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“What does leaven symbolize in the Bible?”

Lots of things, none of them good. Let me try to make that case.

Symbols can be tricky things. Where our Bible interprets a symbol, we generally have no difficulty at all, but there are also times when the meaning of a symbol is open to question because the Holy Spirit has not told us plainly, “This signifies that.” Leaven was unacceptable to God in some contexts and acceptable in others. We will need to find an explanation for that.

The Old Testament uses leaven as an illustration. The New Testament unpacks its meaning.

Getting a Rise Out of It

Leaven is simply a substance used to produce fermentation in dough so that it rises, otherwise you end up with some variant of flatbread. Yeast is a form of leaven, but there are others. Essentially, fermentation is controlled rot, desirable from ancient times because it enhances flavor. Leaven makes bread lighter and larger, appearing to have more substance than its ingredients alone can account for.

The earliest reference to leaven in scripture appears in Genesis. Lot entertained two angels in Sodom who later saved his life, offering them overnight hospitality and preparing them a feast. The writer of Genesis notes that he baked them unleavened bread. Perhaps Lot’s spiritual instincts were sharper than is sometimes thought.

The writers of the Hebrew Bible used the word “unleavened” 53 times in 42 verses. The majority of these appear in the Law of Moses, where no leaven was to be used in any bread associated with the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Passover passage alone (Exodus 12) refers to unleavened bread six times, requiring that Israelite houses be completely free of leaven for seven full days, and noting that anyone who ate any leaven at all during this period was to be cut off from the congregation. When God gave an instruction that had spiritual significance, he did not mess around.

Leaven in the Old Testament

I say spiritual significance, because leaven wasn’t forbidden in Israel outside of the sacrificial system and certain feasts of YHWH. But when the priests were consecrated, the offering included unleavened bread. Grain offerings were always unleavened. Thanksgiving offerings were always unleavened. The celebration of a successful Nazirite vow included a basket of unleavened bread. In fact, Exodus 23 stipulates in general, “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened.” Rabbinic writers always associate leaven with corruption, but this seems to be a conclusion they drew rather than anything explicitly revealed by God in Old Testament times.

Several references to “unleavened” in the historical books record instances when certain parties ate or offered bread without leaven in obedience to the law. In the prophets, Amos condemns Israel for violating the law concerning the thanksgiving offerings by including leaven. The prophet declared this a shameless act, and one of the reasons Assyria would sweep the ten tribes away into exile.

Leaven in the New Testament

Wherever the meaning of leaven is spelled out in the gospels, the Lord Jesus always associated the symbol with contamination or wickedness in some form. In Matthew, he uses it as an analogy for the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees, which he strongly opposed. In Luke, he compares it with hypocrisy.

The apostles agree. Paul tells the Corinthians, “Cleanse out the old leaven”, equating leaven with malice and wickedness, and warns the Galatians, “A little leaven [legalism] leavens the whole lump.” In case it’s not obvious, that would be a bad thing. The leaven he speaks of is toxic.

Nowhere in the New Testament is leaven used to symbolize healthy growth. It refers consistently to infections or contamination of the human heart.

Examining the Exceptions

Only in two instances were leavened loaves an acceptable offering under the Law of Moses, and to understand why, we would have to look more closely at the symbolism. What seems obvious is that no leaven was ever acceptable to God in any offering that spoke of Christ and his work. Any association with the incarnate Son of God that might suggest corruption, decay or false appearances would have been entirely inappropriate. This is especially the case with the Passover, where leaven was most strictly forbidden. The Passover lamb spoke unambiguously of Christ. The first Passover was associated with salvation from literal death, and heralded the spiritual salvation we so richly enjoy. Introducing leaven into the Passover meal would have destroyed the symbolism and deeply insulted the one symbolized.

Not so with every offering. The Feast of Firstfruits was designed to portray Christ’s resurrection in symbolic form. The priest waved a sheaf to announce the harvest, signifying the Christ would be raised from the dead. (Obviously a sheaf of fresh grain has no leaven.) Paul calls the Lord Jesus “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep”. Christ has gone into the heavens and sat down at the right hand of God. The sheaf is the promise that a great harvest of the resurrected dead in Christ will follow.

Two Leavened Loaves

What comes next? On the Jewish calendar, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) followed Firstfruits. Leviticus 23 details how two leavened loaves were to be waved before the Lord. What do these symbolize? They speak of the great harvest of redeemed human souls that Christ’s death and resurrection made possible. I’ll let John Ritchie explain:

“The two wave-loaves were baked ‘with leaven’. Leaven is everywhere and always the type of corruption. [Christ] was intrinsically holy in His character and ways. Not so with His people. Even after conversion, and with the Spirit indwelling, the believer is not personally free from corruption. The two loaves were thus presented to Jehovah, with leaven in them, but under the shelter and covered with the preciousness of these offerings. The moment that either individual Christians, or God’s Churches on earth, suppose that personal devotion or service, or that any measure of obedience to the truth give title before God, or that gifts and graces eradicate the corruption that dwells within, they will find out sooner or later that they have been the object of Satan’s deception.”

So then, even on the rare occasions when leaven was allowable, its symbolism remains unchanged. The presence of leaven says nothing good about man. It reflects his fallen nature even though redeemed. As Ritchie puts it, leaven always signifies corruption. But the wave-loaves represent God’s people, not the Lord Jesus. I have heard it suggested one loaf represents Jews and the other Gentiles. That is not obvious in the text, but it accounts for the number of loaves. Either way, the leavened loaves remind us that the unacceptable only becomes acceptable in Christ. We are made fit for the presence of God only in him, notwithstanding our imperfections.

Everywhere and Always

So then, leaven in scripture may symbolize all kinds of sins of the heart: hypocrisy, malice, wickedness, legalism, phony religiosity … you name it. Christ and his apostles gave us these interpretations, and we need have no doubt about them. They are entirely consistent with the symbolism of the Old Testament and the Jewish attitude toward leaven under the Law.

With that in mind, if you ever come across a passage where leaven initially appears to be a good thing, or a theological system that teaches the same, chances are you (and they) are not interpreting it correctly. Give it a little more thought.