Luke 13:21

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Luke 13:18-22

Here is, I. The gospel's progress foretold in two parables, which we had before, Matt. 13:31-33. The kingdom of the Messiah is the kingdom of God, for it advances his glory; this kingdom was yet a mystery, and people were generally in the dark, and under mistakes, about it. Now, when we would describe a thing to those that are strangers to it, we choose to do it by similitudes. ?Such a person you know not, but I will tell you whom he is like;? so Christ undertakes here to show what the kingdom... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Luke 13:20-21

13:20-21 Again Jesus said, "To what will I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened." This is an illustration which Jesus took from his own home. In those days bread was baked at home. Leaven was a little piece of dough which had been kept over from the last baking and had fermented in the keeping. Leaven is regularly used in Jewish thought for influence, usually for bad influence, because the Jews... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Luke 13:21

It is like leaven ,.... Which is small in quantity, but is of a swelling, spreading quality; and fitly expresses the small beginnings of the Gospel ministry, and its increase, also the state and case of Gospel churches, and the nature of the grace of God; unless false doctrine should rather be meant, which privately, secretly, and by little and little, got into the churches of Christ, the kingdom of God, and spread itself all over them, as in the times of the papacy: which a woman took ;... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Luke 13:21

Like leaven - See this explained, Matthew 13:33 ; (note). read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 13:1-21

The grace and progress of God's kingdom. We saw at the close of last chapter how urgent a matter it is to get reconciled to God. Luke, in constructing his Gospel, introduces us next to a cognate thought—the necessity of repentance if judgment is to be escaped. Let us take up the orderly thoughts as they are laid before us in this passage. I. JUDGMENT EXECUTED UPON OTHERS IS A CALL TO REPENTANCE ADDRESSED TO US . (Verses 1-5.) There was a disposition then, as there... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 13:18-21

The Lord, is two little prophetic parables tells the people how strangely and mightily his religion would spread over the earth. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 13:20-21

The peaceableness and diffusiveness of Christian truth. The words of Christ may properly suggest to us— I. THE QUIET PEACEABLENESS OF THE CHRISTIAN METHOD . The starting and the spreading of "the kingdom of God" is like a woman taking and hiding leaven in some meal. How impossible to imagine any of the founders of the kingdoms or empires of this world thus describing the course of their procedure! The forces they employed were forces that shone, dazzled, smote, shattered;... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Luke 13:21

It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened . The first of these two little parables of the kingdom, "the mustard seed," portrayed its strangely rapid growth. The second, "the leaven," treats of the mighty inward transformation which the kingdom of God will effect in the hearts of men and women. Chemically speaking, leaven is a lump of sour dough in which putrefaction has begun, and, on being introduced into a far greater mass of... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Luke 13:18-21

See these parables explained in the notes at Matthew 13:31-32. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Luke 13:18-21

Luke 13:18-21. Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? After the Lord had thus silenced the ruler of the synagogue, and while he observed the rejoicings of the people, he reflected with pleasure on the reason and truth which so effectually supported his kingdom. For he delivered a second time the parables of the grain of mustard-seed, and of the leaven, to show the efficacious operation of the gospel upon the minds of men, and its speedy propagation through the world in spite of... read more

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