Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Ver. 6. Take heed and beware of the leaven] Or take knowledge of, and then take heed of, false doctrine; a which is fitly called leaven, because it soureth, swelleth, spreadeth, corrupteth the whole lump, and all this secretly, cunningly, easily, suddenly; neither can our eyes discern it from dough by the colour, but only our palate by the taste. Now the ear trieth words, as the mouth trieth meat, Job 34:3. Try all things before you trust anything. Those that sow false doctrine are somewhere in the Acts called λοιμοι, pests, botches, for their danger of infection, Acts 24:5 : some can carry their collusion so clearly, that if possible the very elect might be deceived; like serpents, they can sting without hissing; like cur-dogs, b suck your blood without biting. Nota est Arrii κυβεια, saith one, qua Constantini deride Nicovena elusit examen, by the cogging of a dye, by the adding of one iota, they corrupted the sense of the whole synod, c The Valentinians had a trick to persuade before they taught. d The ancient Anti-trinitarians set forth a base book of their doctrines under Cyprian's name, and sold it dog-cheap, that men might the sooner buy it, and be led by it, as Ruffinus complains. Take heed and beware of such: ye are not ignorant of their wiles.
Of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees] Κακοι μεν θριπες, κακοι ηδε και ιπες. Never a barrel better herring. (Erasm. Adag.) Howbeit, the Sadducees affected, by their very name, to be held the only just men; haply because they held that all the reward that righteous men are to look for is here in this world. (Josephus.) The occasion of this heresy is said to be this: When Antigonus taught that we must not serve God for wages, his scholars understood him as if he had utterly denied all future rewards or recompence attending a godly life: and thence framed their heresy, denying the resurrection, world to come, angels, devils, and lived as epicures and libertines.
a Οραν, cognitionis est, προσεχειν, autem cautelae.
b A dog: now always depreciative or contemptuous; a worthless, low-bred, or snappish dog. ŒD
c ομοιουσιον ponentes pro ομοουσιον .
d Habuerunt artificium quo prius persuaderent quam docerent. Tertull.