Leviticus 2 · a question people ask
Why were yeast and honey kept off the altar?
The chapter gives the rule, not the reason: "No meal offering which you shall offer to the LORD shall be made with yeast; for you shall burn no yeast, nor any honey, as an offering made by fire to the LORD" (2:11). Leviticus never explains the honey. Everyone agrees on what the text says: neither is burned on the altar (2:11), yet both may be brought "As an offering of first fruits" (2:12). Christians read the yeast rule in more than one way.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Yeast as a picture of sin
Those who hold this view read the rule in the light of the New Testament's warnings about yeast. Paul writes of keeping the feast "not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Corinthians 5:8), and Jesus said, "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy" (Luke 12:1).
1 Corinthians 5:8 · Luke 12:1
A rule about the altar fire
Those who hold this view notice that yeast isn't always a picture of evil. Leviticus itself has leavened bread brought to the LORD: "cakes of leavened bread" with the thanksgiving offering (7:13), and loaves that "shall be baked with yeast, for first fruits to the LORD" (23:17). And Jesus said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until it was all leavened" (Matthew 13:33). On this view, the rule is about the altar fire, and the chapter doesn't say why.
Leviticus 7:13 · Leviticus 23:17 · Matthew 13:33
The verses
““‘No meal offering which you shall offer to the LORD shall be made with yeast; for you shall burn no yeast, nor any honey, as an offering made by fire to the LORD. As an offering of first fruits you shall offer them to the LORD, but they shall not rise up as a pleasant aroma on the altar.”