1 Corinthians 5:8
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Study Note
Study Note
The call to 'keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth' allegorises the festival of Unleavened Bread as the ongoing moral state of the redeemed community. Paul's ethical application of liturgical calendar — translating the Passover observance into a year-round posture of moral purity — demonstrates his hermeneutical method of reading Israel's cult as a map for Christian practice. The antithesis leaven-of-malice versus unleavened-bread-of-sincerity presents Christian ethics as a matter of interior quality (sincerity, aletheia-truth) rather than external observance. This verse has been central to Eucharistic theology, especially in discussions of the proper disposition required for participation in the Lord's Supper.
Other Translations
wherefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
so that we may keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of evil and wickedness, but with unleavened food of sincerity and truth.
Let us then keep the feast, not with old leaven, and not with the leaven of evil thoughts and acts, but with the unleavened bread of true thoughts and right feelings.
Cross References
Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: …
Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord.
And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days …
And in the fourteenth day of the first month is the passover of the Lord.
And in the fifteenth day of this month is the feast: seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten.
Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of …
Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he …
Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your …
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I …