1 Corinthians 5:6

THE MESSAGE

Your flip and callous arrogance in these things bothers me. You pass it off as a small thing, but it's anything but that. Yeast, too, is a "small thing," but it works its way through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast. So get rid of this "yeast." Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast. So let's live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread—simple, genuine, unpretentious.

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
Your proud talk is not good. You know the saying, "Just a little yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise."

Revised Standard Version
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Youre reioysinge is not good: knowe ye not that a lytle leve sowreth the whole lompe of dowe.

Hebrew Names Version
Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump?

International Standard Version
Your boasting is not good. You know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough, don't you?1 Corinthians 3:21; 4:19; 5:2; 15:33; Galatians 5:9; 2 Timothy 2:17; James 4:16;">[xr]

New American Standard Bible
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?

New Century Version
Your bragging is not good. You know the saying, "Just a little yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise."

Update Bible Version
Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Webster's Bible Translation
Your boasting [is] not good. Know ye not, that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

English Standard Version
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

World English Bible
Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump?

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Your glorying is not good: know ye not, that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

Weymouth's New Testament
It is no good thing--this which you make the ground of your boasting. Do you not know that a little yeast corrupts the whole of the dough?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Youre gloriyng is not good. Witen ye not, that a litil sourdow apeyrith al the gobet?

English Revised Version
Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

Berean Standard Bible
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?

Contemporary English Version
Stop being proud! Don't you know how a little yeast can spread through the whole batch of dough?

Amplified Bible
Your boasting [over the supposed spirituality of your church] is not good [indeed, it is vulgar and inappropriate]. Do you not know that [just] a little leaven ferments the whole batch [of dough, just as a little sin corrupts a person or an entire church]?

American Standard Version
Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

Bible in Basic English
This pride of yours is not good. Do you not see that a little leaven makes a change in all the mass?

Complete Jewish Bible
Your boasting is not good. Don't you know the saying, "It takes only a little hametz to leaven a whole batch of dough?"

Darby Translation
Your boasting [is] not good. Do ye not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Etheridge Translation
MY brethren, your boasting is not seemly. Know you not that a little leaven the whole mass leaveneth ?

Murdock Translation
Your glorying is not praiseworthy. Know ye not, that a little leaven leaveneth the whole mass?

King James Version (1611)
Your glorying is not good: know ye not that a little leauen leaueneth the whole lumpe?

New Living Translation
Your boasting about this is terrible. Don't you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough?

New Life Bible
It is not good for you to be proud of the way things are going in your church. You know a little yeast makes the whole loaf of bread rise.

New Revised Standard
Your boasting is not a good thing. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?

Geneva Bible (1587)
Your reioycing is not good: knowe ye not that a litle leauen, leaueneth ye whole lumpe?

George Lamsa Translation
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven will leaven the whole lump?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Unseemly, is your boast! Know ye not that, a little leaven, doth leaven, the whole of the lump?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven corrupteth the whole lump?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Your reioycing is not good. Knowe ye not, that a litle leauen leaueneth the whole lumpe ?

Good News Translation
It is not right for you to be proud! You know the saying, "A little bit of yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise."

Christian Standard Bible®
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough?

King James Version
Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

Lexham English Bible
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough?

Literal Translation
Your boast is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens all the lump?

Young's Literal Translation
Not good [is] your glorying; have ye not known that a little leaven the whole lump doth leaven?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Youre reioysinge is not good. Knowe ye not that a litle leuen sowereth the whole lompe of dowe.

Mace New Testament (1729)
Your levity is very indecent: don't you know that a little leaven infects the whole mass?

New English Translation
Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast affects the whole batch of dough?

New King James Version
Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Simplified Cowboy Version
I can't get over why y'all would be proud to still be riding with this cowboy. Don't y'all know even a little sin will spread through your outfit like tick fever?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?

Legacy Standard Bible
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Contextual Overview

¹I also received a report of scandalous sex within your church family, a kind that wouldn't be tolerated even outside the church: One of your men is sleeping with his stepmother. And you're so above it all that it doesn't even faze you! Shouldn't this break your hearts? Shouldn't it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn't this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with? ³I'll tell you what I would do. Even though I'm not there in person, consider me right there with you, because I can fully see what's going on. I'm telling you that this is wrong. You must not simply look the other way and hope it goes away on its own. Bring it out in the open and deal with it in the authority of Jesus our Master. Assemble the community—I'll be present in spirit with you and our Master Jesus will be present in power. Hold this man's conduct up to public scrutiny. Let him defend it if he can! But if he can't, then out with him! It will be totally devastating to him, of course, and embarrassing to you. But better devastation and embarrassment than damnation. You want him on his feet and forgiven before the Master on the Day of Judgment. ⁶Your flip and callous arrogance in these things bothers me. You pass it off as a small thing, but it's anything but that. Yeast, too, is a "small thing," but it works its way through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast. So get rid of this "yeast." Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast. So let's live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread—simple, genuine, unpretentious.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

glorying: 1 Corinthians 5:2, 1 Corinthians 3:21, 1 Corinthians 4:18, 1 Corinthians 4:19, James 4:16

a little: 1 Corinthians 15:33, Matthew 13:33, Matthew 16:6-12, Luke 13:21, Galatians 5:9, 2 Timothy 2:17

Reciprocal: Exodus 12:8 - unleavened Leviticus 2:11 - no leaven Leviticus 14:40 - take away Judges 20:7 - ye are all Psalms 106:35 - learned Proverbs 22:10 - General Mark 8:15 - the leaven of the Romans 6:3 - Know Romans 6:19 - unto iniquity 1 Corinthians 1:29 - General 1 Corinthians 3:16 - Know 1 Corinthians 4:6 - be puffed 1 Corinthians 4:7 - why 1 Corinthians 4:8 - ye are full 1 Corinthians 5:8 - not 1 Corinthians 8:1 - Knowledge 2 Corinthians 11:12 - they glory Galatians 2:13 - the other Galatians 6:13 - that they may Philippians 3:19 - whose glory 2 Timothy 2:16 - for Hebrews 12:15 - and thereby James 3:14 - glory

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Your glorying is not good,.... Their glorying in their outward flourishing condition, in their riches and wealth, and in their ministers, in their wisdom and parts when under such an humbling dispensation; and especially if their glorying was in the sin itself, and their connivance at it, it was far from being good, it was very criminal, as the consequence of it was dangerous:

know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? This, in nature, is what everybody knows; and the proverb, which is much used by the Jews f, was common in the mouths of all, and the meaning of it easy to be understood: thus, whether applied to the leaven of false doctrine, nothing is more manifest, than when this is let alone, and a stop is not put to it, it increases to more ungodliness; or to vice and immorality, as here; which if not taken notice of by a church, is not faithfully reproved and severely censured, as the case requires, will endanger the whole community; it may spread by example, and, under the connivance of the church, to the corrupting of good manners, and infecting of many.

f Neve Shalom apud Caphtor, fol. 41. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Your glorying - Your boasting; or confidence in your present condition, as if you were eminent in purity and piety.

Is not good - Is not well, proper, right. Boasting is never good; but it is especially wrong when, as here, there is an existing evil that is likely to corrupt the whole church. When people are disposed to boast, they should at once make the inquiry whether there is not some sin indulged in, on account of which they should be humbled and subdued. If all individual Christians, and all Christian churches, and all people of every rank and condition, would look at things as they are, they would never find occasion for boasting. It is only when we are blind to the realities of the ease, and overlook our faults, that we are disposed to boast. The reason why this was improper in Corinth, Paul states - that any sin would tend to corrupt the whole church, and that therefore they ought not to boast until that was removed.

A little leaven ... - A small quantity of leaven or yeast will pervade the entire mass of flour, or dough, and diffuse itself through it all. This is evidently a proverbial saying. It occurs also in Galatians 5:9. Compare the note at Matthew 13:33. A similar figure occurs also in the Greek classic writers - By leaven the Hebrews metaphorically understood whatever had the power of corrupting, whether doctrine, or example, or anything else. See the note at Matthew 16:6. The sense here is plain. A single sin indulged in, or allowed in the church, would act like leaven - it would pervade and corrupt the whole church, unless it was removed. On this ground, and for this reason, discipline should be administered, and the corrupt member should be removed.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Corinthians 5:6. Your glorying is not good. — You are triumphing in your superior knowledge, and busily employed in setting up and supporting your respective teachers, while the Church is left under the most scandalous corruptions-corruptions which threaten its very existence if not purged away.

Know ye not — With all your boasted wisdom, do you not know and acknowledge the truth of a common maxim, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? If this leaven-the incestuous person, be permitted to remain among you; if his conduct be not exposed by the most formidable censure; the flood-gates of impurity will be opened on the Church, and the whole state of Christianity ruined in Corinth.