Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 15:32

Then Jesus called his disciples [unto him,] and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.

32 38. Four thousand Men, besides women and children, are miraculously fed

Mar 8:1-9

36. gave to his disciples ] St Matthew uses the aorist, St Mark the more vivid imperfect “kept giving.”

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The miracle recorded here – the feeding of the four thousand – took place on a mountain near the Sea of Galilee. The same account is recorded in Mar 8:1-10. The circumstances of the miracle are so similar to the one recorded in Mat 14:14-21, as to need little additional explanation.

Mat 15:32

Three days, and have nothing to eat – This is not, perhaps, to be taken literally, but only that during that time they had been deprived of their ordinary or regular food.

They had had only a very scanty supply, and on the third day even that began to fail.

Mat 15:39

Coasts of Magdala – Mark says, The parts of Dalmanutha. Magdala was probably the same place which was formerly called Migdol, Jos 19:38. It is now called Mejdel, and is situated a few miles north of the city of Tiberias, in the land of Gennesaret, on the western side of the Sea of Tiberias, and directly east of Cana of Galilee. It is a wretched hamlet of a dozen low huts huddled into one, and the whole ready to tumble into a dismal heap of black basaltic rubbish. – The Land and the Book (Thomson), vol. ii. p. 108. This was the birthplace of Mary Magdalene, out of whom the Saviour cast seven devils, Mar 16:9. Dalmanutha was probably a small village near to Magdala, of which no remains have been discovered. There is no contradiction in the statements of the two evangelists here, for they do not say that Jesus went to either of these towns, but only to the coasts or parts where they were situated.

Remarks On Matthew 15

We learn from this chapter:

1. That people are often far more attached to traditions and the commandments of human beings than to the Law of God, Mat 15:1-6.
2. That people are strongly disposed to explain away the law of God, if possible. It is too strict for them, and too spiritual. They dare not often attack it directly, but they will explain it and dilute it so as to make it mean nothing. Wicked people do not love Gods law, Mat 15:4-6.
3. People are prone to introduce foolish rites into religion. They do not love what God has commanded, and they attempt to compensate for not loving his doctrines by being great sticklers for their own, Mat 15:2; Mar 7:3-4.
4. All addition to the law of God is evil, Mat 15:3. All ceremonies in religion which are not authorized by the New Testament are wrong. Man has no right to ordain rites to bind the conscience where God has commanded none, Col 2:23. People come the nearest to that which is right when they live nearest to just what God has commanded in the Bible.
5. Hypocrites should be unmasked and detected, Mat 15:7. He does a great service to people who detects their hypocrisy. That close and faithful preaching which lays open the heart, and shows people what they are, is that which comes nearest to the example of Christ. It may pain them, but the wounds of a friend are faithful Pro 27:6; and we should honor and love the man that, by the grace of God, can show us our own hearts. We always honor most the physician of the body that is most skilled in detecting and curing disease, and so should we the physician of the soul.
6. We should be exceedingly cautious in avoiding formality in worship, Mat 15:8-9. It is hypocrisy. God requires the heart. To render to him only the service of the lips is to mock him. Nothing can be acceptable but true piety, genuine love, and hearty obedience; nothing more hateful than an appearance of worshipping God, while the heart is in sin and the world.
7. The duty of honoring parents, Mat 15:4-6. Nothing can explain away this duty. It is binding on all. Parents should be obeyed, loved, respected. God requires it and we cannot be free from the duty. Under age, a child is bound always to obey a parent where the parent does not command anything contrary to the Bible; but when the parent commands anything contrary to the Bible, the child is not bound to obey, Act 5:29. After the child is of age, he is to respect, love, and honor the parent; and, if poor and needy, to provide for his wants until he dies. It is certainly proper that we should do all that we can to comfort those in old age who did so much for us in childhood. A child can never repay a parent for his kindness to him.
8. We are not at liberty to give to anything else not even to religious uses – what is necessary to render our parents comfortable, Mat 15:4-6. They have the first claim on us. And though it is our duty to do much in the cause of benevolence, yet our first duty should be to see that our parents do not suffer.
9. People easily take offence when they are faithfully reproved, and especially when their hypocrisy is exposed; and especially if this exposure is about some small matter on which they have greatly set their hearts some ceremony in worship or some foolish rite, Mat 15:12.
10. Every false doctrine is to be opposed and should be rooted up, Mat 15:13. It is to be opposed by arguments and candid investigation, and not by abuse and misrepresentation. Christ never misrepresented any mans doctrine. He always stated it just as it was – just as they held it; and then, by argument and the word of God, he showed it was wrong. This is the proper way to manage all controversies.
11. It is of great importance to search the heart, Mat 15:19-20. It is a fountain of evil. It is the source of all crime. External conduct is comparatively of little importance. In the sight of God, the heart is of more importance; and if that were pure, all would be well.
12. The doctrine of mans depravity is true, Mat 15:19. If the heart produces those things which are specified by the Saviour it cannot be pure. And yet who is there from whose heart, at some time, these things have not proceeded? Alas, the world is full of instances that prove that the human heart may produce all these things.
13. In our distress, and the distress of our children and friends, we should go to Jesus. We should, indeed, use all proper means to restore our friends when they are sick; but we should feel that God only can grant returning health and life, Mat 15:22.
14. We should not be discouraged that our prayers are not immediately answered. God knows the proper time to answer them, and it may be of great importance to us that the answer should be deferred, Mat 15:23.
15. We should still persevere, Mat 15:24-27. We should not be discouraged. We should not be disheartened even by the appearance of neglect or unkind treatment.
16. Our prayers will be answered if we persevere, Mat 15:28. They that seek shall find. In due time – in the best and most proper time – a gracious God will lend an ear to our request, and grant the thing we need.
17. We should come with humility and faith, Mat 15:27. We can never think too little of ourselves, or too much of the mercy and faithfulness of Christ. Prayers of humility and faith only are answered.
18. Christ will take care of his poor and needy followers. We may be assured that he has power to give us all we need, and that in times of necessity he will supply our wants, Mat 15:32-38.
19. The great number of poor in the world is no reason why he should not supply them, Mat 15:38. He daily supplies the wants of nine hundred millions of human beings, besides countless numbers of the beasts of the field, of the fowls of heaven, and the fishes of the sea. It is a small thing to supply the needs of the few poor people on the earth, and He who feeds the world will take care of us in the time of need.
20. We should be grateful to God for our daily food. We should render to him proper thanksgiving, Mat 15:36.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Mat 15:32; Mat 15:39

And Jesus said unto them, How many loaves have ye?

The miracle of the loaves and fishes; or, continuity and economy

Want in men moves Christs whole nature. His help leaves no injury. Here generosity and frugality meet. Observe in this miracle two principles.

I. Continuity. That which is comes out of that which has been.

II. Frugality. There is no waste.

1. These two principles are exhibited in nature. Mere spontaneity nature disowns. The field says, Give me seed, and I will give you back harvest. Nature disowns waste, all things are utilized.

2. These principles are found in history. God does not fling loaves from the sky; they are growths. Not one life is lost.

3. These principles are seen in the moral world. There is no dropping of truths than of great men from heaven. Hence out of the few loaves grow the feast. He who holds in sincerity a little truth has the promise of all.

In applying the truth of the text we learn-

1. To hope. The less will become more.

2. The effect of this law upon character. Your future must come out of your past.

3. A lesson in helping others. We help by bringing the better out of some good in men. How many loaves have you? One has a feeble resolution; that, with the blessing of God, may be sufficient. (P. Brooks, D. D.)

The miraculous feeding of four thousand

I. The features by which this miracle was distinguished.

1. It was a miracle of mercy.

2. Its publicity is another feature worthy of notice.

3. The scale on which it was wrought was most extensive.

4. It was the result of no previous arrangement, but was done in order to meet a pressing emergency.

5. The consciousness He evinced that His resources were adequate to the occasion.

II. The lessons which this miracle enforces.

1. Reliance.

2. Gratitude.

3. Charity.

4. Economy. (Expository Outlines.)

The necessities of man and the all-sufficiency of Christ

I. That circumstances are continually reminding man of his necessitous condition. Man can go but a short way into lifes wilderness without feeling that his is a craving nature. Life-long dependence should teach life-long humility.

II. That mans necessitous condition is fully met by Christs sufficiency. Christ knows the necessities of our human constitution. In Christ dwells all fulness. Man needs pardon, purity, freedom, peace.

III. That if man will not avail himself of Christs sufficiency he will be chargeable with the ruin of his own soul. These men did not refuse to eat because they could not understand the mystery by which the bread was multiplied, Refuse to eat and they die. (J. Parker.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 32. I have compassion, &c.] See a similar transaction explained, Mt 14:14-22.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Mark gives us an account of this miracle, Mar 8:1-10. There is very little difference in their relations, only Mark saith, our Saviour went into the parts of Dalmanutha; Matthew saith,

into the coasts of Magdala: most think that it was the same place, which had two names: some think one was the name of the country, the other of the city or town; others, that they were two towns near together. There are no difficulties in this history. Some question how they could fast three days; but the text doth not say so, only that at that time they had nothing to eat, having spent what they brought with them, probably in their baskets, which answers another question also, how they could get baskets in the wilderness. The miracle was of the same nature with that which we met with Mat 14:15-22; only there were five thousand men fed with five loaves and two fishes, here four thousand were fed with seven loaves and a few fishes; there they took up twelve, here but seven baskets full. Our Lord worketh sometimes without means, sometimes by means, and those differently proportions to his end, as it pleaseth him. The miraculous operations of our Saviour are amongst his miranda et adoranda, not his imitanda. These actions of his, which we are in reading to admire and adore, but are not concerned to imitate, yet something we may observe from them, both for our instruction and imitation. For our instruction, we may from this history observe the extent of Christs compassion to his disciples, which though it is most eminently seen in what he doth for their souls, yet reacheth also to their bodies and more external wants. It also teacheth us to trust God in the doing of our duty. Those that are in a wilderness hearing Christ, shall not faint by the way before they get home. His course of giving thanks before he brake and made use of the bread, (which we observed before in the other miracle), commendeth to us the religious custom of begging a blessing before our meat, and giving thanks to God for good things of that nature, when we have received them.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

Then Jesus called his disciples unto him,…. Who were at some little distance from him, to impart his mind unto them, whom he had made, and used, as his familiar friends; and to try their faith, and raise their attention, and prepare them for the following miracle; as well as to teach them by his example, and accustom them to show bowels of mercy and compassion to persons in any kind of want and distress:

and said, I have compassion on the multitude; which must be understood of him as man, whose bowels yearned towards them, having been so long without any food for their bodies, or very little; as he had compassion on the sick, and diseased, and healed them, so on the sound and whole, and was willing to feed them. Christ, our high priest, is a merciful one, and is touched with the feeling of the infirmities of men, of every sort, both of soul and body:

because they continue now with me three days; which time had been spent in healing their bodily disorders, and in preaching to them for the good of their souls; which shows the diligence and indefatigableness of Christ, as well as the attachment of the people to him; who were so struck with his miracles and ministry, that though they had been so long from their habitations and families, knew not how to leave him; nor did they talk, or show any signs of departing from him, and returning to their houses, and business of life;

and have nothing to eat; not that they had been so long without eating anything, though very likely it was but little, and what they brought with them, and was now expended; nor could they provide themselves in a desert place, and many of them were a great way off from home:

and I will not send them away fasting; he might have done it, nor did the multitude ask any food of him; but he could not bear the thoughts of dismissing them in such a condition; having had but very little sustenance all this while, and so might be said to be in a manner fasting during this time, at least now:

lest they faint by the way; to their own houses, not having strength and spirit enough to travel, and get home: for “divers of them”, as Mark says, “came from far”.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Three days ( ). A parenthetic nominative (Robertson, Grammar, p. 460).

What to eat ( ). Indirect question with the deliberative subjunctive retained. In the feeding of the five thousand Jesus took compassion on the people and healed their sick (14:14). Here the hunger of the multitude moves him to compassion (, in both instances). So he is unwilling ( ) to send them away hungry.

Faint (). Unloosed, () exhausted.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

I will not [ ] . The A. V. might easily be mistaken for the simple future of the verb send. But two verbs are used : the verb I will expressing Jesus ‘ feeling or disposition. The Greek order is, and to send them away fasting I am not willing. Therefore Rev. is better : I would not. Faint (ejkluqwsin). Lit., be unstrung or relaxed.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

Mat 15:32

. I have compassion on the multitude. Here a miracle is related not unlike another which we have lately explained. The only difference is, that on the former occasion Christ satisfied five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes, while, on the present occasion, four thousand men are fed with seven loaves and a few small fishes; and that twelve baskets were then filled with fragments, while out of a greater abundance a smaller portion is left. Let us learn from this, that the power of God is not restricted to means or outward assistance, and that it is all one with Him whether there be much or little, as Jonathan (425) said when speaking of his own moderate army and the vast multitude of enemies:

there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few, (1Sa 14:6.)

As the blessing of God can make one loaf suffice as well as twenty for satisfying a great multitude, so, if that be wanting, a hundred loaves will not be a sufficient meal for ten men; for when the staff of bread is broken, (Lev 26:26,) though the flour should come in full weight from the mill, and the bread from the oven, it will serve no purpose to stuff the belly. The three days’ fasting, of which Christ speaks, must not be understood to mean that they had eaten nothing for three days; but that in desert places they had few conveniences, and must have wanted their ordinary food. Besides, in those warm countries, hunger is less keen than in our thick and cold atmosphere; and, therefore, we need not wonder that they should abstain longer from food.

(425) Instead of Jonathan, the French copy mentions Asa, whose words are similar, and were uttered on a similar occasion: Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power, (2Ch 14:11.) — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES

Mat. 15:29. A mountain.Rather, the mountain country; the high land, as distinguished from the low land, which He had left (Carr). From Mar. 7:31 R.V., it would appear that His journey led Him actually through Sidon.

Mat. 15:30. Cast them down at Jesus feet.Indicating, according to Bengel and Meyer, their haste; according to Fitzsche and de Wette, implicit confidence; and according to Baumgarten-Crusius, the helplessness of the persons who were afflicted. But may it not at the same time indicate both the rudeness of these mountaineers and their confidence, boldness, and their rapid movements in order to bring to the feet of Jesus all who were diseased (Lange).

Mat. 15:37. Baskets.Not the kophinoi or hand-baskets of Mat. 14:20, but spurides, denoting somewhat larger baskets. The word was often used to denote a basket or hamper for holding provisions, and in particular for holding fish (see Wetstein in loo.). Carr says the spuris was probably a larger basket made of rope-net. Dr. Morison suggests that on this occasion the baskets may have been extemporised from the shrubs that were growing around. See on Mat. 14:20.

Mat. 15:39. Magdala.Magadan (R.V.). The MSS. vary between Magdala and Magadan; but the latter reading has by far the highest authority in its favour. Probably an altered form of the Hebrew Migdol = a tower. Usually identified with the modern village of El Mejdel, about three miles north of Tiberias. Dean Plumptre says: On the assumption that Mary called Magdalene derived her name from a town of that name, we may think of our Lords visit as having been in some way connected with her presence.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Mat. 15:32-39

Jesus repeating Himself.If we may judge from Mat. 15:39 of this chapter, and from Mar. 8:10, as well as from the omission of any mention of removal on the part of the Saviour, we may suppose Him to be still on the eastern side of the lake. If so, we find Him doing on that side what He had previously done on the other side; or done previously, it may be, at its northernmost end (see on Mat. 14:13, etc.). Anyway, we have here a repetition of the original miracle of the loaves (Mat. 14:13-21). We believe that we shall find that the occurrence of this second miracle at once gave greater certainty and greater importance to both.

I. Greater certainty.This evidently would be the case at the time, and in the case of the disciples themselves. If ever tempted to think of that first miracle, because of its exceeding wondrousness, as a dream, this second specimen of similar wondrousness would be just the thing to prevent them. It would be very much with them, indeed, as it is with a man who hears himself called by name by some one whom he cannot see, both a first time and a second. Even if he doubts the first time he believes the second. If he says, Can it be? when he hears it once; he says, It must be! when he hears it twice. That second blow drives the nail of conviction into a wellhigh immovable place. The special differentiations also of this second miracle would have a like effect on the mind. They are all such as would not have eventuated had not both stories been true. The differences in numbers, e.g. in the two cases respectively, and that both as to need and supplythe fact also that these differences are not such as to make the second miracle appear the more marvellous of the two, the feeding of four thousand persons with seven loaves being palpably not so surprising a thing as the feeding of five thousand with twoand the yet further fact that the baskets spoken of in the two accounts, and in all subsequent references to them, are always distinguished by names which signify something like hampers in the one case and hand-baskets in the otherare all peculiarities which agree better with the supposition of truth than with that of falsehood, or even with that of inaccuracy or mistake. Stories so like and yet not identicalstories so like and yet so curiously differentstories so like and yet so consistently differentare stories which can be accounted for bestif not accounted for onlyby supposing them to be built upon facts. It is not easy indeed to conceive of their standing on anything else. Had they been fictions the differentiations would have been of a very different kind.

II. Greater importance.The occurrence of this second miracle brings out, e.g. in a greater degree than ever, the the inexhaustible fulness of Christ. His abundance, if we may say so, is not confined to one side of the lake. Not only in Galilee are the words of His mouth more than their necessary food to mankind (Job. 23:12). Not only there can He do that which is beyond the dreams of His disciples (Joh. 6:9). Wherever there is need, on the contrary, and whatever its amount, He has a full supply within reach. What indeed can He not do who has done such a thing twice? Who can doubt of the immensity of His power after such a double witness as this? (2Co. 13:1). Also it shows, on the other hand, the holy consistency of the Lord Jesus Christ as a Saviour. Clum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt. Wherever He is (so this repetition shows us), there is the same depth and spontaneity of compassion; the same discrimination and considerateness of affection; the same recollection as well of the temporal as of the spiritual needs of His hearers; the same marked disapprobation also (with all His fulness) of waste; and the same resolute avoidance, also, when the wants of the multitude have been fully met, of idle wonder and fame. When He has done sufficient for them He has done wholly with them, as on the other side of the lake (cf. Mat. 14:13-21 with the present passage passim).

Happy those who, observing these things, are taught thereby to trust Christ to the full, and are anxious for nothing except to be sure that they leave all in His hands. How impressively this double witness teaches us the fulness and depth of His knowledge! How convincingly it shows us also that for Him to know our needs is enough! (cf. Mat. 6:32; see also Php. 4:6; 2Ti. 1:12)

Happy those also who, as a means to this end, put full trust in His word. What we know of the Saviour we know, in the first instance, from what His Evangelists tell us. Do we not see here with what singular wisdom their story is told? As also that the source of this wisdom lies in the fact that they tell us simply what was actually done? In portraying wisdom there can be nothing wiser than to be as faithful as possible in reproducing it just as it was.

HOMILIES ON THE VERSES

Mat. 15:32-39. The multitude fed.This miracle:

I. Illustrates Christs care for the bodies of men.We must not tempt men to adopt religion by bribery; we should thus encourage hypocrisy, promote indolence, give a premium to iniquity. But as Christians we should relieve temporal want, and with due caution and discretion use this as a means of imparting spiritual good. Our Lord fed the multitude on this occasion though He well knew that their motives in following Him were far from being pure. We should distinguish between vulgar bribery and Christian benevolence. In any case it were better to do good to mens bodies than do no good at all.

II. Illustrates what St. Paul calls the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.Much as was eaten of the miraculous bread, much still remained. The more we feed upon Christ, the Bread of Life, the more there is to feed upon. This multitude, fed and satisfied, went forth out of the abundance of their hearts to trumpet Christs fame, to tell of His love. If there be fulness in Christ, there should be accompanying fulness in us.

III. Suggests the need of daily feeding upon Christ.The miracle falls short here. To feed once for all not sufficient.R. W. Forrest, M.A.

Subsidiary lessons.I. A lesson in generosity.Jesus made His disciples bring out their seven loaves and small fishes, and give thus their all away. No doubt some of them wondered why. It is our common plea for withholding from the cause of charity or of religion that what we have we shall need for ourselves. At least there is a fear that we may. But as our household commentator has it, Niggardliness for to-day, arising out of thoughtfulness for to-morrow, is a complication of corrupt affections that ought to be mortified (M. Henry).

II. A lesson of thankfulness.First, Jesus took the seven loaves, and brake them, and gave to His disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. Then, as if they had overlooked the few small fishes, Mark relates that they also were brought to Him, and He blessed and commanded to set them also before them. Two words are used, gave thanks and blessedone in connection with the first part of the meal, and the other with the second. With such words He turned these poor materials into a royal feast. Let us also learn that giving of thanks is a blessing upon our daily food.Prof. Laidlaw, D.D.

Mat. 15:34-38. Feeding the four thousand.

1. Ere the Lord work, He will have it seen how little ground He hath to work upon; therefore by asking His disciples He draweth forth how few loaves and fishes for such a work were to be had.
2. He will not despise His own ordinary appointed means for so far as they can reach, nor will He do anything extraordinary further than is necessary; for, He could have fed them without these seven loaves, but He will take them and make use of them, seeing they may be had.
3. Christ shames the misbelief of His servants, by making them, actors in the work, which they could not believe to see, for He gave to the disciples, and they to the multitude.
4. There is no scant when the Lord giveth the banquet, for all are filled when He inviteth His guests.
5. His manifold wisdom will glorify Himself as He pleaseth, but ever in a way sufficient to manifest His Divine power.David Dickson.

Mat. 15:34. How many loaves have ye?This question of Christs is wonderfully suggestive for those who are tempted to be content with doing nothing for Christ, because they cannot do much for Him, and who honestly, though ignorantly, suppose that an acceptable excuse for their standing all the day idle, is that no man hath hired them.

I. The first condition of usefulness absolutely indispensable for every one is to see the need of it and to observe the scope of it.

II. The next condition is to recognise that the opportunity of usefulness is ever at hand, if we are only willing to perceive it.

III. Another condition of usefulness is to be perfectly sure that every duty is possible; and that if we will take the trouble to inquire, each and all of us have resources as well as opportunities for diminishing the anguish of the world.

IV. We must not be daunted or baffled by the insignificance of the help it may be in our power to give, or the poverty, even the scantiness, of our resources.

V. The great thing is to brush away difficulties, to remember that waiting, and trembling, and reasoning, and putting off, never yet made a duty easier, or lightened a soul with a burden on its back. Most of all learn that the great thing is to begin.

VI. The Lord would not do it all Himself, nor would He summon angels to do it for Him.Bishop Thorold.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(32) I have compassion on the multitude.The obvious resemblance between the details of this narrative and that of the feeding of the Five Thousand has led the schools of critics, who do not regard either as the record of a fact, to treat this as only another version of the same incident, or rather, from their point of view, of the same legend. The notes of distinctness are, however, too numerous to admit of that explanation. The number of the people fed, their three days waiting till their food was exhausted, the number of the loaves at hand, and of the baskets in which the fragments were collected after the meal, are all different. More than this, the words rendered in both narratives by basket in the Authorised version are not the same in the Greek. Here the word is (spuris), the hamper in which provisions were packed as for a party travelling together, large enough, as in St. Pauls escape from Damascus (Act. 9:25), to hold a man; while in the other it was the (cophinus), or smaller basket, which a man carried in his hand. Lastly, our Lords words in Mat. 16:9-10, distinctly recognise the two miracles, and connect the close of each with the word which was thus specially appropriate to it. Unless we adopt the incredible hypothesis that the one narrative was first so disguised that it lost the marks of its identity, and that the Evangelists, having combined the two, then invented our Lords words, with all their apparent freshness and adaptation to the special circumstances of the hour, they must be admitted to be decisive as proving that there had been two events, like in kind, to which He thus referred. It is significant that here, as so often before, the display of miraculous power in its highest form originates not in answer to a challenge, or as being offered as a proof of a divine mission, but simply from compassion. Three days had passed, and still the crowds hung on His words and waited for His loving acts, and now they began to show signs of exhaustion that moved His sympathy.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

32. Compassion on the multitude Some faith had they shown in attending his word and works. The tenderness of our Lord suggests all the pitiableness of their case. What they would have thought of had they framed a prayer for succour, he has thought of before them. So does our merciful Lord know what we need before we ask him; and we have need to ask him only in order to make ourselves in the right position to receive the spiritual blessings he would confer.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And Jesus called to him his disciples, and said, “I have compassion on the crowd, because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat, and I would not send them away fasting, lest it happen that they faint on the way.” ’

Jesus expresses His compassion for the crowd who have been listening him for a couple of days or so (‘three days’ is a general expression indicating anything from one and a half to five days, see its use in Joshua 2-3) and so have run out of any food that they had brought with them some time before.

In the previous incident of feeding the crowds, the disciples had sought that Jesus would send the crowds, who were far from home, to the neighbouring villages for food so that they could eat, only to discover that He expected them to be able to feed them. But in this case it is Jesus Who draws attention to the situation. And He declares that He is filled with compassion for the crowds because they have been with Him in the mountain for three days, and have run out of food to such an extent that they have not eaten for some time. Thus if He sent them home they might not make it through faintness. This was a clear expression of the deep interest of the crowds. It may well also have been a test to see what kind of response His disciples would make.

The question was, had their faith increased sufficiently since the last time for them to be able to do something now, and had they also learned the lesson of the Canaanite woman, so that they would recognise that God would feed the Gentile believers too? The disciples had, however, probably seen the former feeding as a one-off, and even more they would not consider that this mixed crowd of Jews and Gentiles could expect similar treatment. For while it was expected that the Messiah would provide manna from Heaven for Jews, it was certainly not expected for Gentiles. Thus the situation would be seen by them as very different. They had forgotten that Jesus had already demonstrated that He would take of the children’s bread and give it to the ‘dogs’.

Note Jesus’ expression of compassion. It is a word regularly used of Him (Mat 9:36; Mat 14:14; Mat 20:34; Mar 1:41; Mar 5:19; Luk 7:13). It reminds us that with all its spiritual lessons we must primarily see in this incident an expression of compassion. Jesus fed them in the first place because they were hungry and in real need. On the other hand when He Himself was tempted in such a situation He had refused to use His divine powers to produce bread. This suggests that something more was to be seen here. Which may be as follows:

1). That Jesus had an important lesson in it for the disciples, not only that it was ever to be their responsibility to feed God’s true people, but also that in this case the Gentiles who genuinely sought Him had a right to receive the same benefits as believing Jews. This again ties in to some extent with the Jewish way of thinking. The proselyte (but not the God-fearer) who converted to Judaism was, at least theoretically to stand on the same level as the ‘trueborn’ Jew (Exo 12:48). And we should recognise in this regard that any converts through Jesus’ ministry at this stage would certainly make for the synagogues once Jesus was gone from among them, and would there be seen as God-fearers and prospective proselytes. It was one thing, however, to speak of such equality, and quite another to carry it into practise, so as really to place converted Gentiles on the same level as Jews. Jesus here goes one step further and offers Jewish privileges to believing Gentiles also, even though they are not circumcised. But it would be a hard lesson for the disciples to take in.

2). Another clear lesson from this incident is that Jesus has come to feed both Jew and Gentile with the Bread of Life, so that those who come to Him may never hunger and those who believe in Him may never thirst (Joh 6:35). In Him their hunger and thirst after righteousness (Mat 5:6) will be fulfilled. He has come bringing ‘food’ for all, the sure mercies of David, which are available to all nations (Isa 55:1-5). This is emphasised later in Mat 16:9-12 when it is made clear that the ‘bread from Heaven’ represents Jesus’ message of salvation.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Feeding of Four Thousand In Gentile Territory By A Miracle (15:32-39).

It was one thing for Jesus to preach and heal in Gentile territory where there were many Jews, while allowing Gentiles to share the fringe benefits, for the synagogues did the same (at least the preaching bit). Gentiles were welcomed in reasonable numbers into Jewish synagogues so as to learn about the God of Israel. It was, however, quite another to do what He did now. For here they do not just have the opportunity to learn, but are called on to partake in a ‘family’ meal, as a community together. They are being treated, at least to a certain extent, as on a level with His Jewish disciples. To the disciples this was probably totally unexpected, which explains why, although they had seen the feeding of the five thousand, they did not expect that to be reproduced here (Mat 15:33). That had been for Jewish believers, but here there were many Gentiles. From this we learn therefore that the new ‘congregation’ of Israel is to include Gentiles, just as the old congregation of Israel had done in the days of the Exodus, when ‘the mixed multitude’ (Exo 12:38) were united with them in the covenant at Sinai.

No doubt the Apostles accepted Jesus’ preaching to Gentiles because they looked on these people as similar to ‘God-fearers’, those who because they had come to believe in the God of Israel attended worship at synagogues, even though they did not become full proselytes. This explains why they still did not catch on to the fact Gentiles were to be welcomed wholesale into Jesus’ new congregation of Israel, and would have to be convinced of it later in Acts 10-11. It also explains why they did not expect that they would be provided with bread from Heaven as Jewish believers had been. After all even to the Canaanite woman He had only offered ‘crumbs’.

Comparing this incident with the parallel picture in Mat 14:13-21 there are a number of clear distinctions which demonstrate the difference between them, and even in some cases hint at the presence of Gentiles here. The scene in Mat 14:13-21 took place in the spring (they sat on green grass – Mar 6:39), here it is later in the year, for He sat them on ‘the ground’. In Mat 14:13-21 the crowd had come a long way, which was why they had no food, here they run short of food because of the length of time that they have stayed with Jesus, listening to His words. In Mat 14:13-21 it was the disciples who approached Jesus, and drew attention to the problem (of their fellow-Jews?), here Jesus calls His disciples to Him and Himself draws attention to the problem. In Mat 14:13-21 the idea was that the crowds went to the surrounding villages for food. The idea here seems to be that they would return to their homes. In Mat 14:13-21 there were five loaves and two fishes. Here there are seven loaves and a few fish. In Mat 14:13-21 Jesus ‘blesses’, that is uses a typically Jewish form of grace, here He ‘gives thanks’. In Mat 14:13-21 there were twelve wicker baskets (typical of what Jews used for carrying kosher food with them) which were filled with remnants, here it is seven larger baskets, probably made of hemp, of a kind regularly used by Gentiles as well as Jews, and probably brought from the boat.

Thus in Mat 14:13-21 the ‘family’ partook of the bread from God’s table, here the family still participated, but Gentiles were also allowed to receive ‘the crumbs’ (Mat 15:27). Once having received illumination from His Father Jesus had no hesitation in carrying it into practise. He recognised that His wider ministry had begun.

Analysis.

a And Jesus called to Him His disciples, and said (Mat 15:32 a).

b “I have compassion on the crowd, because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat, and I would not send them away fasting, lest it happen that they faint on the way” (Mat 15:32 b).

c And the disciples say to Him, “From where should we have so many loaves in a desert place as to fill so great a crowd?” (Mat 15:33).

d And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven, and a few small fishes” (Mat 15:34).

e And He commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground (Mat 15:35).

d And He took the seven loaves and the fishes, and He gave thanks and broke, and gave to the disciples, and the disciples to the crowds (Mat 15:36).

c And they all ate, and were filled, and they took up what remained over of the broken pieces, seven baskets full (Mat 15:37).

b And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children (Mat 15:38).

a And He sent away the crowds, and entered into the boat, and came into the borders of Magadan (Mat 15:39).

Note that in ‘a’ He calls to Him His disciples, and in the parallel He sends away the crowds. In ‘b’ He has compassion on the hungry crowd, and in the parallel they are all miraculously fed. In ‘c’ the disciples wonder how they will be fed, and in the parallel hey are not only fed but there is a large surplus over. In ‘d’ there are seven loaves and a few fish, and in the parallel He uses these to feed the crowd. Centrally in ‘e’ Jesus tells them all to sit on the ground preparatory to the miracle.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The great need of the people:

v. 32. Then Jesus called His disciples unto Him and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with Me now three days, and have nothing to eat; and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.

v. 33. And His disciples say unto Him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness as to fill so great a multitude?

v. 34. And Jesus said unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes.

There was a certain faithfulness about the multitudes which caused the people to remain in the uninhabited places along the eastern shore with the Lord. Their wonder as one miracle was followed by another kept them alive and expectant. But in the meantime all the supplies which they might have brought along had been consumed, and there were indications of real distress and suffering among them. Christ’s tender heart was again deeply touched. Calling His disciples together. He lays the matter before them, making them feel the responsibility for these hungry people. A beautiful word: And dismiss them hungry I will not. “Let us but learn to believe that we have the same Christ who takes an interest in us, even in our physical suffering, and always shows that these words: I have compassion on the poor people, are written in His heart with living letters; that He also would like us to know this and to hear the word of the Gospel in such a way as though He in this hour and daily were speaking to us, whenever we feel our trouble, yea, long before we ourselves begin to complain of it. For He is still, and will remain in eternity, the same Christ and has the same heart, thoughts, and words toward us that He was and had at that time, and has never, neither yesterday or ever, become different, nor will He today or tomorrow become a different Christ.”

But the disciples had forgotten the miracles of a few short weeks before. In absolute helplessness they cast about for some way of meeting the emergency. They discuss ways and means of procuring and transporting a sufficient amount of food way out here into the meadows on the lake shore. The great size of the multitude appalls them. The Lord cuts the discussion short by His inquiry as to the amount of food available, and receives the answer.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mat 15:32-38. I have compassion on the multitude , a very expressive word, signifying My bowels yearn, or are moved, see ch. Mat 9:36. It is pleasing to remark the strong compassion which our blessed Lord continually discovered in all his actions toward mankind. The multitude, it is probable, intent on hearing Christ and seeing his miracles, had lodged two nights together in thefields, as the season of the year was pleasant, this event happening quickly after the passover: and, besides that the great number of the cures which had been wrought but just before might animate them,perhaps they might conclude, that the miraculous power of Christ, which was displayed in so many glorious instances around them, would either preserve their health from being endangered by the large dews which fell in the night, or restore them from any disorder they might contract by their eagerness to attend on his ministry. The multitude having now, as on a former occasion, consumed all the provision they brought with them, Jesus would not send them away without feeding them, lest they might have fainted in the way home. The disciples, who it seems did not reflect on the former miraculous dinner, imagined that Jesus proposed to feed this great multitude in the natural way; and were greatly surprised, and strongly hinted the impracticability of so doing, Mat 15:33. Jesus did not reprove them for these wrongnotions, but meekly asked them what meat they had; and upon their telling him that they had seven loaves and a few little fishes, he ordered them to be brought, and out of these made a second dinner for the multitude by miracle. The Evangelist having, in the history of the former dinner, described the manner in which the multitudes were set down, thought itneedless on this occasion to say any thing of that particular; probably because they were ranged before in companies, by hundreds and by fifties. Few or none of these persons, it is most probable, were present at the former dinner; they seem to have been principally such as followed Jesus from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, and the neighbouring heathen country: hence they are said, on seeing his miracles, to have glorified the God of Israel. This dinner was in all respects like to the first, except in the number of loaves and fishes of which it was made, the number of persons who were present at it, and the number of baskets which were filled with the fragments that remained. One cannot but remark with what wisdom Jesus chose to be so much in deserts during this period of his ministry: he was resolved, in the discharge of the duties of it, to make as little noise as possible, to avoid crowds, and to be followed only by such as had dispositions proper for profiting by his instructions; and to say the truth, not a great many others would have accompanied him into solitudes, where they were to sustain the inconveniences of hunger and the weather for several days together. As the multitude on this and the like occasions remained long with Jesus, doubtless his doctrine distilled upon them, all the while like dew, and as the small rain upon the tender herb; if so, what satisfaction and edification should we find in the divine discourses which he then delivered, were we in possession of them! Therefreshment that we receive from such of them as the inspired writers have preserved, raises an ardent desire of the rest. At the same time it must be acknowledged, that we are blessed with so much of Christ’s doctrine as is fully sufficient to the purposes of salvation. See Macknight, Doddridge, and Wetstein.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 15:32 . In this second instance of feeding the multitude, and which is likewise recorded in Mar 8:1 ff. (and that in a more authentic form), Jesus takes the initiative, as in Joh 6:5 ; not so in Mat 14:15 .

] because they have remained with me, it is now three days, and , and so on. For this elliptical way of inserting the time in the nominative, see Winer, p. 523 [E. T. 704]; Buttmann, neut. Gr . p. 122 [E. T. 139]; Fritzsche, ad Marc . p. 310 f.

. . . .] for in the course of the three days they had consumed the provisions they had brought along with them.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

Chapter 65

Christ the Satisfaction of Hunger

Mat 15:32-39

All orthodox critics regard this miracle as totally distinct from the strikingly similar one recorded in the fourteenth chapter. There can, indeed, be no doubt about it, if we believe what Jesus Christ himself is reported to have said in the sixteenth chapter, wherein he asks the people if they have forgotten the five loaves of the five thousand, and the seven loaves of the four thousand. This is one of the repetitions which are necessary in beneficent life. We must not find fault with the miracles because we have experienced something very like them before. Our life is a continual miracle; repetitions ought not to be monotonous to us, our love ought to be so intelligent and lively as to discern in every repeated miracle some new phase and tone of the divine mind and purpose.

Amidst all his thinking, which must have been of the most trying nature, Jesus Christ’s acute and passionate sympathy was never suppressed. With such problems pressing for solution, with the purposes of eternity about to accomplish themselves in his agony and death, with the cross daily acquiring new definiteness of outline and weight, who could wonder if all that was merely sympathetic should be forgotten or suspended? Are not we absorbed in the solution of our intellectual problems, are we not sometimes so taken up with great questions, that we cannot attend to domestic affairs, or household anxieties, or to the so-called petty troubles of our passing life? Here is a man who was slain from before the foundation of the world, who is now to be seen in heaven by faith’s vision, as a lamb slain, who was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief always, who had the wall salvation pressing upon his attention and crushing the strength of his heart, and yet he has time to bestow attention upon the hunger and thirst of the multitude. Wherein then is our reasoning wrong, when we think that great intellectual and moral considerations might have excluded the action of sympathy? It is wrong in the fact that we do not understand the real nature and scope of sympathy, when properly interpreted and understood. But for his sympathy the cross would have been an impossibility; intellect cowered before it, love took it up and bore it onward until its very gloom was carried into glory.

So shall it be with all crosses that are rightly borne. If we carry our crosses in Christ’s spirit and according to the measure of Christ’s will, we shall force our troubles beyond the dark point at which they would bind us down, and make those troubles contribute to the very satisfaction which they were meant to destroy. Intellect soon drops its crosses, love bears them on to the happy consummation. We are too impatient with our crosses: we try to cut them down; we should let them alone until they take root and blossom and bear fruit for our soul’s satisfaction. Herein is the lesson of Christ broad and gracious to us in all its application of wisdom and of comfort. You want to cut the cross into small pieces of wood and to burn them in the fire and so destroy the tree of crucifixion: Jesus Christ shows us how we are to treat the cross we are to carry it forward from step to step until we cause the extreme of trouble to touch the beginning of joy. Let us consider then the High Priest of our profession, let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God. The joy that is beyond should give strength to bear the cross which is the immediate portion of the passing day. If we omit from our recollection the coming, the necessary joy, what wonder if our souls be cast down as under the pressure of an intolerable burden? Our light affliction is but for a moment, whilst we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. We are to be constrained to nobler heroism of endurance and sweeter gentleness of patience, by the power of an endless life. Take in more field, cast your eyes abroad upon a bolder horizon, recognise the ulterior purpose and the sure consummation of divine love, and then the cross will begin to bud, and to have upon it green leaves, and then coloured blossoms, and then rich sweet fruit; and the soul will know that it was a glad time when that rough cross was planted in the soil of the life.

Hear this sweet music, which rises with the might of gentleness, in the desert. It comes upon us suddenly, and yet there ought not to be any suddenness in such a strain. Jesus says, “I have compassion.” This is the key-word of the Saviour’s life, the surname of Christ is Compassion. Why should such a speech startle one? He refers to his compassion as if it were a new feature in the day’s proceedings: he indicates the rising of compassion as though it were a new emotion of his life. What was the Saviour doing all the time but having compassion? The feeling never ceased: it touched with its own gentleness everything that Christ did he might have prefaced every day’s work with “I have compassion,” he might every night have fallen asleep to the music of his own words, “I have compassion.” It gave a wondrous expression to his eyes, caused the subtlest tones to enter into his gentle yet all-pervasive and all-penetrating voice, it lifted him up above his burdens and made him face the devil with a new energy it was the secret and the very inspiration of his life and ministry.

If you read the life of Jesus Christ under this suggestion that compassion is the key-word of it all, you will find everything Jesus Christ did taking on a new colour and bearing a new attitude and general relation to all history and to all providences. When he preached, he preached as one who had compassion, and preaching without compassion is not preaching the gospel in a gospel tone. He who would preach Christ must preach him yearningly, tearfully there must throughout his sermons be great gushes of tenderest desire for the souls of men. This is the secret of apostolic power: Paul besought those who heard him night and day with tears; the apostle punctuated some of his letters with weeping. Jesus Christ was a preacher whose words were steeped in feeling; every sermon therefore came from his heart, belonged to his heart, expressed his heart’s uppermost feeling and purpose. When Jesus Christ denounced, he denounced in the spirit of compassion, his curses were the emphasis of his pity and his love, not in relation to those on whom they fell like thunderbolts, but in relation to those on whose behalf he poured out the maledictions of his righteous and solemn anger. When he denounced the Pharisees because they would not touch the burdens they laid upon men with so much as the tips of their fingers, it was because he had compassion upon those who were oppressed by the tyranny of those who sought to override and over-drive them. When he called men hypocrites, liars, actors, it was because they were deluding and misleading people, and because he had compassion upon the dupes and victims of priestly cunning and wicked purpose.

Why then should we be surprised when Jesus Christ says, “I have compassion”? Sometimes he had to express his compassion in the very lowest and commonest forms. He accommodated himself to human weakness in the ways in which he made his revelations. We ought to have known that his very cunning was the expression of a passionate feeling, we ought to have heard tones of compassion in every beatitude he pronounced and in every thunder of denunciation which he launched; but seeing that we were not spiritually sympathetic enough so to do, he had actually to come down and express his compassion to us in the feeding of our physical hunger. He has, so to say, to force himself by vulgarest miracle upon the rude stupidity of those who cannot follow the subtler music and diviner passages of his ministry. Not until he clothes some of us do we understand that he cares about us. He has, so to say, to build up, brick by brick, our very houses, and not until he has roofed them in and furnished them and made them glow with comfort do we begin to see that possibly there may be a Father and a Saviour in the universe. When our spiritual education is more advanced, when our sympathies are more eager and sensitive and are illuminated with divine intelligence, we shall see God in other directions and in other relations, and shall not need the miracle of bread to convince us that the very hairs of our head are all numbered and the very beatings of our heart are heard in heaven. Meanwhile we are rude, coarse, impervious, and he has to treat us according to the impenetrableness of our moral condition.

“I have compassion.” How did he say that word? With what richness of tone, how broadly yet penetratingly he pronounced the word. He expounded it in its very enunciation, it warmed the wilderness when he uttered it, a new glow of hope pervading the breasts of all who heard that ineffable music. The compassionate man is the one whom we need oftenest and longest. The clever man amuses us for a moment, the entertaining man comes happily into the life now and again on sundry numerable occasions, the argumentative man troubles and vexes the intellect with many a hard proposition which he labours to solve and settle according to his own conceptions, but we tire of them all we cannot live upon cleverness, entertainment sates its dupes, argumentativeness wears the brain which it challenges to high controversy, but pity, gentle compassion, noble all-including sympathy it is the everlasting necessity, it is the divinest expression of interest.

This is Christ’s power over the world not the splendour of his intellect, not the witchery and fascination of his simple crystal eloquence, but his love, care, pity, patience, hopefulness, the heavenly way he has of stooping down to us and reconstructing our life when it has been shattered by rude blows, by whispering into our ear the word of hope which we dare not whisper to ourselves lest we should provoke the sword of conscience or bring to bear upon our souls the sting of outraged memory. By his love he wins, by his compassion he stands foremost among the world’s redeemers, not one of many but one alone, and they are broken parts of him.

In such miracles as this we see how Jesus Christ includes the whole life in his purview and intent, and how nothing is too lowly for him to do that will bring into our hearts quietness and rest and satisfaction. The clever man will abandon you when you enter the chamber of affliction: his voice would be harsh there. The entertaining man cannot go with you into the sanctuary of sorrow: his laughter would offend the genius of the place, his jokes would be blasphemies in that solemn place. The argumentative man even would vex the soul by his problems and propositions, his hypotheses and clever conjectures, when the soul is ill at ease and is the subject of such afflictions as can be known only by those who have been transfixed by the accusations of God’s law.

Who then can enter the chamber or be at home in the great darkness or take up the speech of the new land and utter it so that the soul can understand its whole meaning? He only who trod the winepress, who sweat, as it were, great drops of blood, who spake seven times on the accursed tree, who said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” and who added, “It is finished.” He goes with us everywhere, he is with us at the wedding feast, he will find wine enough for the guests. Wherever he goes he takes the wine of gladness with him, and when we come to die, he will be the principal guest in the chamber, and will then give us the same wine, the wedding wine. He only goes everywhere and is equally strong at every point.

Now we come to a point which for ever separates Jesus Christ from all other men, even the most tender-hearted and compassionate. It can be said of Christ alone that his resources were equal to his compassion. Our compassion outruns our resources: we are so often utterly helpless we might as well have no senses at all. What we would do, if we could: we would lift up the sick and the weary and make them well in a moment if it lay within our power so to do. We would take up the languishing and the death-stricken and make them glad in the summer light, and cause them to laugh with new energy, and because of new earthly hopes. We would cover up the grave, filling it with flowers, and smooth down the green face of the earth, so that it would be a shame to rip it up again for the purpose of hiding away the life of man. But though this would be the expression of our ignorant compassion, we are left without resource.

Jesus Christ always startled his disciples by the completeness of his proposals. “Feed the multitude,” said he, and the disciples instantly answered “How?” “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” the same completeness and the same compassion, the same determination to meet the necessity of the whole case; and truly from a human point of view there is as little apparently in the one case as in the other that is to say, in the case of preaching the gospel to every creature, and feeding the multitude with a few loaves and small fishes. What is there in this gospel to preach to every creature? what is there of sufficiency to meet the wants of the human family in all lands in all times? Yet it grows as it is spoken: this message never ends: it halts for a moment to accommodate the weakness of the speaker, but it tarries for him, it makes the air throb and burn till he returns to his work, itself is. never expressed in final speech. Let those testify to the sufficiency of the gospel to meet every want, who have known the gospel longest.

Notice the reason which Jesus Christ gives for his action “lest they faint in the way.” Here is the preventive ministry of the Saviour: he does not wait until the people do faint, he will run before them to prevent them fainting. Who can estimate this aspect of the Saviour’s ministry amongst us? We know the accidents which actually occur, and we magnify them into tragedies, but who knows the accidents which we narrowly escape, the accidents, so to say, which might have happened, the perils which surround us on the right hand and on the left and yet which do not express themselves in their ultimate form? The physiologists tell us that every day we have ten thousand narrow escapes from death: you do not know how near you were dying five minutes ago death, so to say, brushed you, and there was not room for a breath between the monster and the possible victim. We only know the rude accident, the actual fainting fit; but the accidents from which we are spared, the fainting fits that are kept off, the perils that are commanded to stand aside, who can estimate all these? Yet in this instance Jesus Christ invites our attention to his broadly preventive ministry; the action in which he goes before us to make ready against every contingency that could give us trouble.

“I go that I may prepare a place for you.” He is always running before: if he go away, he says, when we cling to him as if we would detain him on the earth, “It is expedient for you that I go away.” He never did anything for himself; he saved others, himself he could not save. To-day he is pleading for us, making our poor prayers into great prevalent intercessions, lifting up our little ministry of supplication into his own broad and grand priesthood, and giving gifts unto men as the answers to his own great prayers. We do not know all that Jesus is doing for us, we do not even know all that the summer does. Add up and tell me in plain speech what the summer does. You will speak of gardens and meadows, blossoms, foliages of a thousand tints, ripening fruits, singing-birds, great breadths of blue sky, height on height, an infinite immensity is that all? You do not tell me how the summer climbed up into the poor man’s one paned window and looked at him and told him he should be well again. You do not tell me how the summer subtly affected the souls of men who were depressed, and caused them to believe that even yet they would have a few cheerful hours before they passed away and were no more. You cannot follow all the ministry of light; it is always speaking, always working miracles, always recalling hope, always showing ways out of difficulties light, a word of one syllable, but of all syllables in one.

Christ did not say that he wished to perform a miracle; Jesus Christ had no wish to show signs and wonders, and to display mere power. Had the bread been equal to the compassion, no miracle would have been performed. Compassion is the secret of every miracle; there are no instances of Jesus Christ exerting mere power for the sake of its display: he never sought to do anything by the exhibition of mere omnipotence. Read the miracles in the light of this suggestion, and you will find that every miracle is, so to say, the expression of his tears, the utterance of his love, the form of his compassion. Think of all his healing, and see in all the wondrous cures which he wrought, how he had compassion on the multitude. See him raising the dead, and as the dead rise in obedience to his word, hear him say, “I have compassion on the living because they are so lonely and cold in the absence of the loved one.” See him walking on the sea, and hear him saying to the cold night wind, roused into storms that affrighted the poor voyagers, “I have compassion on the storm-tossed disciples because they are alone and know not what to do.” And hear him say on the cross, “I have compassion on the multitude.”

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

32 Then Jesus called his disciples unto him , and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.

Ver. 32. I have compassion on the multitude ] My bowels yearn towards them. Neither is he less loving, now that he is in heaven, towards his poor penniless, necessitous people on earth; but when they are hardest put to it, and haply have not a cross to bless themselves with, as the proverb is, he so graciously provides, that though the young lions (or the strong ones, as the Septuagint have it) do lack and suffer hunger, yet they that seek the Lord want nothing that’s good for them, Psa 34:10 . Aaron, though he might not bewail the death of his two sons, Lev 10:3 ; Lev 10:6-7 ; Lev 10:19 , because he was high priest, yet his bowels of fatherly affection towards them could not be restrained. Christ retaineth still compassion, Heb 4:5 , though free from personal passion; and, though freed from feeling, hath still yet a fallow feeling, Act 9:5 ; Mat 25:35 ; ” Manet compassio etiam cum impassibilitate, ” saith Bernard.

Because they continue with me now three days ] The Lord takes punctual and particular notice of all circumstances, how far they came, how long they had been there, how little able they were to hold out fasting to their own homes, &c. And so he doth still recount how many years, days, hours we have spent with him; what straits, losses, heats, colds, dangers, difficulties we have encountered with and passed through; all is exactly registered in his book of remembrance; “I know thy work, and thy labour,” saith he, Rev 2:19 . Men take much pains many times, and none regard it, reward it. But Christ takes notice, not of his people’s works only, but of their labour in doing them, that he may fully recompence their labour of love, their loss of goods, &c. The godly shall know in themselves, not only in others, in books, &c., that they have “a better and an enduring substance,” Heb 10:34 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

32. ] The modern German interpreters assume the identity of this miracle with that narrated in ch. Mat 14:14 ff. If this be so, then our Evangelists must have forged the speech attributed to our Lord in ch. Mat 16:9-10 . But, as Ebrard justly remarks (Evangelienkritik, p. 532), every circumstance which could vary, does vary, in the two accounts. The situation in the wilderness, the kind of food at hand, the blessing and breaking, and distributing by means of the disciples, these are common to the two accounts , and were likely to be so: but here the matter is introduced by our Lord Himself with an expression of pity for the multitudes who had continued with Him three days: here also the provision is greater, the numbers are less than on the former occasion. But there is one small token of authenticity which marks these two accounts as referring to two distinct events, even had we not such direct testimony as that of ch. Mat 16:9-10 . It is, that whereas the baskets in which the fragments were collected on the other occasion are called by all four Evangelists , those used for that purpose after this miracle are in both Matt. and Mark . And when our Lord refers to the two miracles, the same distinction is observed; a particularity which could not have arisen except as pointing to a matter of fact, that, whatever the distinction be, which is uncertain, different kinds of baskets were used on the two occasions. Perhaps the strangest reason for supposing the two identical (given by De Wette, Schleiermacher, and others) is an imagined difficulty in the question of the disciples, . . ., so soon after the former miracle; as if the same slowness to believe and trust in divine power were not repeatedly found among men, and instanced in Scripture itself; compare Exo 16:13 with Num 11:21-22 ; and read in Exo 17:1-7 the murmurings of the Israelites immediately after their deliverance at the Red Sea. And even could we recognize this as a difficulty, it is not necessarily implied in the text. Our Lord puts the matter to them as a question, without the slightest intimation of His intention to supply the want supernaturally. They make answer in the same spirit, without venturing (as indeed it would have been most unbecoming in them to do, see Joh 2:3-4 ) to suggest the working of a miracle. De Wette’s assumption that the usage of and shews two different traditional sources used by the author, would make it necessary to suppose that the forger of ch. Mat 16:9-10 has been skilful enough to preserve this distinction; an accuracy seldom found in interpolations of early Christian times.

On see reff. and Winer, 62. 2, note.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 15:32-38 . Second feeding (Mar 8:1-9 ).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Mat 15:32 . , with as in Mat 14:14 , Mar 8:2 , with in Mat 9:36 . In the first feeding Christ’s compassion is moved by the sickness among the multitude, here by their hunger. : that this is the true reading is guaranteed by the unusual construction, the accusative being what one expects. The reading of [94] adopted by Fritzsche, which inserts after , though not to be accepted as the true reading, may be viewed as a solution of the problem presented by the true reading vide Winer, 62, 2. , fasting ( , similar to from , ), here and in parallel text in Mk. only. The motive of the miracle is not the distance from supplies but the exhausted condition of the people after staying three days with Jesus with quite inadequate provision of food. Mk. states that some were far from home (Mat 8:3 ), implying that most were not. But even those whose homes were near might faint ( , Gal 6:9 ) by the way through long fasting.

[94] Codex Bezae

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 15:32-38

32And Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, “I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.” 33The disciples said to Him, “Where would we get so many loaves in this desolate place to satisfy such a large crowd?” 34And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” 35And He directed the people to sit down on the ground; 36and He took the seven loaves and the fish; and giving thanks, He broke them and started giving them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 37And they all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, seven large baskets full. 38And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.

Mat 15:33 “the disciples said” How could the disciples have forgotten the feeding of the 5,000 so quickly (cf. Mat 14:13-21)? The difference in the number, setting, and type of baskets used show that there were two separate feedings of multitudes, not just one recorded twice.

Although Jesus’ statements seemed to restrict His ministry to Jews, this feeding, like the healing of the Centurion’s family in Matthew 8, healing of the Gentile woman’s child in Mat 15:21-28 and the summary statement of Mat 15:29-30, all refer to Gentiles.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

called = called to [Him].

on = upon. Greek. epi.

now = already.

three days = the third day. Observe, not “and nights”. See note on Mat 12:40, and App-144and App-156.

nothing = not anything.

I will not = I am not willing. See App-102.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

32.] The modern German interpreters assume the identity of this miracle with that narrated in ch. Mat 14:14 ff. If this be so, then our Evangelists must have forged the speech attributed to our Lord in ch. Mat 16:9-10. But, as Ebrard justly remarks (Evangelienkritik, p. 532), every circumstance which could vary, does vary, in the two accounts. The situation in the wilderness, the kind of food at hand, the blessing and breaking, and distributing by means of the disciples, these are common to the two accounts, and were likely to be so: but here the matter is introduced by our Lord Himself with an expression of pity for the multitudes who had continued with Him three days: here also the provision is greater, the numbers are less than on the former occasion. But there is one small token of authenticity which marks these two accounts as referring to two distinct events, even had we not such direct testimony as that of ch. Mat 16:9-10. It is, that whereas the baskets in which the fragments were collected on the other occasion are called by all four Evangelists , those used for that purpose after this miracle are in both Matt. and Mark . And when our Lord refers to the two miracles, the same distinction is observed; a particularity which could not have arisen except as pointing to a matter of fact, that, whatever the distinction be, which is uncertain, different kinds of baskets were used on the two occasions. Perhaps the strangest reason for supposing the two identical (given by De Wette, Schleiermacher, and others) is an imagined difficulty in the question of the disciples, …, so soon after the former miracle; as if the same slowness to believe and trust in divine power were not repeatedly found among men, and instanced in Scripture itself;-compare Exo 16:13 with Num 11:21-22; and read in Exo 17:1-7 the murmurings of the Israelites immediately after their deliverance at the Red Sea. And even could we recognize this as a difficulty, it is not necessarily implied in the text. Our Lord puts the matter to them as a question, without the slightest intimation of His intention to supply the want supernaturally. They make answer in the same spirit, without venturing (as indeed it would have been most unbecoming in them to do, see Joh 2:3-4) to suggest the working of a miracle. De Wettes assumption that the usage of and shews two different traditional sources used by the author, would make it necessary to suppose that the forger of ch. Mat 16:9-10 has been skilful enough to preserve this distinction; an accuracy seldom found in interpolations of early Christian times.

On see reff. and Winer, 62. 2, note.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 15:32. , I have compassion) Whilst the people forget hunger in admiration, Jesus pities them, and is not affected by their praise of His miracles. Glory and mercy elsewhere seldom meet.- , they remain with Me[702]) It was the interest of the people to remain with Jesus; and yet He embraces that as a reason for conferring a fresh benefit upon them. The people were ready to remain longer.-, what) for , that which, see the LXX. in Gen 38:25.-, fasting) Our Lord never dismissed any one without relieving their necessities.

[702] Fresh patients being ever and anon laid down in the midst, one after the other.-V. g.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Jesus: Mat 9:36, Mat 14:14, Mat 20:34, Mar 8:1, Mar 8:2, Mar 9:22, Luk 7:13

I have: Heb 4:15

three: Mat 12:40, Mat 27:63, Act 27:33

and have: Mat 6:32, Mat 6:33, Luk 12:29, Luk 12:30

lest: 1Sa 14:28-31, 1Sa 30:11, 1Sa 30:12, Mar 8:3

Reciprocal: Gen 21:17 – heard Mar 6:34 – saw Mar 6:37 – give Luk 9:12 – Send Luk 14:13 – call Act 27:34 – for this Jam 2:16 – one

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

5:32

Once more the compassion of Jesus asserted itself in behalf of the multitude whose interest had kept them in his presence for three days. Of course there would be no oppor- nity for procuring food out there in that mountainous area. Fasting is from NESTIS and Thayer’s definition is, “fasting, not having eaten.” The mere fact of being without food during the time necessary to reach a market would not cause them to faint in the way, but they would already be weak, having not eaten for three days.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Mat 15:32. And Jesus called unto him his disciples. Our Lord Himself takes the first step (comp. chap. Mat 14:15). This case was more urgent; the crowd was not composed of those on the way to the Passover, and had been three days with Him.

Three days. The third day was passing; so they were hungry and destitute of provisions, but not yet in actual distress.

Faint in the way, i.e., because exhausted from the want of food on their way home in that mountainous region. The Lords compassion was called out by their physical want, which, however, resulted from their desire to be near Him.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Here we have the second miracle of Christ’s compassionate feeding the hungry multitude. In Mat 14:15-21 we read of five thousand fed with five loaves and two fishes; here Christ feeds four thousand with seven loaves and a few small fishes.

Where observe, That Christ had fewest, when he had most provision; when he had seven loaves, he fed but four thousand; when he had five loaves, he fed five thousand. Thus the wisdom and power of Christ is glorified by him as he pleases. The feeding of one thousand with one loaf, was as true a miracle as the feeding seven thousand. Our Saviour did put forth the power of his godhead in working miracles, after what manner seemed best to his own wisdom.

Observe farther, A double action performed by our Saviour.

1. He gave thanks: that is, he prayed for a blessing upon the food. Teaching us our duty, That if the Son of God did look up to heaven, and bless his food, we should not sit down to our food as a beast to his fodder, without craving a blessing upon it.

The next action was, He gave to his disciples.

But why did he distribute the loaves by the hands of his disciples?

Answ. Because the disciples questioned, through the weakness of their faith, whether such a multitude as four thousand could be fed with so small a provision as seven loaves.

Now our Saviour, to convince them how easily he could do that thing which they had judged impossible, distributes the bread by them: making use of their own eyes and hands, for their conviction and satisfaction.

Thus Christ, to shame the unbelief of his disciples, makes them not only spectators but actors in that work which they judged impossible to be effected.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 15:32-39. Jesus called his disciples, and said, I have compassion, &c. For some observations on the contents of these verses, see the notes on Mar 8:1-9.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

FEEDING THE MULTITUDES AGAIN

Mat 15:32-38; Mar 8:1-9. During these days [i.e., His sojourn in Decapolis], the multitude being very great, and not having what they may eat, Jesus, calling to Him His disciples, says to them, I sympathize with the multitude, because already three days transpire to Me, and they have nothing which they may eat. If I shall send them away to their home fasting, they will faint by the way; for some of them have come from afar. And His disciples responded to Him, Whence will any one be able to feed so many with bread, here, in a destitute place? And He asked them, How many loaves have you? And they said, Seven. And He proclaimed to the multitude to sit down upon the ground; and taking the seven loaves, giving thanks, He broke them, and gave them to His disciples, that they may distribute them; and they dispensed them to the multitude. They also had a few small fishes; blessing, He commanded that they should also distribute these. Mat 15:37 : And they all ate and were filled; and they took up the remainder of the fragments, seven baskets full. And those eating were four thousand men, besides women and children. The Jews especially, as well as the Orientals generally, in that day and at the present, are in the habit of going, by whole families, on foot, taking a few donkeys or camels to carry burdens. We hear much said about feeding the five thousand and the four thousand, only giving the estimate at about one-half, as Matthew certifies that, in the one instance, there were five thousand men, besides women and children; and in the other, four thousand men, besides women and children; thus giving the estimate at ten thousand in one case, and eight thousand in the other, at the minimum; as in all probability the women and children far outnumbered the men, which is the case in our campmeetings and other religious gatherings, and would be even more so in Israel, where, from time immemorial, it was customary for whole families to go to their great religious convocations, leaving the home without a keeper, as God had assured them that He would protect their domestic interests during their absence to attend the periodical national solemnities. On this occasion, from the seven loaves and a few small fishes, after feeding the eight thousand, they gathered up seven baskets full of fragments, evidently those great baskets, in which they now carry merchantable produce to market, holding several bushels; i.e., the fragments amounting to about one hundred times the original quantity. So, if you would be a millionaire in the kingdom of God, start now, run with all of your might, and do your best to give away all you have, resting assured God will multiply you a hundred-fold. If you can only rake up a few loaves and fishes, and pitch a holiness camp-meeting, you will have plenty to feed the thronging multitudes, and fragments enough, if gathered up and utilized, to inaugurate at least ten new camps next year.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Mat 15:32-39. The Second Feeding of the Multitude (Mar 8:1-10*)Mt. follows Mk. closely, but again adds women and children. I would not send them away fasting (Mat 15:32), according to Allen, heightens the note of mastery and dignity of Christs aims. Magadan (Mat 15:39) is as great a puzzle as Mk.s Dalmanutha. Possibly Magdala, the reading of some MSS. here and of others in Mk., is meant.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

15:32 {7} Then Jesus called his disciples [unto him], and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they {i} continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.

(7) By doing this miracle again, Christ shows that he who follows Christ will never be in need, not even in the wilderness.

(i) Go not from my side.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Jesus’ feeding of the 4,000 15:32-39 (cf. Mar 8:1-10)

Jesus had previously fed 5,000 men, but that was near the northeast coast of Lake Galilee, where the people were mainly Jews (Mat 14:13-21). Now He fed 4,000 men on the east coast of Lake Galilee, where the people were mainly Gentiles.

Feeding the 5,000	Feeding the 4,000
Primarily Jews	Primarily Gentiles
In Galilee near Bethsaida	In the Decapolis
Five loaves and two fish	Seven loaves and a few fish
12 baskets of scraps	7 baskets of scraps
People with Jesus one day	People with Jesus three days
Spring season	Summer season
Jews tried to make Jesus king	No popular response

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Matthew again called attention to Jesus’ compassion (Mat 15:32; cf. Mat 9:36). Evidently the crowds had not gone home at nightfall but had slept on the hillsides to be close to Jesus. This presents a picture of huge crowds standing in line for days at a time to obtain Jesus’ help. Some of them were becoming physically weak from lack of food.

The disciples’ question amazes the reader since Jesus had recently fed 5,000 men plus women and children. Probably the fact that the crowd was predominantly Gentile led the disciples to conclude that Jesus would not do the same for them that He had done for the Jews. This may have been especially true in view of what He had said to the Canaanite woman about Jewish priority in God’s kingdom program. If they thought of the feeding of the 5,000 as a foretaste of the kingdom banquet, they probably would have thought that it was a uniquely Jewish experience. Perhaps since Jesus rebuked the crowd for just wanting food after the feeding of the 5,000, the disciples did not think He would duplicate the miracle (cf. Joh 6:26). Undoubtedly the disciples’ limited faith was also a factor (cf. Mat 16:5-12).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)