Galatians 5:9
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
American King James Version (AKJV)
A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
American Standard Version (ASV)
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
A little leaven makes a change in all the mass.
Webster's Revision
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
World English Bible
A little yeast grows through the whole lump.
English Revised Version (ERV)
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
Clarke's Galatians 5:9 Bible Commentary
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump - A proverbial expression, see 1 Corinthians 5:6, very aptly applied to those who receive the smallest tincture of false doctrine, relative to the things essential to salvation, which soon influences the whole conduct, so that the man becomes totally perverted. They might have argued, "It is a small thing, and should not be made a subject of serious controversy, whether we be circumcised or not." Granted, that in itself it is a small matter; but, as every man who is circumcised is a debtor to do the whole law, Galatians 5:3, then your circumcision leads necessarily to your total perversion; as the little portion of leaven, mixed with the batch, soon leavens the whole lump.
Barnes's Galatians 5:9 Bible Commentary
A little leaven ... - This is evidently a proverbial expression; see it explained in the notes at 1 Corinthians 5:6. Its meaning here is, that the embracing of the errors which they had adopted was to be traced to some influence existing among themselves, and acting like leaven. It may either mean that there was existing among them from the first a slight tendency to conform to rites and customs, and that this had now like leaven pervaded the mass; or it may mean that the false teachers there might be compared to leaven, whose doctrines, though they were few in number, had pervaded the mass of Christians; or it may mean, as many have supposed, that any conformity to the Jewish law was like leaven. If they practiced circumcision, it would not stop there. The tendency to conform to Jewish rites would spread from that until it would infect all the doctrines of religion, and they would fall into the observance of all the rites of the Jewish law. It seems to me that the second interpretation referred to above is the correct one; and that the apostle means to say, that the influence which had brought this change about was at first small and unimportant; that there might have been but a few teachers of that kind, and it might have not been deemed worthy of particular attention or alarm; but that the doctrines thus infused into the churches, had spread like leaven, until the whole mass had become affected.
Wesley's Galatians 5:9 Bible Commentary
5:9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump - One troubler, ver. 10 , troubles all.