Commentary on Matthew, Mark, Luke - Volume 2.pdf

<strong>Commentary</strong> on Matthew, Mark, Luke - Volume 2
that you do not understand that the seven among four thousand,
it was not about bread that I told how many baskets of the
you to beware of the leaven of remains of the fragments did you
the Pharisees and of the carry away? And they said,
Sadducees? 12. Then they Seven. 21. And he said to them,
understood that he did not bid How is it that you do not
them beware of the doctrine of understand?
the Pharisees and of the
Sadducees.
Matthew 16:5. And when his disciples came. Here Christ takes occasion from the circumstance
that had just occurred 432 to exhort his disciples to beware of every abuse that makes an inroad on
sincere piety. The Pharisees had come a little before; the Sadducees joined them; and apart from
them stood Herod, a very wicked man, and an opponent and corrupter of sound doctrine. In the
midst of these dangers it was very necessary to warn his disciples to be on their guard; for, since
the human mind has a natural inclination towards vanity and errors, when we are surrounded by
wicked inventions, spurious doctrines, and other plagues of the same sort, nothing is more easy
than to depart from the true and simple purity of the word of God; and if we once become entangled
in these things, it will never be possible for the true religion to hold an entire sway over us. But to
make the matter more clear, let us examine closely the words of Christ.
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Along with the Pharisees Matthew mentions the
Sadducees Instead of the latter, Mark speaks of Herod Luke takes no notice of any but the Pharisees,
(though it is not absolutely certain that it is the same discourse of Christ which Luke relates,) and
explains the leaven to be hypocrisy In short, he glances briefly at this sentence, as if there were no
ambiguity in the words. Now the metaphor of leaven, which is here applied to false doctrine, might
have been employed, at another time, to denote the hypocrisy of life and conduct, or the same words
might even have been repeated a second time. But there is no absurdity in saying, that those
circumstances which are more copiously detailed by the other two Evangelists, in the order in which
they took place, are slightly noticed by Luke in a manner somewhat different, and out of their proper
place or order, but without any real contradiction. If we choose to adopt this conjecture, hypocrisy
will denote here something different from a pretended and false appearance of wisdom. It will
denote the very source and occasion of empty display, which, though it holds out an imposing
aspect to the eyes of men, is of no estimation in the sight of God. For, as Jeremiah (5:3) tells us
that the eyes of the Lord behold the truth, so they that believe in his word are instructed to maintain
true godliness in such a manner as to cleave to righteousness with an honest and perfect heart; as
in these words,
432 “Ici Christ prenant occasion des propos precedens;” — “here Christ taking occasion from the former discourse.”
195
John Calvin