Bible Strands
Mark 8:15
“Watch out!” He cautioned them. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus speaks to his disciples immediately after the feeding of the four thousand, preceding their realization and discussion of the single loaf in the boat.
The words — διεστέλλετο (diestelleto) = He was instructing and ὁρᾶτε (horate) = do watch out. The text states Jesus uses these terms to issue a direct warning against the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod.
The thread — The leaven metaphor appears in 1 Corinthians 5:6 regarding corrupting boasting, and Jesus repeats a similar warning about Pharisaical leaven in Matthew 16:6 and 16:11.
Why it lands — It commands readers to identify and reject pervasive corrupting influences in teaching before they spread, applying the warning to both religious authorities and political powers.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough?
- Matthew 16:6 “Watch out!” Jesus told them. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
- Matthew 16:11 How do you not understand that I was not telling you about bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
- Mark 12:13 Later, they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to catch Jesus in His words.
- Luke 12:1 In the meantime, a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling one another. Jesus began to speak first to His disciples: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
- Exodus 12:18 In the first month you are to eat unleavened bread, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.
- Leviticus 2:11 No grain offering that you present to the LORD may be made with leaven, for you are not to burn any leaven or honey as a food offering to the LORD.
- Proverbs 19:27 If you cease to hear instruction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge.
- Matthew 14:1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus
- 1 Timothy 6:13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who made the good confession in His testimony before Pontius Pilate: