⁹ This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough!

³³ Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for “bad company corrupts good character.”

⁶ Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? ⁷ Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.^[a]

²¹ It is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.”

¹⁵ As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”

A Warning against Hypocrisy

12 Meanwhile, the crowds grew until thousands were milling about and stepping on each other. Jesus turned first to his disciples and warned them, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees—their hypocrisy.

⁶ “Watch out!” Jesus warned them. “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

⁷ At this they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread. ⁸ Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “You have so little faith! Why are you arguing with each other about having no bread? ⁹ Don’t you understand even yet? Don’t you remember the 5,000 I fed with five loaves, and the baskets of leftovers you picked up? ¹⁰ Or the 4,000 I fed with seven loaves, and the large baskets of leftovers you picked up? ¹¹ Why can’t you understand that I’m not talking about bread? So again I say, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’”

¹² Then at last they understood that he wasn’t speaking about the yeast in bread, but about the deceptive teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

¹⁷ This kind of talk spreads like cancer,^[a] as in the case of Hymenaeus and Philetus.

³³ Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?