noun · feminine
zumas
Strong’sG2219
leaven, ferment
stem zum-13 times in the New Testamentin 5 of 27 books4 of 10 forms occur
What it means
A plain-English reading of the word, with the lexicons it draws on — Abbott-Smith, Strong's, and Liddell-Scott-Jones — right below it, in full.
AI Summary
Leaven — a substance, such as yeast, that causes dough to ferment and rise 1234. In the Gospels it appears literally in descriptions of bread-making and of the process by which a small amount of leaven works through a whole batch of dough 13.
The word is also used figuratively for a moral influence or tendency that spreads through and affects something, much as leaven spreads through dough 13. In this figurative use it almost always stands for something corrupting or false, as in warnings about the "leaven" of certain religious teachers or the "leaven" that must be removed from a community; the one exception is the parable in which the spreading of leaven pictures growth rather than corruption 1.
Sources: 1 Abbott-Smith 2 Strong's 3 LSJ 4 Dodson. Condensed by anthropic/claude-sonnet-5 on 2026-09-23 — it may still misstate what these say; check them yourself if it matters to you.
The lexicons it was drawn from, in full:
Abbott-Smith — the 1922 lexicon entry, in full
ζύμη, -ης, ἡ,
[in LXX for חָמֵץ, Ex 12:15 13:3 23:18 34:25, De 16:3; שְׂאֹר, Ex 12:15, 19 13:7, Le 2:11, De 16:4*;]
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G2219 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saiddzoo'-may
ferment (as if boiling up)
Fromprobably from G2204;
King Jamesleaven.
James Strong, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 1890 — public domain. The numbers in it link to the entries here.
Liddell-Scott-Jones — the classical dictionary this word appears in
leaven, LXX+4th c.BC+; beer-yeast, Refs 2nd c.AD+, etc.: metaphorically, of corruption, falsehood, NT.Matt.16.6, etc. (ζῡ-μᾱ or ζῡσ-μᾱ, cf. Sanskrit yauti 'mix', Sanskrit yūs, Latin jūs 'soup', Lett. jaut 'stir dough', javs 'dough'.)
H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed., 1925–1940) — digitised by the Perseus Digital Library and corrected and expanded by Tyndale House, Cambridge, via STEPBible-Data's TFLSJ table, CC BY 4.0. Covers all of Greek literature, not just the Bible.
Translated as
Every occurrence, sorted by the English it was actually given — the evidence for what the word means, not a gloss of it.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain — berean.bible.
Biblang forms
Every form this word takes in Biblang, with the Greek it corresponds to and how often the New Testament uses it.
| Job in the sentence case | one singular | more than one plural |
|---|---|---|
| subject nominative | zumas2×ζύμη | zumais |
| object accusative | zuman1×ζύμην | zumain |
| direct address vocative | zumar | zumair |
| of, belonging to genitive | zumau6×ζύμης | zumaiu |
| to, for dative | zuma4×ζύμῃ | zumai |
Tinted cells are forms the New Testament never uses, so there is no Greek to show against them — but they are still correct Biblang, built from the slots below like any other.
Why these forms, and no others — the slots that make them
zuma is this word in every one of its forms. The slots after it make all the rest.
same in every form varies — every value shown
Words built on the same stem
Other words sharing the exact same stem — not merely related in meaning.
Where it appears
Every verse the word appears in, filed under the form it takes there.
13 occurrences, every one of them listed
zumas“leaven”subjectnominative singular2×
1 Corinthians 5:6… kauchēmem vu. ouk oidavē hoti mikras zumas holem tem furamem zumatō?… you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of …
Galatians 5:9mikras zumas holem tem furamem zumatō.A little leaven works through the whole batch of …
zuman“leaven”objectaccusative singular1×
1 Corinthians 5:7ekkathairavar tan palaian zuman, hina aveiō neem furamem, kathōs avō …Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new …
zumau“leaven”of, belonging togenitive singular6×
Matthew 16:6… autoi; Horavōr kai prosechavōr apo tau zumau toiu Farisaioiu kai Saddoukaioiu.… Jesus told them. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Matthew 16:11… legama vi? prosechavōr de apo tau zumau toiu Farisaioiu kai Saddoukaioiu.… about bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Matthew 16:12… hoti ouk legata prosecharō apo tau zumau toiu artoiu alla apo tau didachau …… telling them to beware of the leaven used in bread, but of the …
Mark 8:15… autoi legarōntos; Horavōr, blepavōr apo tau zumau toiu Farisaioiu kai tau zumau Hērōdou.… He cautioned them. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod.”
Mark 8:15“leaven”… tau zumau toiu Farisaioiu kai tau zumau Hērōdou.… Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod.”
Luke 12:1… autou prōtem; Prosechavōr heautoi apo tau zumau, hotinas atō hupokrisias, toiu Farisaioiu.… to His disciples: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
zuma“leaven”to, fordative singular4×
Matthew 13:33… Homoias atō tas basileias toiu ouranoiu zuma, han labarantas gunaikas enkruptata eis aleureu …… The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed …
Luke 13:21homoias atō zuma, han labarantas gunaikas kruptata eis aleureu …It is like leaven that a woman took and mixed …
1 Corinthians 5:8“leaven”hōste heortazaneiō, mē en zuma palaia mēde en zuma kakiau kai …Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old bread, leavened with malice and wickedness, but …
1 Corinthians 5:8“leaven”… mē en zuma palaia mēde en zuma kakiau kai ponēriau, alla en azumei …… the feast, not with the old bread, leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity …