of the NewTestament II, pp. 902-06.Herbert Danby points out that in the time that the Mishnaic regulations were being formulated(2nd century B.C. to end of 2nd century A.D.) #meªx' was understood to include "Anything,food or not food (Pesachim 3:1) made from or containing what is made from grain, flour or branof wheat, barley, spelt, goat-grass, or oats (Hallah 1:12), which, from contact with water or liquidcontaining water, has fermented or is in the process of fermenting." (The Mishnah, p. 136, footnote12) There is no mention of any symbolical meaning of #meªx' in the Tractate Pesachim, but,as Windisch points out, there is in Paul, as seen in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 (where the leaven isunderstood in terms of boasting, malice and evil) and Galatians 5:9 (where it is part of a proverb,“a little yeast leavens the whole lump of dough”).There is also similar symbolic usage in the writings of the first century Alexandrian Jewishphilosopher, Philo, who identifies av,zuma [‘non-leavened’] as humility, and zu,mh as pride, or sinfullust, or vain pretension (p. 904). Luke's statement concerning the meaning of zu,mh, as being"play-acting," or "hypocrisy," is another example of understanding zu,mh metaphorically. Onceagain, this kind of understanding fits in well with Jesus' criticisms of the Jewish religious leadershipin the first century--which was inclined to take such a matter as zu,mh exclusively in its literalmeaning, and concentrated on exactly how to deal with the passover sacrifice and its contact withleaven (as in Mishnah Pesachiym), but Jesus is much more concerned with the contaminatingeffects of the kind of perversion of character that occurs when people are devoid of sincerity andhonesty, and their religion becomes little more than a matter of “play-acting." See the article by D.Kellermann on #meªx in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament IV, pp. 487-93.Fitzmyer notes that "'Leaven'...though often called 'yeast,' was actually old, sour doughwhich had been stored away (see Luke 13:21) and subjected to fermenting juices until it was tobe used in new dough as a rising agent (to make the new bread light)...The fermenting involvedsome corruption. Its all-pervasive effect was figuratively used in a good sense...as well as in abad sense (as here)..." (2, pp. 954-55)2517The (nominative feminine singular) noun u`po,krisij first meant in Herodotus simply an"answer," and then came to mean in Attic Greek "playing a part," as for example in the Greektragedies, with no sinister connotations, where individual actors could play a role either well orpoorly. But then, from this the noun came to describe a serious character flaw, that of "pretense,"and "outward show" of one kind of character, but beneath that outward show a quite different realperson; so that in Hellenistic Judaism u`po,krisij became an unquestionably evil thing, and this isthe meaning that is found throughout the New Testament. The noun is found in the LXX. SeeJob 34:30; 36:13, in both of which u`pokrith,j is used to translate chaneph, "Godless," "profane,""irreligious"; also the related passages 2 Maccabees 6:25 (along with verses 21 and 24; hereu`pokrith,j along with u`pokriqh/nai are used); Psalms of Solomon 4:6, 20; 4 Maccabees 6:15,(continued...)1219