“In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”
In the meantime, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples: Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy — the warning repeats 11:39 in a new key, shifting from exposé to protective instruction. The disciples who have just heard Jesus demolish the Pharisees' external piety are now warned against the same internal corruption taking root in themselves.
Church Fathers on Luke 12:1
The Pharisees sought indeed to catch Jesus in His talk, that they might lead away the people from Him. But this design of theirs is reversed. For the people came all the more to Him gathered together by thousands, and so desirous to attach themselves to Christ, that they pressed one upon another. So mighty a thing is truth, so feeble every where deceit. Whence it is said, And when there were gathered together a great multitude, insomuch that they bode upon one another, he…
For they were false accusers; therefore Christ warned His disciples against them.
When leaven is praised it is as composing the bread of life, but when blamed it signifies a lasting and bitter maliciousness.
Read all 10 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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