Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
The old leaven has a double meaning here. On the one hand, it refers to false teaching, just as Jesus warned his disciples to beware the leaven of the Pharisees. On the other hand, it also refers to the sin of fornication being dealt with here. Paul teaches that the passover is the sacrifice, and not the exodus, as some people think. The sacrifice comes first, and then it is possible to make the transition from the old life to the new. For this reason it is the cross that is the saving reality signified by the passover in the Old Testament. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
Erede polluti, manus sibi afferentes, et homicidae propinquorum."Expurgate ergo vetus fermentum, ut sitis novo conspersio".
, "It is those that sacrifice not a sow, but some great and difficult sacrifice "who ought to inquire respecting God. And the apostle writes, "Christ our passover was sacrificed for us; ".
That is, in consequence of the knowledge.
For what great thing is it, if a man restrains himself in what he knows not? He, in fulfilment of the precept, according to the Gospel, keeps the Lord's day,
Purge out, therefore, the old leaven. Eject this fornicator from your society, lest like leaven he infect the whole. It follows that not the predestinate alone, or hidden sinners, but that public sinners, like this fornicator, are in the Church till they are excommunicated. So Chrysostom. Although the Apostle refers primarily to the incest of the fornicator, yet Chrysostom and Anselm understand leaven more generally to be fornication, and its concealment, and any kind of wickedness and vice, which by parity of reasoning the Apostle orders to be removed from the soul of every individual and from the whole Church.
That ye may be a new lump. That your Church may be once more pure.
As ye are unleavened. As Chrysostom and Anselm say, as by baptism you were made unleavened, i.e, pure from the leaven of sin, so consequently you are, or ought to be, from thenceforth unleavened, or pure and holy, by calling and profession. It is a Hebraism to say that what ought to be is; and Christians accor...
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.".
Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not in the old leaven, nor in the leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
For in what respect, he says, would the one tittle require any substance such as leaven (derived) from without for the Lord's Passover, the eternal feast, which is given for generation upon generation?.
In other respects, however, these consent to all the traditions delivered to the Church by the Apostles.
To have remodelled the old man.
In the Passover season, so as to exhibit Himself as one destined to be sacrificed like a sheep, and to prove Himself the true Paschal-lamb, even as the apostle says, "Even Christ "who is God, "our passover was sacrificed for us."
Paul is not referring to this man only but to others as well. The old leaven is not just fornication but sin of every kind, which must be rooted out if the lump is to be pure.
Purge out the old leaven, that is, this evil one. Not that he speaks concerning this one only; rather he glances at others with him. For, the old leaven is not fornication only, but also sin of every kind. And he said not, purge, but purge out; cleanse with accuracy so that there be not so much as a remnant nor a shadow of that sort. In saying then, purge out, he signifies that there was still iniquity among them. But in saying, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened, he affirms and declares that not over very many was the wickedness prevailing. But though he says, as you are unleavened, he means it not as a fact that all were clean, but as to what sort of people you ought to be.
6. For our Passover also has been sacrificed for us, even Christ; wherefore let us keep the feast: not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So also Christ called His doctrine Leaven. And further he himself dwells...
He only mentioned what is a very frequently recurring sentence of the Creator. "Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.".
The unleavened bread was therefore, in the Creator's ordinance, a figure of us (Christians). "For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us."
