at the destruction of the heavens ; cf. ch. xxiv. 30, Acts ii. 19. Nay more, not even then was it true that were there no signs from heaven ; see ch. iii. 16. — xai xaraX/Twv avrovg acrJjX^g, and He left them and departed} Just severity ; see Tit. iii. 10. Our Lord never left the people in this manner.
6. ' Opan, take heed) It is necessary to be careful of the purity of doctrine. — £u/.*»j£, leaven) The language is metaphorical, and therefore enigmatical ; and by it our Lord tries the progress of the disciples, who had already been long His hearers. The metaphor, however, alludes to the thoughts with which the mind of the disciples was then overflowing ; q. d., " Do not care about the want of earthly bread, but about the perilous aliments which the hypocrites offer to your souls." It is probable that the disciples had forgotten the loaves, because the controversy raised by the Pharisees and Sadducees (ver. 1) had put them into a state of anxiety and temptation. The Pharisees and Sad ducees were elsewhere strongly opposed to each other, but yet on this occasion they conspire together against Jesus (see ver. 1) ; therefore He included both of them under the one title of hypocrites (ver. 3), and guards His disciples at once against both in this passage. And their hypocrisy itself was this leaven (Luke xii. 1), induced by which, they did not ac knowledge the very sufficient signs of the present time, but, on the contrary, demanded the signs of another time ; whence the plural xaipuv, times, is used in ver. 3.1 The believer both be lieves and speaks ; he who separates either of these from the other is an unbeliever, is a hypocrite ; see Gnomon on ch. xxiv. 51. Neither therefore is he free from hypocrisy who has little faith ; see ver. 8. The disciples are most opportunely admonished to beware of this leaven, as they did not yet under stand it from the present signs ; see ver. II.2
1 Nay more, every error of all sects is the one leaven, which the old man cherishes. — V. g.
2 There is also in this a suitableness of words [His mode of address], inas much as the disciples, who had been present, and themselves taken a part in the proceedings, on the occasion of the divine miracles which had been twice performed in the case of bread a short time before, were feeling the need of bread, now that a sudden want of it had arisen. For that reason, they might have the more deeply been mindful of spiritual bread, and have seen clearly the need of sound doctrine. — V. g.