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The Life of ChristEvent 40 / 50
Section 045 · Bread of Life & Withdrawal

Healing the Deaf & Blind; the Leaven of the Pharisees

The Pharisees and Sadducees demand a sign from heaven; Jesus answers that they can read the sky but not the signs of the times — and no sign will be given them but the sign of Jonah. Crossing the lake, he warns the disciples against “the leaven of the Pharisees,” which they take for talk of bread until he presses them: do you not yet understand? Then at Bethsaida he heals a blind man in two stages — “I see men as trees, walking” — until he sees every man clearly.

Matt 16:1–12; Mark 8:11–262 of 5 accountsReading: CCE

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Study — reading text with parallel accounts; changes available.
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The reading is the Covenant Christian Edition — the Joseph Smith Translation reading — carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.

JST
Green — Joseph Smith Translation. Where the Covenant Christian Edition departs in substance from the King James text and the change is in the JST (confirmed against the parallel-column edition). Modernized English (“has” for “hath,” “you” for “thou”) is not marked.
CCE
Burgundy — Covenant Christian Edition. Where the CCE’s reading departs from the King James but the change is not in the Joseph Smith Translation — the CCE’s own editorial reading (e.g. “this day I have begotten you” at the baptism).
DS
Plum — Testimony of St. John. The TSJ (a separate scripture text) and Denver Snuffer’s later commentary share the plum mark.
MatthewKJVMatthew 16:1–12CCEMatthew 8:15–16NT 1NT 2

1The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and testing Jesus, desired of him that he would show them a sign from Heaven. 2And he answered and said unto them, When it is evening you say, The weather is fair, for the sky is red; 3and in the morning you say, The weather is foul today, for the sky is red and overcast. O hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky, but you cannot tell the signs of the times. 4A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. And he left them and departed.

5And when his disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. 6Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. 7And they reasoned among themselves, saying, He said this because we have taken no bread. 8And when they reasoned among themselves, Jesus perceived it. And he said unto them, O you of little faith, why reason you among yourselves because you have brought no bread? 9Do you not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? 10Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many baskets you took up? 11How is it that you do not understand that I spoke not unto you concerning bread, that you should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? 12Then understood they that he bid them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

MarkKJVMark 8:11–26CCEMark 4:17–20NT 2

11And directly he entered into a ship with his disciples, and came into the ports of Dalmanutha. And the Pharisees came forth and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from Heaven, testing him. 12And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and said, Why does this generation seek after a sign? Truly I say unto you, there shall be no sign given unto this generation save the sign of the prophet Jonah; for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so likewise shall the Son of Man be buried in the bowels of the earth. 13And he left them, and, entering into the ship again, he departed to the other side.

14Now the multitude had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. 15And he charged them, saying, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. 16And they reasoned among themselves, saying, He has said this because we have no bread.

17And when they said this among themselves, Jesus knew it. And he said unto them, Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive? Neither understand? Are your hearts yet hardened? 18Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember 19when I broke the five loaves among the five thousand? How many baskets full of fragments did you take up? They say unto him, Twelve. 20And when the seven among the four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up? And they said, Seven. 21And he said unto them, How is it that you do not understand?

22And he comes to Bethsaida. And they bring a blind man unto him and implored him to touch him. 23And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when he had spit upon his eyes and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw anything. 24And he looked up and he said, I see men as trees walking. 25After that, he put his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up, and he was restored and saw every man clearly. 26And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town nor tell what is done to any in the town.

Cross-references · other works
Jonah 1:17 — Jonah three days and nights in the fish↗Matthew 12:39–40 — no sign but the sign of the prophet Jonah↗Deuteronomy 18:22 — how to know the word the Lord has not spoken↗1 Corinthians 5:6–8 — a little leaven leavens the whole lump↗
Joseph Smith on Seeking a Sign

A Wicked and Adulterous Generation Seeks a Sign

The Sign Seeker

Jesus gives the sign-seekers nothing but the sign of Jonah. Joseph Smith — who met sign-seekers often — taught the same principle as a fixed law, and told of one such demand answered in Philadelphia.

Discourse, 9 February 1843, Nauvoo · History, 1838–1856, vol. D-1, 1466 (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 278; DHC 5:268) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗

When I was preaching in Philadelphia, a Quaker called out for a sign. I told him to be still. After the sermon, he again asked for a sign. I told the congregation the man was an adulterer; that a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and that the Lord had said to me in a revelation, that any man who wanted a sign was an adulterous person.

“It is true,” cried one, “for I caught him in the very act,” which the man afterwards confessed when he was baptized.

Whoever Seeks a Sign

Instructing the Twelve before their mission to England, Joseph Smith laid the principle down as eternal: the demand for a sign is itself the mark of an unfaithful heart.

Discourse, 2 July 1839, Montrose, Iowa · Willard Richards Pocket Companion (Words of Joseph Smith) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗

Also recorded in as reported by Wilford Woodruff (a); as reported by Wilford Woodruff (b).

The principle is as correct as the one that Jesus put forth in saying that he who seeketh a sign is an adulterous person; and that principle is eternal, undeviating, and firm as the pillars of heaven, for whenever you see a man seeking after a sign, you may set it down that he is an adulterous man.

Hugh Nibley

The Signs Follow Them That Believe

Nibley turns the demand inside out: whenever people asked for a sign, the Lord walked out on them. The signs were all around — but a sign is given to faith, never to its opponents, and the only sign the sign-seeker gets is the one he does not want, the sign of Jonah.

The World and the ProphetsCollected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol. 3 — “Prophets and Miracles”
The Lord says those who seek a sign will receive a sign — but it is not the sign they want, it is the sign of Jonah… And yet there were signs all around them, but only those who believed could see them — the signs only follow them that believe: “O ye hypocrites,” said the Lord to the Pharisees and Sadducees asking him for a sign from heaven, “ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?… there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.” Whenever people asked the Lord for a sign, he walked out on them.

Ellipses mark omissions within Nibley’s own text.

Points to Ponder
  • They can read the evening sky and forecast the weather, but they cannot read the One standing in front of them. How does skill at reading the small things leave a person blind to the great one?
  • The only sign promised to the sign-seekers is the sign of Jonah — three days buried, then raised. Why is the resurrection the one sign that proves everything, and the one a hostile heart will still explain away?
  • The blind man of Bethsaida is healed in two stages — first he sees men “as trees, walking,” then clearly. Why might the Lord let sight (and faith) come by degrees rather than all at once?