Parable of the Leaven

The Parable of the Leaven was given by Jesus in the New Testament (Matthew and Luke). It consists of essentially a single sentence, and immediately follows The Parable of the Mustard Seed in both Matthew and Luke:
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In Jesus' day, leaven was yeast or sourdough in a state of fermentation. When mixed into the dough, leaven causes the bread to rise when baked.
The traditional teaching of the Church, both Catholic and Protestant, is that the Parable of the Leaven, like the preceding Parable of the Mustard Seed, shows how something small becomes something big. 
However, in modern times, the parable has been interpreted differently because in everyday Jewish imagery, leaven was tied to corruption. In his characteristic style, Jesus likened the Kingdom of God to something humble.
Leaven was spoken of metaphorically by Jesus and Paul to symbolize the doctrine of men being mixed with the doctrine of God, thereby corrupting it:
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A parable that likened God's Kingdom to "a little leaven" was bound to startle any Jewish audience. The Gospel writers chose these graphic images of leaven and of mustard seed to illustrate God's kingdom because of the innate characteristic of these particular pieces of organic matter to spread dramatically and dominate everything around them.
The dramatic imagery of this parable is made even more striking by the amount of flour that the woman adds the leaven to. Three cups (¾ lb.) of flour is enough to make a loaf of bread large enough to feed ten or more adults. The three "measures" (Greek: sata = Hebrew: seah) that the woman uses in this parable, however, amounts to half a bushel (almost 18 liters) or more than 30 pounds of flour. That would be enough to make at least 40 large loaves or sufficient bread to feed at least 400 people. 
This extraordinary imagery in the parable of the leaven was designed to leave the minds of Jewish audience with the idea that there would be a super-abundant yield in due time rather than immediately. 
Another version of this parable appears in the (non-canonical) Gospel of Thomas (Patterson-Meyer Translation):
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The (non-canonical) Gospel of Thomas also has what appears to be a missing (or later added) parable, the Parable of the empty jar:
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==References==
Leaven, Parable of the