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Mat_13:33. Σάτον ] îÀàÈä , one-third of an ephah, a dry measure, and, according to Josephus, Antt. ix. 4. 5, and Jerome on this passage, equivalent to one and a half Roman bushels. It befits the pictorial style of the passage that it should mention a definite quantity of flour; without any special object for doing so, it mentions what appears to be the usual quantity (Gen_18:6; Jdg_6:19; 1Sa_1:24). So much the more arbitrary is Lange’s remark, that three is the number of the spirit. A great deal in the way of allegorizing the three σάτα is to be found in the Fathers. According to Theodore of Mopsuestia, they denote the Greeks, Jews, and Samaritans; Augustine, Melanchthon suppose them to signify the heart, the soul, and the spirit.
The parable of the mustard seed is designed to show that the great community, consisting of those who are to participate in the Messianic kingdom, i.e. the true people of God as constituting the body politic of the future kingdom, is destined to develope from a small beginning into a vast multitude, and therefore to grow extensively; ποίμνιον ὄντες ὀλίγον , εἰς ἄπειρον ηὐξήθησαν , Euth. Zigabenus; Act_1:15; Act_2:41; Act_2:47; Act_4:4; Act_5:14; Act_6:7; Act_21:20; Rom_15:19; Rom_11:25 f. The parable of the leaven, on the other hand, is intended to show how the specific influences of the Messiah’s kingdom (Eph_4:4 ff.) gradually penetrate the whole of its future subjects, till by this means the entire mass is brought intensively into that spiritual condition which qualifies it for being admitted into the kingdom.