Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 14:15-21

"And when even was come, the disciples came to him, saying, The place is desert, and the time is already past; send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves food. But Jesus said unto them, They have no need to go away; give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. And he said, Bring them hither to me. And he commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass; and he took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes. And they all ate, and were filled: and they took up that which remained over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And they that did eat were about five thousand men, besides women and children." — Matthew 14:15-21 (ASV)

St. John Chrysostom: It is a proof of the faith of these crowds that they endured hunger while waiting for the Lord, even until evening. To this point, the text continues, And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past.

The Lord, intending to feed them, waits to be asked, as He always does, not taking the initiative to perform miracles but acting when called upon. No one from the crowd approached Him, both because they held Him in great awe and because, in their zealous love, they did not feel their hunger. But even the disciples do not come and say, “Give them something to eat,” for the disciples were still imperfect. Instead, they say, This is a desert place.

Thus, He also demonstrates among His other works the very thing that was proverbial among the Jews to express a miracle, as it is said, Can he furnish a table in the wilderness? (Psalm 78:19).

For this reason, He also leads them out into the desert, so that the miracle might be free from all suspicion and that no one might suppose that anything for the feast was supplied from a neighboring town. But though the place is a desert, yet He who feeds the world is there. And though the hour, as they say, is past, yet He who commanded was not subject to hours. Even though the Lord had preceded His disciples in healing many who were sick, they were still so imperfect that they could not imagine what He would do about food for them. Therefore, they add, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns, and buy themselves food.

Observe the wisdom of the Master. He does not immediately say to them, “I will give them something to eat,” for they would not have easily accepted this. Instead, Jesus said to them, They need not depart; you give them something to eat.

St. Jerome: In this, He calls the Apostles to the breaking of bread, so that the greatness of the miracle might be more evident through their testimony that they had nothing.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Some may be perplexed by this: if the Lord, according to John's account, asked Philip from where bread could be found for them, how can it also be true, as Matthew relates here, that the disciples first asked the Lord to send the crowds away to buy food from the nearest towns? Let us suppose, then, that after these words, the Lord looked upon the crowd and said what John relates, which Matthew and the others have omitted. No one should be perplexed by cases like this, when one Evangelist relates what the others have omitted.¹

St. John Chrysostom: Yet not even by these words were the disciples corrected; they still spoke to Him as if He were only a man: They answered Him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. From this we learn the discipline of the disciples and how little they cared for food. Though they were twelve in number, they had only five loaves and two fishes, for bodily things were scorned by them as they were completely absorbed in spiritual things.

But because the disciples were still focused on earthly things, the Lord begins to introduce the things that came from Himself, saying to them, Bring them here to me.

Why does He not create the bread to feed the crowd out of nothing? So that He might silence the mouths of Marcion and Manichaeus, who deny that God's creation is His own,ⁱ and so that by His deeds He might teach that all things we see are His works and creation. He wanted to show that it is He who has given us the fruits of the earth, the one who said in the beginning, Let the earth bring forth the green herb (Genesis 1:11).

This is no less a deed than that original creation. For to make so many loaves from five loaves, and fishes in the same way, is no less a thing than to bring fruits from the earth, or reptiles and other living things from the waters. This showed Him to be Lord of both land and sea.

By the example of the disciples, we also should be taught that even if we have only a little, we ought to give it to those in need. For when they were told to bring their five loaves, they did not say, “From where will we satisfy our own hunger?” but immediately obeyed.

And He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and broke them.

Why did He look to heaven and bless? So that it would be believed of Him that He is from the Father and that He is equal with the Father. He shows His equality when He does all things with power. He shows that He is from the Father by referring everything He does to Him and calling upon Him on all occasions.

To prove these two things, therefore, He works His miracles sometimes with power and at other times with prayer. It should also be considered that in lesser things He looks to heaven, but in greater things He does everything with power. When He forgave sins, raised the dead, stilled the sea, revealed the secrets of the heart, or opened the eyes of the man born blind—which are works of God alone—He is not seen to pray. But when He multiplies the loaves, a work less than any of these, He looks up to heaven so that you may learn that even in little things, His power is from His Father.

At the same time, He teaches us not to touch our food until we have given thanks to Him who gives it to us. For this reason also, He looks up to heaven, because His disciples had seen examples of many other miracles, but none like this one.

St. Jerome: While the Lord breaks the bread, there is a sowing of food. For if the loaves had remained whole and not been broken into fragments, and thus divided into a manifold harvest, they could not have fed such a great crowd. The crowd receives the food from the Lord through the Apostles, as it follows: And he gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.

St. John Chrysostom: In doing this, He not only honored them but also intended that they should not be unbelieving about this miracle or forget it after it was over, seeing that their own hands had borne witness to it. For this reason, He also allows the crowds first to feel the pangs of hunger, and His disciples to come to Him and ask Him, and He takes the loaves from their hands, so that they might have many testimonies of what was done and many reminders of the miracle.

By giving them nothing more than bread and fish, and by setting this same meal before everyone equally, He taught them moderation, frugality, and the charity by which they should have all things in common. He also taught them this by the setting itself, in making them sit down on the grass, for He sought not only to feed the body but also to instruct the mind.

But the bread and fish multiplied in the disciples' hands, from which it follows, And they did all eat, and were filled.

But the miracle did not end here, for He caused not only the loaves to abound, but the fragments also. This was to show that what was left over was greater than the original loaves, so that those who were not present might learn what had been done, and so that no one might think what happened was a fantasy. And they took up the fragments that were left, twelve baskets full.

St. Jerome: Each of the Apostles fills his basket with the fragments left by his Savior, so that these fragments might bear witness that true loaves were multiplied.

St. John Chrysostom: For this reason also, He caused twelve baskets to be left over, so that Judas might also carry his basket. He took up the fragments and gave them to the disciples and not to the crowds, who were still more imperfectly trained than the disciples.

St. Jerome: The number of the men who ate, five thousand, corresponds to the number of loaves, five: And the number of them that had eaten was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

St. John Chrysostom: It was to the great credit of the people that the women and the men stood up while these remnants still remained.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: The five loaves are not multiplied into more loaves; rather, fragments follow from fragments. I do not know whether the substance grew on the tables or in the hands that took it up.

Rabanus Maurus: When John describes this miracle, he first tells us that the Passover is near. Matthew and Mark place it immediately after the execution of John the Baptist. From this we may gather that he was beheaded when the Paschal festival was near, and that the mystery of the Lord's Passion was accomplished at the Passover of the following year.

St. Jerome: But all these things are full of mysteries. The Lord does these things not in the morning, nor at noon, but in the evening, when the Sun of Righteousness had set.

Remigius of Auxerre: The evening denotes the Lord's death; after He, the true Sun, had set on the altar of the cross, He filled the hungry. Or, the evening denotes the last age of this world, in which the Son of God came and refreshed the crowds of those who believed in Him.

Rabanus Maurus: When the disciples ask the Lord to send away the crowds so that they might buy food in the towns, it signifies the pride of the Jews toward the Gentile multitudes, whom they considered better suited to seek food for themselves in the assemblies of the Pharisees than to feed on the pasture of the divine books.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: But the Lord answered, They have no need to go, showing that those whom He heals have no need of the food of mercenary doctrine and have no necessity to return to Judea to buy food. And He commands the Apostles to give them food. Did He not know, then, that they had nothing to give?

But a complete series of types was to be set forth. For it had not yet been given to the Apostles to make and minister the heavenly bread, the food of eternal life. Their answer thus belongs to the chain of spiritual interpretation: they were still confined to the five loaves (that is, the five books of the Law) and the two fishes (that is, the preaching of the Prophets and of John).

Rabanus Maurus: Or, by the two fishes we may understand the Prophets and the Psalms, for the whole of the Old Testament was comprehended in these three: the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Therefore, the Apostles first set forth these things, because they were still occupied with them; and from these things, the preaching of the Gospel grows to its more abundant strength and power. Then the people are commanded to sit down on the grass, as if no longer lying on the ground but resting on the Law, each one reposing on the fruit of his own works as on the grass of the earth.

St. Jerome: Or, they are told to lie down on the grass—and, according to another Evangelist, by fifties and by hundreds—so that after they have trampled on their flesh and subjugated the world's pleasures under them like dried grass, they may then, through the significanceⁱ of the number fifty, ascend to the eminent perfection of a hundred.

He looks up to heaven to teach us that our eyes are to be directed there. The Law with the Prophets is broken, and in their midst, mysteries are brought forward, so that what the Gentiles could not partake of whole, they may receive as food when it is broken into pieces.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Then the loaves are given to the Apostles, because the gifts of divine grace were to be delivered through them. And the number of those who ate is found to be the same as the number of those who would believe, for we find in the book of Acts that out of the vast number of the people of Israel, five thousand men believed.

St. Jerome: Five thousand who had reached maturity partook, for women and children—the weaker sex and the tender age—were considered unworthy of being numbered. Thus, in the book of Numbers, slaves, women, children, and an undistinguished crowd are passed over without being counted.

Rabanus Maurus: The crowd being hungry, He creates no new foods but, having taken what the disciples had, gives thanks. In the same way, when He came in the flesh, He preached nothing other than what had been foretold, but showed that the writings of the Law and the Prophets were full of mysteries.

What the crowd leaves is taken up by the disciples, because the more secret mysteries, which cannot be comprehended by the uninstructed, are not to be neglected but are to be diligently sought out by the twelve Apostles (who are represented by the twelve baskets) and their successors. For baskets are used for humble tasks, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the strong. The five thousand represent those who, through the five senses of the body, know how to rightly use external things while living in the world.

1. De Cons. Ev., ii, 46