| 21. Linguistic Exegesis The clause opens with homoia estin {ὁμοία ἐστὶν | hómoiā estìn} ‘is like’, where the feminine nominative adjective homoia takes the dative of comparison zume {ζύμῃ | zýmē} ‘leaven’ and anticipates the implied subject “Kingdom of God” from the preceding verse. The relative pronoun hen {ἣν | hḕn} ‘which’ introduces a relative clause referring back to this leaven, with the aorist participle labousa {λαβοῦσα | laboûsa} ‘having taken’ preceding its subject gune {γυνὴ | gynḕ} ‘woman’, yielding a circumstantial participle of means. The main verb ekrypsen {ἔκρυψεν | ékrypsen} ‘hid’ governs the prepositional phrase eis aleurou sata tria {εἰς ἀλεύρου σάτα τρία | eîs aleúrou sáta tría} ‘into three measures of flour’, where aleurou marks the material in the genitive and sata tria specifies the quantity. The temporal conjunction heos hou {ἕως οὗ | héōs hoû} ‘until’ introduces a result clause with the passive verb ezymothe {ἐζυμώθη | ezymṓthē} ‘was leavened’, and the adjective holon {ὅλον | hólon} ‘whole’ refers to the entire mass of dough. This progression from comparison to hidden action and culminating transformation underscores how a small element permeates and ultimately transforms the whole. |