Commentary on Matthew 11.1–11.7

“When it was evening, his disciples came to him,” that is, at the consummation of the age, concerning which it is fitting to say what is in the Epistle of John: “It is the last hour.” Not yet understanding what the Word was about to do, they say to him that “the place is desert,” seeing the desolation of God, of the law, and of the Word among the many; and they say to him, “And the hour is past,” as though the fit time of the law and the prophets had passed. And perhaps they said this referring also to John’s having been beheaded, and to the law and the prophets, which were until John, having ceased. “The hour is past,” then, they say, “and there is no food at hand, since its time is no longer present, so that those who followed you into the desert might serve the law and the prophets.” And further the disciples say: “Send them away, then, so that each, if he cannot buy food from the cities, may at least buy it from the villages,” the meaner places. The disciples said this because they despaired that unexpected and new foods would be found for the crowds after the letter of the law had been abolished and prophecy had ceased. But see what Jesus answers the disciples, all but crying out and saying plainly: “You suppose that if the great crowd go away from me in need of food, they will find it in villages rather than with me, and in communities of men who are not citizens but villagers, rather than by staying with me; but I declare to you that what you suppose they need, they do not need, for they have no need to go away; but what you think they do not need, that is, me, as though I could not feed them, of this, contrary to your expectation, they have need. Since, then, having trained you, I have made you competent to give rational food to those who need it, you give the crowds that have followed me something to eat; for you have the power, received from me, to give the crowds to eat; and if you had paid attention to it, you would have perceived that I am much more able to feed them, and you would not have said: ‘Send the crowds away, that they may go and buy themselves food.’”

Jesus, then, because of the power he had given the disciples, the power of nourishing others too, said: “You give them something to eat.” They did not deny that they could give loaves, but thought them far too few and not enough to feed those who had followed Jesus; and not perceiving that Jesus, taking each loaf, a word, extends it as far as he wishes, making it suffice for all whom he wishes to feed, they say: “We have here only five loaves and two fish”; perhaps hinting that the five loaves are the sense-perceptible words of the Scriptures, and are therefore equal in number to the five senses; and the two fish either the spoken word and the word within the mind, being like a relish to the sense-perceptible things set down in the Scriptures, or perhaps the word about the Father and the Son that had reached them. Therefore he himself, after he rose, also ate of a broiled fish, taking a portion from the disciples and accepting the account of the Father which they were able to declare to him in part. We, then, have been able to approach the account of the five loaves and the two fish in this way; but it is likely that those who are better able than we to gather the five loaves and the two fish within themselves could give a fuller and better sense of them. It must be observed, however, that in Matthew, Mark, and Luke the disciples say that they have the five loaves and the two fish, without indicating whether they were of wheat or of barley; John alone said that the loaves were barley. Therefore perhaps in John’s Gospel the disciples do not even acknowledge that they have them themselves, but say to him: “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish.” And as long as these five loaves and two fish were not carried by Jesus’ disciples, they did not grow or multiply, and could not feed more people; but when the Saviour took them, first he looked up to heaven, as though bringing down power from there by the rays of his eyes, to be mingled with the loaves and the fish that were to feed the five thousand; and after this he blessed the five loaves and the two fish, increasing and multiplying them by the word and the blessing; and third, dividing and breaking them, he gave them to the disciples for them to set before the crowds. Then the loaves and the fish sufficed, so that all ate and were filled, and some of the blessed loaves they could not eat. For so much was left over for the crowds, beyond the capacity of the crowds but within that of the disciples, who could take up what was left over of the fragments and put it into baskets filled with the leftovers, as many in number as the tribes of Israel. Now of Joseph it is written in the Psalms: “His hands served in the basket”; but of the disciples of Jesus, that the twelve took up what was left over of the fragments, twelve baskets, I think, not half full but full. And there are, I think, to this day and until the consummation of the age, the twelve full baskets of the fragments of the living bread, which the crowds cannot eat, with the disciples of Jesus, who are better than the crowds. And those who ate of the five loaves, before the twelve baskets that were left over, were akin to the number five: those who ate reached as far as the things of sense, since they too were fed by him who looked up to heaven, blessed the loaves, and broke them; and they were not children, nor women, but men. For there are, I think, differences even among foods of sense, so that some of them are for those “who have done away with childish things,” and others for those who are still infants and fleshly in Christ.

We have said these things because of the words: “Those who ate were five thousand men, besides children and women,” which is ambiguous: either those who ate were five thousand men, and there was no child or woman among those eating; or the men alone were five thousand, neither children nor women being counted. Some, then, as we said before, have taken it to mean that neither children nor women were present when the loaves and fish were increased and multiplied from the five loaves and the two fish. But one might say that, when many ate and partook of the loaves of blessing according to their worth and capacity, those worthy of being numbered, like those numbered in the book of Numbers from twenty years old, were Israelite men; but those not worthy of such an account and numbering were children and women. And I take the children figuratively according to “I could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to fleshly, as to infants in Christ”; the women according to “I wish to present you all as a pure virgin to Christ”; and the men according to “When I became a man, I did away with childish things.” Let us not pass over unexplained this either: “Commanding the crowds to recline on the grass, he took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and blessed; and having broken the loaves he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples to the crowds; and all ate.” For what might “And he commanded all the crowds to recline on the grass” mean, and what is it worth understanding about Jesus’ command in this passage? I think that he commanded the crowds to recline on the grass because of what is said in Isaiah, “All flesh is grass,” that is, to put the flesh underneath and to subject “the mind of the flesh,” so that one may thus be able to partake of the loaves that Jesus blesses. Then, since there are different ranks among those who need the food that comes from Jesus, not all being fed with the same words, for this reason, I think, Mark wrote: “And he commanded them all to recline by companies on the green grass, and they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties”; and Luke: “And he said to his disciples, Make them recline in companies of about fifty each.” For those who were to rest upon Jesus’ foods had to be either in the rank of the hundred, a sacred number, dedicated to God because of the unit, or in the rank of the fifty, a number that contains release, according to the mystery of the jubilee, which comes every fifty years, and of the feast of Pentecost. And I think that the twelve baskets were with the disciples, to whom it was said: “You will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” And just as it might be said to be a mystery that there is a throne of one judging the tribe of Reuben, a throne of one judging the tribe of Simeon, another judging the tribe of Judah, and so on in order, so there might be a basket of food for Reuben, another for Simeon, and another for Levi. But it does not suit the present discourse to depart so far now from the subject before us as to gather what concerns the twelve tribes, and separately what concerns each of them, and to say what each tribe of Israel is.

“And immediately he compelled the disciples to get into the boat and go before him to the other side, until he should send the crowds away.” We must observe how often in the same passages the name “the crowds” occurs, and another name, “the disciples,” so that from observing and collecting this it may be seen that the evangelists’ purpose was to set out through the Gospel narrative the differences among those who come to Jesus: some of them are crowds and are not called disciples, while others are the disciples, who are better than the crowds. For the present it is enough for us to set out a few texts, so that someone, stirred by these, may do the like for the whole of the Gospels. It is written, then, as though the crowds were below, while the disciples could come to Jesus when he had gone up the mountain, where the crowds were not able to be, as follows: “Seeing the crowds, he went up the mountain; and when he had sat down, his disciples came to him; and opening his mouth he taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit,” and so on. And again in another place, as though the crowds needed healing, it is said: “Many crowds followed him, and he healed them.” But we have not found healing recorded of disciples; for if anyone is already a disciple of Jesus, he is healthy, and being well he needs Jesus not as a physician but according to his other powers. Again in another place: “While he was speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to him”; this was made known to him, and he answered the one who told him, “stretching out his hand,” not toward the crowds, but “toward the disciples, and he said, Here are my mother and my brothers”; and, bearing witness to the disciples that they do the will of the Father in heaven: “He is my brother and sister and mother.” And again in another place it is written that “the whole crowd stood on the shore, and he spoke many things to them in parables”; then after the parable of the sower it was no longer the crowds but the disciples who came and said to him, not “Why do you speak to us in parables?” but “Why do you speak to them in parables?”; when he also answered and said, not to the crowds but to the disciples: “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,” but to the rest in parables. Therefore, of those who come to the name of Jesus, those who know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven would be called disciples; but those to whom this has not been given, crowds, who would be said to be inferior to the disciples. For notice carefully that he said to the disciples, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,” but of the crowds, “But to them it has not been given.” And in another place he dismisses the crowds “and goes into the house,” but not the disciples; and into his house there “came to him” not the crowds but “his disciples, saying, Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” And in another place too, when Jesus, hearing what concerned John, “withdrew in a boat to a desert place apart, the crowds followed him,” when, “going out, he saw a great crowd, and had compassion on them, and healed their sick,” the sick of the crowds, not of the disciples. “When it was evening, there came to him” not the crowds but “the disciples, saying,” as being different from the crowds, “Send the crowds away, so that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.” And also when, “taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed, and broke the loaves,” he gave them not to the crowds but “to the disciples,” so that the disciples might give them to the crowds, since they were not able to receive them from him, but scarcely received the loaves of Jesus’ blessing through the disciples; and they do not even eat all of these, for the crowds, having been filled, left what remained over in twelve full baskets.

The reason we have adduced these texts is the matter before us, that Jesus, separating the disciples from the crowds, “compelled them to get into the boat and go before him to the other side, until he himself should send the crowds away.” For the crowds could not go away to the other side, since they were not Hebrews in the mystical sense, a name interpreted as “those who cross over”; this was the work of Jesus’ disciples—I mean, to go away to the other side and pass beyond the things that are seen and bodily, as temporary, and to reach the things that are not seen and eternal. It was therefore a sufficient benefit, given to the crowds by Jesus, since, being crowds, they could not go away to the other side, to be sent away by Jesus; a dismissal that no one has authority to grant except Christ alone; and it is not possible for anyone to be sent away who has not first eaten of the loaves that Jesus blesses; and it is not possible to eat of the loaves of Jesus’ blessing without having done as Jesus commanded and reclined on the grass, as we have explained. But the crowds cannot do even this unless they have followed Jesus from their own cities when he withdrew to a desert place apart. And before, when asked by the disciples to send the crowds away, he did not send them away until he had fed them with the loaves of blessing; but now he sends them away, after the disciples have first been compelled to get into the boat; and he sends them away while they are somewhere below, for the desert is below; but he himself “went up the mountain to pray.” And this too must be observed: immediately after the five thousand had been fed, Jesus “compelled the disciples to get into the boat and go before him to the other side.” But the disciples were not able to go before Jesus to the other side; having reached the middle of the sea, the boat being tormented because the wind was against them, they were afraid, when Jesus came to them about the fourth watch of the night. And if Jesus had not gone up into the boat, the wind that opposed the disciples as they sailed would not have ceased, nor would those sailing have crossed over and come to the other side. And perhaps, wishing to teach them by experience that it is not possible to go away to the other side without him, he “compelled them to get into the boat and go before him to the other side”; and when they could not get beyond the middle of the sea, he appeared and did what is written, and showed that one who reaches the other side arrives there because Jesus sails with him. And what is the boat into which Jesus compelled the disciples to get? Perhaps the struggle of temptations and difficulties, into which a person comes when compelled by the Word, and as it were unwillingly, the Saviour wishing to train the disciples in this boat tormented by the waves of the contrary wind. And since Mark too has recorded “immediately he compelled the disciples to get into the boat and go before him to the other side” with a slight change of wording, writing, “And immediately he compelled his disciples to get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida,” it is necessary to consider the word “compelled,” once we have first looked at Mark’s slight variation, which indicates something more definite through the added word. For the same thing is not indicated by “immediately he compelled the disciples”: “his disciples,” as written in Mark, has something more than simply “the disciples.” Perhaps, then, to present it according to the wording too: the disciples, being hard to tear away from Jesus, cannot be separated from him for any ordinary reason, since they want to be with him; but he, having judged that they should have experience of waves and a contrary wind, which would not have happened if they had been with Jesus, laid on them the necessity of being separated from him and getting into a boat. The Saviour, then, compels the disciples to get into the boat of temptations and to go before him to the other side, and to come to be beyond difficulties by conquering them; but they, having come into the middle of the sea and of the waves in temptations, with the contrary winds hindering them from going away to the other side, struggled but could not without Jesus conquer the waves and the contrary wind and reach the other side. Therefore the Word, having pity on them, since they had done all in their power to reach the other side, came to them walking on the sea, which for him had no waves, nor any wind able to oppose him, even if it wished; for it is not written, “He came to them walking on the waves,” but “on the waters”; just as Peter, when at first Jesus said to him, “Come,” got down from the boat and walked, not on the waves, but “on the waters,” to come to Jesus; but when he doubted, he saw the wind as strong, which is not strong for one who has put away little faith and doubting. And when Jesus went up with Peter into the boat, the wind ceased, no longer able to do anything, since Jesus had gone up into it.

And then the disciples, “having crossed over, came to the land of Gennesaret”; if we knew the interpretation of this name, we might gain something from it for the explanation of the matter before us. But observe, since God is faithful and does not let the crowds be tempted beyond what they are able, how the Son of God compelled the disciples to get into the boat, as being stronger and able to reach the middle of the sea and to endure the torment of the waves, until they should become worthy of divine help, and see Jesus, and hear him, and, when he had gone up into the boat, “cross over and come to the land of Gennesaret”; but “having sent away the crowds,” who, being weaker, had no experience of boat and waves and contrary wind, “he went up the mountain by himself to pray.” And to pray for what? Perhaps for the crowds, that, having been sent away after the loaves of blessing, they might do nothing contrary to their dismissal by Jesus; and for the disciples, that, having been compelled by him to get into the boat and go before him to the other side, they might suffer no harm on the sea or from the contrary wind? And I would make bold to say that because of Jesus’ prayer to the Father for the disciples they suffered nothing, though sea and waves and contrary wind worked against them. Let the simpler person, then, be content with the narrative; but as for us, if ever we fall into the compulsion of temptations, let us remember that Jesus compelled us to get into their boat, wishing us to go before him to the other side. For it is not possible to reach the other side without enduring temptations of waves and contrary wind. Then, when we see the many hard things that surround us, and, struggling moderately, have swum through them for a while, let us reckon that our boat is in the middle of the sea, then tormented by the waves, which want us to suffer shipwreck concerning the faith or some one of the virtues; and when we see the spirit of the evil one working against our affairs, let us realize that then the wind is against us. When, then, suffering these things, we have passed through three watches of the night, of the darkness that is in temptations, struggling well as far as we can and guarding ourselves against shipwreck concerning the faith or some one of the virtues—the first watch against the father of darkness and wickedness, the second against his son, the adversary, “who exalts himself against everything called God or object of worship,” and the third against the spirit opposed to the Holy Spirit—then let us believe that, when the fourth watch has come, when “the night is far gone and the day is at hand,” the Son of God will come to us, to make the sea calm for us, walking on it. And when we see the Word appearing to us, we shall be troubled before we clearly grasp that the Saviour has come to us, thinking we still see a phantom, and in fear we shall cry out; but he himself will at once speak to us, saying: “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” And if there is found among us a Peter, moved more warmly by “Take heart,” on the way to perfection but not yet become such, he will get down from the boat, as coming out of that temptation in which he was being tormented, and at first he will walk, wishing to come to Jesus on the waters; but being still of little faith and still doubting, he will see the strong wind, and will be afraid, and will begin to sink; yet he will not suffer this, because he calls on Jesus with a loud voice and says to him: “Lord, save me.” Then at once, while such a Peter is still speaking and saying, “Lord, save me,” the Word will stretch out his hand, extending help to such a one, and will take hold of him as he begins to sink, and will reproach him for his little faith and doubting. But observe that he did not say “faithless” but “you of little faith,” and that it is said, “Why did you doubt?”—as of one having something of faith, but inclining also toward its opposite.

And upon this both Jesus and Peter will go up into the boat, and the wind will cease; and those in the boat, perceiving from what dangers they have been brought safely through, will worship him, saying, not simply, “You are the Son of God,” as the two demoniacs also said, but “Truly you are the Son of God”; which the disciples in the boat say, for I do not think that any others than the disciples said this. And when we have come through all these things, having crossed over we shall come to the land to which Jesus commanded us to go before him. And perhaps some secret and hidden mystery is also indicated concerning some who have been saved by Jesus, in the words: “And when the men of that place recognized him”—clearly, of the place on the other side—“they sent into all that surrounding region”—the region around the other side, not the other side itself but around it—“and brought to him all who were sick.” And in this observe that they brought to him not only many “who were sick,” but “all” those in that region; and those brought to him, being sick, “begged him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment,” asking this grace from him, since they were not like “the woman with a flow of blood for twelve years, who came up behind and touched the fringe of his garment,” when she said in herself: “If I only touch his garment, I shall be saved.” For observe, in what is said about the fringe of his garment, for what reason the flow of her blood stopped at once. But those from the region around Gennesaret, to which Jesus and his disciples came when they had crossed over, did not come to Jesus of themselves, but were brought by those who sent word, since, being very sick, they could not come of themselves; nor did they touch the fringe on their own, as the woman with the flow of blood did, but at the request of those others. Yet of these too, “as many as touched were brought safely through.” And whether there is some difference between “were brought safely through,” said of these, and “to be saved”—for it was said to the woman with the flow of blood, “Your faith has saved you” … [Heading of the next chapter:] On the Pharisees and scribes who came and asked, “Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?”