The Parable of the Leaven (Matthew 13:33; Luke 13:20–21)

The texts below are quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations; nothing is paraphrased.

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St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407)

Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily 46 (on Matthew 13:33) Source: trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 10. Public domain. Full text: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/200146.htm

On the leaven as the power by which a few disciples would change the whole world:

For as this converts the large quantity of meal into its own quality, even so shall you convert the whole world. And see His wisdom, in that He brings in things natural, implying that as the one cannot fail to take place, so neither the other. For say not this to me: What shall we be able to do, twelve men, throwing ourselves upon so vast a multitude? Nay, for this very thing most of all makes your might conspicuous, that you mix with the multitude and are not put to flight.

On the leaven being mixed and buried, yet transforming all into its own condition:

As therefore the leaven then leavens the lump when it comes close to the meal, and not simply close, but so as to be actually mixed with it (for He said not, put, simply, but hid); so also ye, when you cleave to your enemies, and are made one with them, then shall you get the better of them. And as the leaven, though it be buried, yet is not destroyed, but little by little transmutes all into its own condition; of like sort will the event be here also, with respect to the gospel.

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St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke, Sermon XCVIII (on Luke 13:20–21) Source: trans. R. Payne Smith, 1859. Public domain. Full text: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_luke_09_sermons_89_98.htm

On how the kingdom likened to leaven, though small, lays hold of the whole:

And the same method of explanation will hold good of the kingdom of God being also compared unto leaven. For the leaven is small in quantity, yet forthwith it seizes upon the whole mass, and quickly communicates to it its own properties.

On the word of God working inwardly to make the believer holy and spiritual:

And the word of God operates in us in a similar manner: for when admitted within us, it makes us holy and without blame, and pervading our mind and heart, it renders us spiritual ...

On receiving the divine leaven so that we ourselves are found spiritually unleavened:

We receive therefore the rational and divine leaven in our mind and understanding, that by this precious and holy and pure leaven we may be found spiritually unleavened, as having in us none of the wickedness of the world, but being rather pure and holy and partakers of Christ ...

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Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

Questions on the Gospels (Quaestiones Evangeliorum) I.12 (on the leaven) Source: as preserved in the Catena Aurea of Thomas Aquinas, trans. J. H. Newman, 1841. Public domain.

On the leaven as love, the woman as wisdom, and the three measures as the whole person:

The leaven signifies love, because it causes activity and fermentation; by the woman He means wisdom. By the three measures He intends either those three things in man, with the whole heart, with the whole soul, with the whole mind; or the three degrees of fruitfulness, the hundred-fold, the sixty-fold, the thirty-fold; or those three kinds of men, Noe, Daniel, and Job.

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St. Jerome (c. 347–420)

From his Commentary on Matthew, as preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain.

On the woman as the Apostolic preaching or the Church, hiding the understanding of the Scriptures in spirit, soul, and body:

The woman who takes the leaven and hides it, seems to me to be the Apostolic preaching, or the Church gathered out of divers nations. She takes the leaven, that is, the understanding of the Scriptures, and hides it in three measures of meal, that the three, spirit, soul, and body, may be brought into one, and may not differ among themselves.

On the three parts of the soul rightly ordered by the leaven of Holy Scripture:

So we also if we have received the evangelic leaven of Holy Scripture, may possess in our reason prudence, in our anger hatred against vice, in our desire love of the virtues.

On the woman as the Church mingling the faith of the Trinity, with a caution against building dogma on parables:

I will further mention an interpretation of some; that the woman is the Church, who has mingled the faith of man in three measures of meal, namely, belief in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; which when it has fermented into one lump, brings us not to a threefold God, but to the knowledge of one Divinity. This is a pious interpretation; but parables and doubtful solutions of dark things, can never bestow authority on dogmas.

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St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310–367)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain.

On the Lord Himself as the leaven that communicates its received power to its own kind:

The Lord compares Himself to leaven; for leaven is produced from meal, and communicates the power that it has received to a heap of its own kind.

On the three measures as the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospels made one:

The woman, that is the Synagogue, taking this leaven hides it, that is by the sentence of death; ... that is equally in the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospels, makes all one; so that what the Law ordains, that the Prophets announce, that is fulfilled in the developments of the Gospels.