leaven

The Greek and Hebrew that is translated as “leaven” (or “yeast”) in English is translated in Tzotzil as “the thing that swells the stomach of bread” and in Mairasi “bread cooking ingredient” (source: Enggavoter 2004)

In the occurrences in Mark 8:15 it is translated in Wantoat as “salt.” (Source: Ronald D. Olson in Notes on Translation January, 1968, p. 15ff.)

See also leaven (1Cor 5:6).

complete verse (Galatians 5:9)

Following are a number of back-translations of Galatians 5:9:

  • Uma: “There is a proverb [lit., gold words] that says like this: "A little yeast make a lot of flour rise." And their teaching is like yeast.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The teaching which is not true is spreading as the proverb says, ‘Even a pinch of leaven (lit. cause-to-grow) can make the whole dough rise/grow.'” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “As for that false teaching that was taught to you, it’s like yeast when we make bread because even if you put just a little bit of it in a lot of flour, all of the bread will become yeasted just the same.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Be-careful, because it’s true what people say, ‘Even a little yeast/baking-powder, it-causes-to-swell the entire mixture-it-is-mixed-in.'” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “If you continue to go along with that teaching which is not the truth, your belief/obedience will perish. For is it not so that, even if only a little raising-agent is mixed in, it can-cause-to-rise the whole of what it was mixed into, as our proverb says.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “You can see that a little bit of leaven leavens all the dough.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Galatians 5:9

Paul here quotes a proverbial saying which he uses elsewhere (see 1 Cor 5.6). The amount of yeast is very small in proportion to the total lump of dough, but it is used to make … rise (that is, to ferment or leaven) the whole lump. In the New Testament yeast is used as a symbol of the pervasive influence either of evil or of good (as in Matt 13.33). Paul’s emphasis is on the former. The meaning of the proverb is fairly obvious: evil, no matter how small it seems, will always in the end result in great harm. Paul may be applying the proverb either to the teachers, who obviously were only a handful, or to their teaching, especially to their possible insistence on circumcision as only a small thing.

The action of yeast on a batch of dough is expressed quite differently in various languages, for example, “only a little yeast can make a large batch of dough grow big,” “… can soon sour a great deal of dough,” or “… is needed for a big loaf of bread.”

The expression as they say is not in the Greek text but is legitimately added here to mark the previous statement as a proverb or popular saying. It may be rendered in some languages as “there is a saying that,” “one often hears it said,” or even “people often say.”

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .