Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 15:33

And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?

Verse 33. Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, &c.] Human foresight, even in the followers of Christ, is very short. In a thousand instances, if we supply not its deficiency by faith, we shall be always embarrassed, and often miserable. This world is a desert, where nothing can be found to satisfy the soul of man, but the salvation which Christ has procured.

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

And his disciples said unto him,…. The former miracle of feeding five thousand men, besides women and children, with five loaves and two fishes, being quite out of their thoughts, they reply,

whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude? The question is big with objections, and is put with some vehemency and astonishment: the people to be led were a multitude, a great multitude, a very great multitude, and these too had had but little, or no food, for a great while; and therefore would require the more to fill and satisfy them; and besides, it was a wilderness where they were, and where no provisions were to be had; and if they could have been got for money, they had not stock enough to purchase such a large number of loaves, as were necessary to feed so great a company with.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the disciples say to him ( ). It seems strange that they should so soon have forgotten the feeding of the five thousand (Mt 14:13-21), but they did. Soon Jesus will remind them of both these demonstrations of his power (Matt 16:9; Matt 16:10). They forgot both of them, not just one. Some scholars scout the idea of two miracles so similar as the feeding of the five thousand and the four thousand, though both are narrated in detail by both Mark and Matthew and both are later mentioned by Jesus. Jesus repeated his sayings and wrought multitudes of healings. There is no reason in itself why Jesus should not on occasion repeat a nature miracle like this elsewhere. He is in the region of Decapolis, not in the country of Philip ().

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

33. Whence shall we obtain so many loaves in a solitary place? The disciples manifest excessive stupidity in not remembering, at least, that earlier proof of the power and grace of Christ, which they might have applied to the case in hand. As if they had never seen any thing of the same sort, they forget to apply to him for relief. There is not a day on which a similar indifference does not steal upon us; and we ought to be the more careful not to allow our minds to be drawn away from the contemplation of divine benefits, that the experience of the past may lead us to expect for the future the same assistance which God has already on one or more occasions bestowed upon us.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(33) His disciples say unto him.Here, on the assumption that we are dealing with a true record, a difficulty of another kind meets us. How was it, we ask, that the disciples, with the memory of the former miracle still fresh in their recollection, should answer as before with the same child-like perplexity? Why did they not at once assume that the same divine power could be put forth to meet a like want now? The answers to that question may, perhaps, be grouped as follows:(1.) It is not easy for us to put ourselves in the position of men who witnessed, as they did, these workings of a supernatural might. We think of the Power as inherent, and therefore permanent. To them it might seem intermittent, a gift that came and went. Their daily necessities had been supplied, before and after the great event, in the common way of gift or purchase. The gathering of the fragments (Mat. 14:20; Joh. 6:12) seemed to imply that they were not to rely on the repetition of the wonder. (2.) The fact that three days had passed, and that hunger had been allowed to pass on to the borders of exhaustion, might well have led to think that the power was not to be exerted now. (3.) Our Lords implied questionthough, as before, He Himself knew what He would do (Joh. 6:6)must have appeared to them to exclude the thought that He was about to make use again of that reserve of power which He had displayed before. They would seem to themselves to be simply following in His footsteps when they answered His question as on the level which He Himself thus appeared to choose.

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

69. THE MIRACLE OF FEEDING THE FOUR THOUSAND, Mat 15:33-39 .

Skeptical critics have maintained that this narrative is a traditional repetition, by mistake, of the miracle of feeding the five thousand. That there was no oversight, however, on the part of the author of this Gospel is plain from Mat 16:9-10, where both accounts are alluded to in connection. But there is a minute but convincing argument for the genuineness of the two accounts thus given by Mr. Alford: “It is, that whereas the baskets in which the fragments were collected on the other occasion are called by all four evangelists , cophini, those used for that purpose after this miracle are, in both Matthew and Mark, , spurides. 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.”

But besides the differences in detail, such as the different number of the fed, and of the loaves and fishes, there are differences important in character. The first miraculous feeding was performed for the inhabitants who followed Jesus, and anticipated his debarkation from the western side of the lake. They meet Jesus in intense excitement at the shore, and the miracle takes place upon the plain of Butaiha, near the village of Bethsaida.

This second feeding takes place when Jesus is secreting himself from Herod Antipas. He rapidly and quietly passes to the coast northeast of the lake, out of the dominion of Herod; and it is in the country, probably, of the Decapolis that the miracle takes place. It is probably the multitudes from the eastern side who are sharers of the product of this miracle. And we cannot help thinking that there is some truth in the ancient opinion that they were mostly Gentiles; and thus an intimation is given that since the Jews have had their banquet at the table of God, the Gentiles too shall have a share. After the former miracle, the Lord sends forward his disciples by ship at night, and overtakes them before morning dawn by walking upon the sea. After the present miracle our Lord leaves the multitudes in their own regions, and departs to Magdala.

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

33. Whence should we have bread The wavering reply of the apostles evinces a recollection of the former miracle. They have not indeed the boldness to call for a miracle, as his mother Mary did at the wedding of Cana; and mother though she was, she received a check from her son and Lord. They do not say, If we are to feed this multitude your miraculous power must meet the expense. They only put a modest but suggestive Whence? Their eyes then watch every movement, we may suppose, of his lip and hand.

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

‘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?” ’

The disciples clearly did not consider that it was likely that there could be a miracle of bread from Heaven for Gentiles, and began to consider from where they could get sufficient loaves to satisfy this large and hungry crowd. It was not a question of whether Jesus could do it. It was their certain opinion that He would not. This mixed crowd was a totally different matter from a wholly Jewish crowd seeking Jesus.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Mat 15:33 ff. See note on Mat 14:15 ff.

] “Jam intelligebant discipuli, suas fore in ea re partes aliquas,” Bengel.

] not a telic particle (de Wette), but what is meant is: such a quantity of bread as will be sufficient for their wants, and so on. The use of after in a way corresponding to this is of very frequent occurrence (Plat. Gorg . p. 458 C). See Sturz, Lex. Xen . IV. p. 320; Khner, II. 2, p. 1003. Notice the emphatic correlation of and .

The perplexity of the disciples, and the fact of their making no reference to what was formerly done under similar circumstances, combined with the great resemblance between the two incidents, have led modern critics to assume that Matthew and Mark simply give what is only a duplicate narrative of one and the same occurrence (Schleiermacher, Scholz, Kern, Credner, Strauss, Neander, de Wette, Hase, Ewald, Baur, Kstlin, Hilgenfeld, Holtzmann, Weiss, Weizscker, Volkmar, Keim, Scholten); while Wilke and Bruno Bauer maintain, though quite unwarrantably, that in Mark the account of the second instance of miraculous feeding is an interpolation; and Weiss, on the other hand, is of opinion that this evangelist has constructed his duplicate out of materials drawn from two distinct sources (1865, p. 346 f.). As a consequence of this duplicate-hypothesis, it has been found necessary to question the authenticity of Mat 16:9 f., Mar 8:19 . The whole difficulty in connection with this matter arises chiefly out of the question of the disciples, and the fact of their seeming to have no recollection of what took place before, a difficulty which is not to be got rid of by reminding us of their feeble capacities (Olshausen), but which justifies us in assuming that there were actually two instances of miraculous feeding of a substantially similar character, but that (Bleek) in the early traditions the accounts came to assume pretty much the same shape, all the more that the incidents themselves so closely resembled each other.

Mat 15:34 . ] Observe the use of the diminutive on the part of the disciples themselves (“extenuant apparatum,” Bengel); the use of , on the other hand, in the narrative , Mat 15:36 .

Mat 15:35 . ] occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, though frequently in Homer and later writers (Plat. Rep . p. 396 A). See Bornemann in the Schs. Stud . 1843, p. 51.

Mat 15:37 . Seven baskets full is in apposition with . . .,

is the term regularly employed to denote a basket for carrying provisions when on a journey, sporta . Comp. Arr. Ep . iv. 10. 21; Athen. viii. p. 365 A; Valckenaer, Schol . I. p. 455. The seven baskets corresponded to the seven loaves, Mat 15:34 ; the twelve baskets, Mat 14:20 , to the twelve apostles.

. . .] See note on Mat 14:21 .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

33 And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?

Ver. 33. Whence should we have, &c. ] See their stupidity and diffidence, yet still budging and breaking out upon all occasions. a What a life hath Christ with the best of us, ere he can bring us to anything? Corruption will have stone flurts, some outbursts. Nothing cleaves to us more pertinaciously than this evil heart of unbelief; like a fretting leprosy in our cottages of clay, though the walls be well scraped, yet it will never utterly be gone, till the house be demolished.

a Discipuli ut homines nimis homines, &c. Aret. in loc.

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

Mat 15:33 . , . with infinitive may be used to express a consequence involved in the essence or quality of an object or action, therefore after and similar words; vide Khner, 584, 2, aa.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson