And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.
And they that had eaten were about five thousand men,…. The word “about”, is omitted in the Vulgate Latin, in Munster’s Hebrew Gospel, and in the Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions, which expressly say there were so many. A large number indeed, to be fed with five loaves and two fishes!
besides women and children; who were not taken into the account, though they all ate, and were filled, it not being usual with the Jews to number their women; and who might be near as large a number as the men: for generally there is a very great concourse of the female sex, and of children, where anything extraordinary, or out of the way, is to be seen or heard; and of this sort was a large number of Christ’s audience, who only came out of curiosity, or for one sinister end or another.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Beside women and children ( ). Perhaps on this occasion there were not so many as usual because of the rush of the crowd around the head of the lake. Matthew adds this item and does not mean that the women and children were not fed, but simply that “the eaters” ( ) included five thousand men () besides the women and children.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And they that had eaten,” (hoi de esthiontes) “Then those who had eaten,” (of the multitude that sat upon the ground in rows of fifty and one hundred, Mat 14:19; Mr 6:40.
2) “Were about five thousand men,” (esan andres hosei pentakischilioi) “Were approximately five thousand mature men,” Mr 6:44. Note about 5,000 men alone. This indicates the elastic, flexible, or indefiniteness of the term (ochlos) rendered crowd or multitude, meaning always a great gathering.
2) “Beside women and children.” (choris gunaikon kai paidion) “Apart from (or in addition to) women and children,” Luk 9:14. It. is conservatively estimated that there were likely from ten to twenty-five thousand in all, considering that these were in walking distance of their home villages and cities, Mat 14:13-15.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(21) Beside women and children.St. Matthew is the only Evangelist who mentions their presence, but all the four use the word which emphasises the fact that all the five thousand were men. As the crowd had come in many cases from considerable distances, the women and children were probably few in number, were grouped together by themselves, and were not counted, so that the round number dwelt in mens minds without reference to them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. Five thousand men besides So that we know not the full number John informs us that the passover was near, and doubtless these were a caravan on their way to Jerusalem. They were led out of the way to follow the wonders of the true paschal lamb.
On this miracle we may remark:
1 . It bears a striking analogy to the miracle of changing the water into wine. It is not indeed, like that, a sensible transformation; but both are a hastening of a natural process by Him who thereby claims to be the Lord of nature as well as of grace. They are the two elements, too, bread and wine, which in the eucharist are combined to represent the blood and the body of the Lord, given for the spiritual nourishment of his people.
2 . The whole miracle is physically an act of mercy to the bodies of the suffering multitude. But it was intended to guide them to the full discovery of Him who could perform a higher act of mercy upon the soul. Of that higher mercy it was no doubt an emblem, so that this, with all the other wonders of our Lord, was both a miracle and a symbol.
3 . It is left on record for us that we may recognize Christ as our bread of life. His blood may be but a drop, his death but a brief transaction; but their efficacy can be reproduced for all the multitudes of all generations, and feed even our souls with eternal life.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.’
Finally we are supplied with an enumeration of the crowds, or rather, of those ‘who ate’. There were five thousand men, besides women and children. The idea is probably that ten men were required in order to establish a synagogue. Thus five thousand represented a covenant community, for five is ever the number of covenant (five fingers to the hand that seals the covenant, the commandments in sets of five, the measurements of the Tabernacle and Temple in multiples of five, the covenant altar was five by five, five shekels was the price of deliverance from Tabernacle service, and so on).
However reference to Exo 12:37 may also serve to confirm that a new Exodus is in mind for there we read of ‘men on foot besides children’. However, here, under the new covenant, women also are now to be seen as important.
We must not multiply up too much from the number of men. The trek round the Lake would probably have resulted in many women and children being left to make their way home. And furthermore they would have been needed at home to milk the animals. The fact that only the men are numbered probably indicates their predominance in the crowd.
To sum up there are a number of lessons to be learned from this incident.
That His disciples were to see their own future in terms of meeting the needs of men and women. They must ‘give them to eat’. Having initially opened their ministry in their recent mission, it would continue to be the responsibility of the disciples to provide both physical and spiritual sustenance to the people, in the same way as He Himself provided it to them (compareJoh 21:15-17). With regard to the physical side they would in fact seek to carry this out literally in Acts (see Act 2:44-47; Act 4:32-37). And the church has rightly continued to see one of its functions as providing for the physical needs of the needy. But the equal importance of their ministering to the spiritual side also soon came home to them. They later knew that they were not to allow ‘serving tables’ to prevent their preaching of the word (Act 6:1-3).
That He wanted them to see that He was now here as the Messiah to spread a table before those who looked to Him (compareIsa 25:6; Isa 55:1-3; and extra-testamental literature). He wanted them to see Him as the source of true provision for all men’s needs, the Bread of Life to their souls (Joh 6:35). And this would in the end be ministered through His Apostles and those whom they appointed.
He wanted them to appreciate that He was here among them as the Representative of Israel (Mat 2:15), leading them in a second Exodus, in a way as a second Moses (although this latter is never emphasised), the one who gave them bread from Heaven to eat. Moses had been with the multitude in the wilderness, and had fed them ‘from Heaven’. Jesus was now here among them in the wilderness to give better bread than Moses gave them, the true Bread which has come down from Heaven to give life to the world (Joh 6:33). A greater than Moses was here, and a greater Exodus was taking place (Mat 2:15), establishing a new Israel. (In Matthew the emphasis is on the new Exodus rather than a new Moses).
He wanted them to recognise that He was here among men in order to establish a new covenant and a new covenant community, something symbolised by this covenant meal. A new covenant community was thus in process of formation, and this is what this meal symbolised (compareExo 24:9-11). Such a community has already been indicated by His description of believers as His mother, His sisters and His brothers (Mat 12:50), and assumed in the Sermon on the Mount (Mat 5:13-16; Mat 5:45-48; Mat 6:9-13), and He will emphasise this again shortly (Mat 16:18). It would be composed of all those who came in faith to Him for provision, expressing their need, including this crowd who had been willing to go so far out of their way to be here, which in itself expressed their faith. In Mat 26:26 the breaking of the bread would expand to symbolise His body. Here He was symbolising the fact that He could feed their souls as they responded to Him (Joh 6:35). From this meal therefore all were to learn that if they would be spiritually fed it must be through Jesus Christ, and that He had sufficient and to spare in order to do this.
He wanted them to know that He was among men in order to feed their inner beings (see Joh 6:32-40, and compare Isa 55:1-3), something which in the end only He could do, and he would shortly make clear that this would be through His death (Joh 6:51-58). But His main aim was that this physical provision might be seen by them as an acted out parable similar to those of the prophets whereby they would recognise that He was offering to feed their souls. It was a display of quiet power that evidenced His limitless resources.
He wanted them to learn their lesson from this incident that never again should they, the Apostles, or the other disciples, see any situation as impossible for Him to deal with.
Note on Other Explanations.
Necessarily Atheists and Agnostics and those who deny the possibility of miracles cannot accept that it happened like this, and yet often have to admit that it must have some basis in truth. So they have to think of a way round it. But we should note that by doing so they go against the evidence. Rather than accept the truth they weave ‘fairy stories’. For in order to give an explanation that is what they have to do, ignore the evidence and what is written, and spin their own threads of gold. For the sake of completeness and to assist those who are troubled by such things we will consider one or two of these explanations.
1). The first is that what happened was that a young boy brought his dinner and gave it to Jesus who then told the disciples to share it with the crowds, and that all those in the crowds were so moved by His action and the action of the little boy that they all shared their food that they had brought with them with others (or something similar). It is a nice idea. But it clearly goes contrary to what the four accounts say. It is not likely that the disciples would have said what they did about dispersing and buying food without having first checked that the people were without food. Furthermore it destroys the symbolism and at the same time ignores how long the crowds had already been away from home. They were not out on a picnic, and had not anticipated this extra journey. Nor can we understand why if this was what happened a hint of the fact is not supplied by at least one of the eyewitnesses, as a wonderful picture of the influence of Jesus. And certainly it would be strange that such a trivial happening as it would then have become should be treated as so important by all four Gospel writers. Nor would it have stirred the crowds to make Him a king (Joh 6:15). The idea trivialises all that the story points to, and every detail is against it.
2). That what happened was that Jesus divided up the loaves into minute amounts which were then given to the crowds as a ‘token Messianic meal’ and that this gave them such an uplift that their hearts were satisfied and they were ‘filled’ and therefore did not for a while notice their hunger. It is a beautiful picture, but it would not have served them well during the night, or next morning when they awoke hungry. And it still requires us to drastically reduce the numbers involved, or alternately increase the food available. It is also to assume that the ‘meal’ had a significance not made apparent in the first three Gospels. If this was what happened it is strange that the lesson to be drawn from it was totally ignored and that it was interpreted as just physical, without further explanation. It would also leave everyone still hungry and as much in danger of fainting as before. Thus Jesus would have failed to fulfil what He promised to the Apostles, that they would be able to feed the crowds.
3). That the story is simply an invention based on what Elisha did in 2Ki 4:42-44. But if this were the case its importance as revealed by its presence in all four Gospels, in different presentations, is inexplicable. There is no avoiding the fact that all four considered the event extremely important and on the whole gave basically the same picture. Nor does the incident then have the significance that it clearly had. Elisha’s was not a covenant meal.
End of note.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
21 And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.
Ver. 21. Were about five thousand ] Pythias is famous for that he was able, at his own charge, to entertain Xerxes’ whole army, consisting of ten hundred thousand men. But he grew so poor upon it, that he lacked bread before he died. Our Saviour fed five thousand, and his store not a jot diminished: but as it is said of a great mountain of salt in Spain, de quo quantum demus tantum accrescit; so is it here.
Besides women and children ] Which did very much add to the number, and so to the miracle. But they are not reckoned of here (not out of any base esteem of them, as the Jews at this day hold women to be of a lower creation than men, and made only for the propagation and pleasure of men, but), because they eat little in comparison to men.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
21. ] . . . is peculiar to Matt., although this might have been inferred from being used in the other three Evangelists. See note on Joh 6:10 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 14:21 . , 5000 men , not counting women and children. This helps us to attach some definite meaning to the elastic words, , , so frequently occurring in the Gospels. Doubtless this was an exceptionally great gathering, yet the inference seems legitimate that meant hundreds, and thousands.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
men = males. Greek plural of aner. See App-123.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
21.] . . . is peculiar to Matt., although this might have been inferred from being used in the other three Evangelists. See note on Joh 6:10.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 14:21. , women and children) of whom no doubt there was a large number.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
about: Joh 6:10, Act 4:4, Act 4:34, 2Co 9:8-11, Phi 4:19
Reciprocal: Mat 15:37 – all Mar 6:42 – General Luk 9:17 – eat Joh 6:12 – they Act 21:5 – with
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND
They that had eaten were about five thousand.
Mat 14:21
Of all the miracles worked by our Lord, not one is so often mentioned in the New Testament as this.
I. Proof of Divine power.This miracle is an unanswerable proof of our Lords Divine power. He called that into being which did not before exist: He provided visible, tangible, material food for more than five thousand people, out of a supply which in itself would not have satisfied fifty. Surely we must be blind if we do not see in this the hand of Him who giveth food to all flesh (Psa 136:25), and made the world and all that therein is. To create is the peculiar prerogative of God.
II. A proof of Divine compassion.This miracle is a striking example of our Lords compassion towards men. The Lord had pity upon all: all were relieved; all partook of the food miraculously provided. All were filled, and none went hungry away. Let us see in this the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ towards sinners.
III. Sufficiency for all mankind.This miracle is a lively emblem of the sufficiency of the Gospel to meet the soul-wants of all mankind. All our Lords miracles have a deep figurative meaning, and teach great spiritual truths.
(a) The multitude an emblem of all mankind.
(b) The loaves and fishes are an emblem of the doctrine of Christ crucified for sinners, as their vicarious Substitute, and making atonement by His death for the sin of the world.
Bishop J. C. Ryle.
Illustrations
(1) That marvellous scene in the wilderness comes to me as a revelation of a real but invisible world which is waking silently day after day around me. It serves to open my eyes to wonders more vast and awful than its own outward phenomena. Paradoxical as it may seem, it teaches me to look with more reverence upon the ordinary ways of Gods providence, and to receive with even more of deep thankfulness the bread that comes to me by what are called the common processes of nature, than if it had been given to me directly by the hand of Jesus with no toil or trust of my own.
(2) If bread be the type of all earthly sustenance, then the bread of heaven may well express all spiritual sustenance, all that involves and supports eternal life. Now the lesson which He wished to teach them was thisthat eternal life is in the Son of God. They, therefore, that would have eternal life must partake of the bread of heaven, or, to use the other and deeper image, must eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man. They must feed on Him in their hearts by faith.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
4:21
It may have been only a coincidence that there was one loaf to each thousand men, but by leaving out the enumeration of the women and children that figure of pro rata was obtained.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 14:21. Five thousand men. All the Evangelists mention the number of men. Matthew alone adds: besides women and children. The latter classes were probably not numerous, and would be fed apart from the men. On the effect of the miracle, see Joh 6:14-15.