leaven
Definition
Leaven (Greek: ζύμη, zumē) is a typological term used in the New Testament as an image for the pervasive working of sin and false teaching (1 Cor. 5:6-8; Gal. 5:8-9; Matt. 16:6). In George Warnock’s corpus leaven occupies a central hamartological position: the type of the Feast of Unleavened Bread — the feast that directly follows Passover — depicts the life free from sin that the believer is called to live on the basis of the atonement. The penetrating and spreading properties of leaven make it a fitting type for the working of sin in the congregation: a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Usage in the corpus
Cees Noordzij
Noordzij connects leaven directly to poneria (baseness) as the typological foundation of hamartiology. Old leaven is not sin in the abstract, but the low, earthly religiosity without spiritual transformation. From the Passover motif (Ex. 12) he sketches the contrast: “Old leaven is ‘low,’ ‘earthly,’ religiosity with ‘old’ rites and tradition, as the ‘Pharisees’ did (Matt. 23, Mark 7:13). Deliverance from Egypt comes only if we leave behind every ‘old,’ base interpretation and custom and ‘learn to eat new,’ only the unleavened bread of purity and truth.” [Noordzij, Bread and Wine, BW]
The Paul passage on which Noordzij draws (1 Cor. 5:6-8) connects leaven to Christ as the Passover lamb: because the Passover lamb has been slain, the old leaven must be purged away. Leaven thus represents not merely sin but the previous life-under-the-law, the religiosity that has not yet entered into the spiritual reality of Christ.
George Warnock
Warnock works out the type of Unleavened Bread in detail as a hamartological summons: “The penetrating and spreading characteristics of leaven make it to be a fitting type of malice and wickedness in a believer or in an assembly.” He marshals three scriptural texts as converging witnesses: Paul to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 5:6-8: “purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump”), Paul to the Galatians (Gal. 5:8-9: the influence of the Judaisers), and Jesus’ warning (Matt. 16:6: the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees).
Warnock formulates the spiritual consequence: “To observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, therefore is to live a life that is free from the corrupting influences of sin and the flesh.” Leaven/sin increases whenever the believer settles into self-complacency: “When an individual, an assembly, or a group of assemblies settles back in self-complacency, satisfied with their condition… stagnation immediately sets in, the leaven begins to function, and ‘malice and wickedness’ characterize the whole denomination.” [Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles, Ch. 3]