Come on, Fr. John Hardon is using Biblical definitions.
LOL!
Wait thats what protestants do...LOL
As I pointed out in scripture from the OT to the new represents sin and is consistently portrayed as leaven
remember during the passover leaven had to be purged from the jewish home?
Exd 12:15 — Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
Exd 13:7 — Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters.
Lev 6:17 — It shall not be baken with leaven. I have given it [unto them for] their portion of my offerings made by fire; it [is] most holy, as [is] the sin offering, and as the trespass offering.
Even in the NT it seems preferential usage is that it represents sin
Mat 16:6 — Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Mat 16:12 — Then understood they how that he bade [them] not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
1Cr 5:6 — Your glorying [is] not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?:7 — Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us::8 — Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth.
Salvation, I was not picking a fight with you..honest.. The writer is entitled to his opinion.. as I said there are some protestant commentators that would agree with him.. I just find it unlikely that the meaning of a word commonly used in the jewish culture and religious practices would ever represent the gospel .
I appreciated his article because it caused me to consider that scripture and look up the greek and the historical usage ..anything that makes us think and study is good