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NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Part III

Verse 12: Then the disciples understood what Jesus meant. He was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread. He was telling them to guard against the interpretation of the Law by the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Finally, they got it! Jesus spent a great deal of time explaining to them the purpose of yeast and how it affects the dough,¹ but they failed to make the spiritual connection with the “yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees,” which was their interpretation of how to live according to the Law. In many instances, they made up laws themselves that had nothing to do with what God gave to Moses.

Although this may not have had any influence on their thinking, the Jews did differentiate between yeast used by non-Jews and yeast used by Pharisees and Teachers of the Law.² Our Lord’s disciples no doubt knew about the Jewish restrictions on using yeast bread made by non-Jews for their own use and consumption.³ However, now they saw clearly that what Jesus is really talking about was the theology and philosophy used by the Pharisees in their interpretation of God’s Word. This is what Jesus’ labels as yeast.

The Jews also used yeast as a metaphor, as we see in this prayer: “O Sovereign of the Universe, You know full well that our will is to perform Your will, and what prevents us from doing so? The yeast in the dough and the subjection to the foreign Powers. May it be Your will to deliver us from their rule so that we may return to perform the statutes of Your will with a perfect heart!”⁴ In their comment on this prayer, Jewish scholars say that this yeast refers to: “evil impulses, which causes a ferment in the heart.”⁵

So by our Lord using yeast in this fashion, it was not new to the mind of His Jewish followers. One of their own Rabbis once said: “How poor must be the yeast when the one who kneaded it in the dough himself says it is bad!”⁶ In other words, Jesus was not surprised at the corrupt interpretation of Scripture by the scribes and Pharisees. One well-known Jewish Rabbi states: “God acknowledges that man fights a losing battle with his evil urge from the day he has been born.⁷ God admits that the prevailing circumstances favor the evil urge, Satan.”⁸

But the next question is this: What were the Pharisees and Sadducees teaching that Jesus was trying to warn His disciples against. The Pharisees represented the educated elite in Judah who prided themselves on how they controlled and dominated the religious affairs of the Jewish people. They were self-appointed experts on the Scriptures. And anyone who disagreed with them was in danger of being censored, ostracized, imprisoned or even put to death. When Jesus failed to fold under their pressure, they committed themselves to getting rid of Him, even by killing Him if necessary. The one major conflict between them and Jesus involved their belief that the verbal traditions of ancient rabbis were necessary for understanding the purpose and meaning of the Law while Jesus said that the Law, as given by God, was clear enough and did not need their interpretation.

On the other hand, the Sadducees agreed with Jesus against the Pharisees as far as seeing the Torah, or written law, as the sole source of divine authority. However, as priests, they felt they were the ones to properly interpret what the law said to everyday living and faith. They taught that man has free will and can choose between good and evil. But they harshly disagreed with Jesus by denying that the soul was immortal by claiming there was no such thing as an afterlife. Therefore, there would be no resurrection or rewards for the faithful, and punishment for the wicked.

Church scholar Jerome concludes that our Lord’s warning about adding the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees to the Word would result in false teaching. He writes: “Remember the yeast about which even the apostle speaks when he writes, ‘A little yeast spoils the whole dough.’⁹ The sort of yeast of which he speaks is something like the kind that Marcion and Valentinus¹⁰ and all heretics exhibited. It is to be avoided by all means. Yeast has this power, that, if mixed with flour, that which seemed small would grow into something larger and draw to its own essence the whole loaf. So too with heretical doctrine, if it tosses even a tiny spark into your heart, in a short time a huge combustion grows beneath and draws to itself a person’s entire substance. It was then that they finally understood that he had not meant them to beware simply of the yeast in the bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”¹¹

Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who was a Pharisee, describes the Sadducees errors.

The Pharisees are those who are esteemed most skillful in the exact explanation of their laws and introduce the first sect. These ascribe all to fate [or providence], and to God, and yet allow, that to act what is right, or the contrary, is principally in the power of men, although fate does co-operate in every action. They say that all souls are incorruptible, but that the souls of good men only are removed into other bodies, – but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment. But the Sadducees are those that compose the second order, and take away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned in our doing or not doing what is evil; and they say, that to act what is good, or what is evil, is at men’s own choice, and that the one or the other belongs so to every one, that they may act as they please. They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in Hades. Moreover, the Pharisees are friendly to one another, and are for the exercise of harmony, and regard for the public; but the behavior of the Sadducees one towards another is in some degree wild, and their conversation with those that are of their own party is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them. And this is what I had to say concerning the philosophic sects among the Jews.¹²

What I would now explain is this, that the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances handed down from their fathers, which are not written in the laws of Moses; and for that reason it is that the Sadducees reject them, and say that we are to treat those observances as being obligatory which are in the written word, but are not to observe what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers. And because of these things many great disputes and differences have arisen among them, while the Sadducees are able to persuade none but the rich, and have the populace fawning over them, the Pharisees have the multitudes on their side.”¹³

One thing that Jesus emphasized is that every word is important to understanding the whole message in its context. Let me illustrate the importance of examining every word. While teaching at the European Bible Seminary in Switzerland, one day I gave my class a quick quiz. One question read: “Which wife did Joseph marry first, Leah or Rachael?” They all got it wrong and couldn’t understand why until I pointed out that it wasn’t Joseph, but his father Jacob who married Leah first. I did this to show them how careful they needed to be when receiving instruction. Sometimes I feel agitated when I hear preachers say, “Jesus doesn’t care who you are, or what you are, or what you’ve done, He loves you anyway.” I want to jump up and say: “Of course He cares! Otherwise, God would not have sent His Son to die on the cross, if He didn’t care.”¹⁴

Verse 13: Jesus then went north to the area of Caesarea Philippi where He asked His followers, “Who do people here say I am?”

One Early Church scholar was quizzical about this venture of Jesus to the area of Caesarea Philippi. He writes: “Caesarea Philippi is outside Judea in the region of the Gentiles. Why therefore did our Lord not examine His own disciples within the borders of Judea? Why did He go far north into the territory of the Gentiles? But as our insignificance [as Gentiles] works against us, He questioned the disciples in Gentile territory. The result was that by the true and everlasting conviction of the blessed apostle Peter—what flesh and blood had not unveiled, the Father revealed from the heavens. Through faith, the Gentiles rather than the Jews would come to acknowledge the Son of God. This indeed occurred in the city of Caesarea—Cornelius who was first among the Gentiles to believe with all his own household, through the holy apostle Peter. The Lord was not inclined to question His own disciples in Judea when the Jews did not believe that he was the Son of God but regarded him merely as the son of Joseph.”¹⁵

Epiphanius certainly has an interesting point. Since, by this time, many people in Galilee had accepted Him as the Messiah, but the Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees were still skeptical and most of them denounced Him as not being the Anointed One from God. Jesus had also had several contacts with non-Jews living in this area, and they too seemed quite open to accepting Him as a Prophet sent by God to bring the Jews back to living according to God’s Word. So what better way of getting a more authentic test of what people thought of Him was to go outside the area where these religious leaders had strong influence and control.

Early Bible scholars tell us that Cæsarea Philippi was called Paneas in ancient times, named after the mountain of Panium, or Mount Hermon, at the foot of which it was situated, near the springs of Jordan; but Philip the tetrarch, the son of Herod the Great, having rebuilt it, gave it the name of Cæsarea in honor of Tiberius, the reigning emperor, and he added his own name to it, to distinguish it from another Cæsarea on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Jews referred to these two Caesareas as: “East Kesrin and West Kesrin.”¹⁶ It was afterwards named Neronias by young Herod Agrippa, in honor of Nero; and in the time of William of Tyre, it was called Belinas. It was, according to Josephus, a day’s journey from Sidon, and 14 miles from the lake of Phiala; and, according to Abul Feda,¹⁷ a journey of a day and a half from Damascus.¹⁸

Many have confused it with Dan, (or Leshem); but Eusebius and Jerome expressly affirm that Dan was four miles from Paneas, on the road to Tyre. One European visitor in the 1700’s said that it was called Banias, a hamlet of about twenty miserable huts, inhabited by Muslims.¹⁹ But Swiss traveler and geographer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt said it contained about 150 houses, inhabited by Turks, Greeks, etc.

But more important than the location, is the question Jesus asks His disciples. He knew what the priests, scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees were saying about Him, but what about the general public. Historian Pliny tells us: “The river Jordanes rises from the spring of Panias, which has given its surname to Cæsarea.”²⁰ At the time of Pliny’s writing, he tells us that the Arabs called the Jordan River, “Bahr-el-Arden.” He also says: “Cæsarea Philippi also bore the name of Panias. It was situated at the south of Mount Hermon, on the Jordan, just below its source. It was built by Philip the Tetrarch, 3 B.C. King Agrippa called it Neronias; but it soon lost that name.”²¹

Jesus did not explain to His followers why He chose this site to ask this question. After all, this would be a 32 mile round trip from Bethsaida where He had been ministering. But we do know that in the open-air Pan Shrine, next to the cave mouth, there was a large niche, in which a statue of Pan (a half-goat, half-human creature) stood, with a large erect phallus, worshipped for its fertility properties. Surrounding him in the wall were many smaller niches, in which were statues of his attending nymphs. On the shrine in front of these niches, worshippers of Pan would congregate and partake in bizarre sexual rites, including copulation with goats – worshipped for their relationship to Pan.

Now, we don’t know for sure where they were standing in the Caesarea Philippi region, but Jesus’ next statement gives us an idea that they may have been standing within sight of the Rock of the Gods. This has led one unnamed Christian writer to suggest: “Might it be possible that He took His disciples to the most degenerate place possible to tell them: “THIS is where I want you to build my church. I want you to go out into the repugnant, degenerate places, where God is not even known. I want you to go out to places that make Caesarea Philippi look tame, and THAT is where I want you to build my church.” Because that is exactly what they did. They went to places in Asia Minor and the ends of the earth, where “gods” were worshipped in unspeakably awful manners and where Christians would be persecuted in a horrific manner, and they gave their lives doing EXACTLY what they were told to do by their Rabbi.”