Galatians 5:9
New International Version
“A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”

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

English Standard Version
A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

Berean Standard Bible
A little leaven works through the whole batch of dough.

Berean Literal Bible
A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

King James Bible
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

New King James Version
A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

New American Standard Bible
A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.

NASB 1995
A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.

NASB 1977
A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.

Legacy Standard Bible
A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

Amplified Bible
A little leaven [a slight inclination to error, or a few false teachers] leavens the whole batch [it perverts the concept of faith and misleads the church].

Christian Standard Bible
A little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
A little yeast leavens the whole lump of dough.

American Standard Version
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
A little leaven ferments the entire lump.

Contemporary English Version
A little yeast can change a whole batch of dough,

Douay-Rheims Bible
A little leaven corrupteth the whole lump.

English Revised Version
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
A little yeast spreads through the whole batch of dough.

Good News Translation
"It takes only a little yeast to make the whole batch of dough rise," as they say.

International Standard Version
A little yeast spreads through the whole batch of dough.

Literal Standard Version
A little leaven leavens the whole lump;

Majority Standard Bible
A little leaven works through the whole batch of dough.

New American Bible
A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough.

NET Bible
A little yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise!

New Revised Standard Version
A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough.

New Heart English Bible
A little yeast grows through the whole lump.

Webster's Bible Translation
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

Weymouth New Testament
A little yeast corrupts the whole of the dough.

World English Bible
A little yeast grows through the whole lump.

Young's Literal Translation
a little leaven the whole lump doth leaven;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Freedom in Christ
8Such persuasion does not come from the One who calls you. 9A little leaven works through the whole batch of dough. 10I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is troubling you will bear the judgment, whoever he may be.…

Cross References
Matthew 13:33
He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened."

1 Corinthians 5:6
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough?


Treasury of Scripture

A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

Matthew 23:33
Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

Matthew 16:6-12
Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees…

Mark 8:15
And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.

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Galatians 5
1. He wills them to stand in their liberty,
3. and not to observe circumcision;
13. but rather love, which is the sum of the law.
19. He lists the works of the flesh,
22. and the fruits of the Spirit,
25. and exhorts to walk in the Spirit.














(9) A little leaven . . .--A pregnant expression, which leaves a good deal to the reader to supply. The proverb is true which says that a little leaven leavens the whole mass of dough. And so, in your case, the malcontents may be few, but they will soon ruin the whole Church. It seems decidedly more in accordance with the context to take the "little leaven" as referring rather to a few seceders than to a little bad doctrine.

Verse 9. - A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump (μικρὰ ζύμη ὅλον τὸ φύραμα ζυμοῖ); a little leaven leaveneth the whole kneading. This proverb is cited again in precisely the same words in 1 Corinthians 5:6, with the words prefixed, "know ye not that." In both passages the leaven is an element of evil, and so also in Matthew 16:11; but our Lord applied it also to an element of good, which was to penetrate (apparently) the whole mass of humanity (Matthew 13:33). What has the apostle precisely in his view as the leaven in the present instance? In 1 Corinthians 5:6 it is unchastity, which, if once tolerated in a Church, especially amid so licentious a population as that of Corinth, would be but too likely to impregnate balefully the sentiment of the whole community. And here likewise, as there, the leaven does not appear to denote, as some have supposed, the individuals in whom some noxious element was conspicuous, but that noxious element itself; namely, to judge from the colouring of the immediate context, the "readiness to hearken" to" another gospel," which was promising comfort and sense of acceptance, more or less, in the practice of at least some of the outward ordinances of Judaism. This leaven had already begun to work, embodying itself in the observance, pedantically and ostentatiously, of the days and feasts of the Jewish calendar (Galatians 4:10). Now, a movement of mind manifesting itself in some form of external religionism, when once it begins to show itself in a Christian community, has a great tendency to spread. For always, in every Church, there are unstable souls, too often not a few, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth; which have never truly discerned Christ's all-sufficiency for their spiritual needs, or have lost any superficial persuasion of it once enjoyed; and which, consciously unsatisfied with what they as yet possess, and nevertheless only toying with spiritual things, are ready to adopt almost any novelty of religious behaviour offering itself for their acceptance. The particular form in which the external religionism of seekers after another gospel clothes itself varies according to varying tastes or circumstances. Among the Galatian Christians such persons were now beginning to feel attracted by that venerable kind of outward piety exhibited by devout or professedly devout Jews; but in their own practice committing the fatal blunder of mistaking the external shows of saintliness for the reality of saintliness, and but too willing to make the former serve in lieu of the latter. The danger of the leaven spreading was, in the present case, increased by the instability of character and the quick impulsiveness belonging to the Celtic temperament. The true antidote to this "leaven" is in every age the same; namely, that which the apostle in this Epistle strives to administer - the gospel of the righteousness and Spirit of Christ crucified.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
A little
μικρὰ (mikra)
Adjective - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3398: Little, small. Including the comparative mikroteros apparently a primary word; small (figuratively) dignity).

yeast
ζύμη (zymē)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 2219: Leaven, ferment, both lit. and met. Probably from zeo; ferment.

leavens
ζυμοῖ (zymoi)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 2220: To leaven, ferment. From zume; to cause to ferment.

the
τὸ (to)
Article - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

whole
ὅλον (holon)
Adjective - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3650: All, the whole, entire, complete. A primary word; 'whole' or 'all', i.e. Complete, especially as noun or adverb.

batch [of dough].
φύραμα (phyrama)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 5445: A mass or lump, as of bread dough. From a prolonged form of phuro, mean to knead; a mass of dough.


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NT Letters: Galatians 5:9 A little yeast grows through the whole (Gal. Ga)
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