The Fallible Study Bible

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Matthew15:29–39

The Feeding of the Four Thousand

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Matthew 15:29–39 — The Feeding of the Four Thousand. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

29

Moving on from there, Jesus went along the Sea of Galilee. Then He went up on a mountain and sat down.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai metabas ekeithen ho Iēsous ēlthen para tēn thalassan tēs Galilaias kai anabas eis to oros ekathēto ekei

Word by word18 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
μεταβὰςmetabasMoving onG3327
√ μεταβαίνω — to change placeVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
metabainō: to change place Aorist participle. The verb is about transferring from one place to another, and here it closes the Tyre and Sidon episode without a syllable of explanation. Ellicott supplies the geography from the better manuscripts of Mark (the journey ran through Sidon, the one distinctly heathen city He visited); Pulpit adds the circuit through Decapolis. Matthew's own text says only: He changed place.
ἐκεῖθενekeithenfrom thereG1564
√ ἐκεῖθεν — thenceAdverb
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ἦλθενēlthenwentG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
παρὰparaalongG3844
√ παρά — properly, nearPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
θάλασσανthalassanSeaG2281
√ θάλασσα — the sea (genitive case or specially)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
ΓαλιλαίαςGalilaiasof GalileeG1056
√ Γαλιλαία — Galilæa (iNounGenitive Feminine Singular
καὶkaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀναβὰςanabasHe went upG305
√ ἀναβαίνω — to go up (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
anabainō: to go up Aorist participle again, paired with the sitting. Gill lists the reasons the mountain was “very usual with him”: solitude, prayer, and better convenience to preach. The going up is the last free motion before the crowds arrive; the next verb is passive to their coming.
εἰςeisonG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὸtoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
ὄροςorosa mountainG3735
√ ὄρος — perhaps akin to G142 (αἴρω)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
oros: mountain Strong's records a conjecture worth weighing, that oros is “perhaps akin to G142 (αἴρω),” to lift up. If the etymology holds it is quietly apt: the same lexeme airō is the verb of v. 37, where the disciples lift up seven hampers on this very height. The link is a lexicographer's guess and nothing in the text depends on it, so take it as a resonance, not an argument.
ἐκάθητοekathēto[and] satG2521
√ κάθημαι — and (to sitVerbImperfect Indicative Middle or Passive3rd Person Singular
kathēmai: to sit The one imperfect in the verse, and the hinge of the whole unit: a seated man on a height, to whom the sick are carried and before whom a crowd is told to recline. Gill hears in it both rest and expectancy, “as waiting for the multitude to come to him, both for instruction and healing.”
ἐκεῖekeidownG1563
√ ἐκεῖ — thereAdverb
30

Large crowds came to Him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and laid them at His feet, and He healed them.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai polloi ochloi prosēlthon autō echontes meth’ heautōn chōlous typhlous kyllous kōphous kai pollous heterous kai erripsan autous para autou tous podas kai etherapeusen autous

Word by word25 · parsed
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πολλοὶpolloiLargeG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
ὄχλοιochloicrowdsG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounNominative Masculine Plural
προσῆλθονprosēlthoncameG4334
√ προσέρχομαι — to approach, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
αὐτῷautōto HimG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἔχοντεςechontesbringingG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
echō: to hold, to have Present participle: the crowds come holding their sick. The tense keeps the carrying in view all the way to the feet of Jesus, which is why Henry's summary (“lay it at Christ's feet, to submit it to him, and refer it to his disposal”) is a reading of the grammar and not only of the scene.
μεθ’meth’. . .G3326
√ μετά — properly, denoting accompanimentPreposition
ἑαυτῶνheautōn. . .G1438
√ ἑαυτοῦ — him- (her-, it-, them-, also (in conjunction with the personal pronoun of the other persons) my-, thy-, our-, your-) self (selves), etcReflexive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
χωλούςchōlous[the] lameG5560
√ χωλός — "halt", iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
τυφλούςtyphlous[the] blindG5185
√ τυφλός — opaque (as if smoky), iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
κυλλούςkyllous[the] crippledG2948
√ κυλλός — rocking about, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
kyllos: rocking about, maimed A rare word, present in only four verses of the Greek New Testament (Verifier: G2948, in 4 vv), and Matthew uses it twice inside two verses, here and in v. 31. Its other homes are Matthew 18:8 and Mark 9:43, where it describes a body deliberately reduced for the kingdom's sake. Here bodies are being made whole; there they are being counted expendable. The same rare word, opposite direction.
κωφούςkōphous[the] muteG2974
√ κωφός — blunted, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πολλούςpollousmanyG4183
√ πολύς — (singular) much (in any respect) or (plural) manyAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
ἑτέρουςheterousothersG2087
√ ἕτερος — (an-, the) other or differentAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔρριψανerripsanlaidG4496
√ ῥίπτω — to fling (properly, with a quick toss, thus differing from G906 (βάλλω), which denotes a deliberate hurlVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
rhiptō: to fling with a quick toss Strong's separates it from ballō precisely on the point of deliberation: this is the desperate toss, not the measured throw. It is the one violent verb in an otherwise quiet verse, and the violence belongs to the helpers, not to the helper.
αὐτοὺςautousthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
παρὰparaatG3844
√ παρά — properly, nearPreposition
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
πόδαςpodasfeetG4228
√ πούς — a "foot" (figuratively or literally)NounAccusative Masculine Plural
pous: foot The destination of every thrown body is para tous podas autou, beside his feet. This is where the lame will be made to walk from, and it is the posture Henry makes the whole passage's lesson. Verifier notes G4228 pous shared with Matthew 18:8, the same rare cluster of lame, crippled and foot.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐθεράπευσενetherapeusenHe healedG2323
√ θεραπεύω — to wait upon menially, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
therapeuō: to wait upon menially, to heal A single aorist covers an indiscriminate heap of sufferers, with no recorded word, touch or request. Gill notices the silence on both sides: “nor do they say a word to him,” and He asks nothing of them either. Pulpit, quoting Chrysostom, sets this instant mass healing beside the long delay granted to the Canaanite woman just before, and reads the contrast as honour given to her faith rather than to theirs.
αὐτούςautousthemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
31

The crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

hōste ton ochlon thaumasai blepontas kōphous lalountas kyllous hygieis kai chōlous peripatountas kai typhlous blepontas kai edoxasan ton Theon Israēl

Word by word20 · parsed
ὥστεhōsteG5620
√ ὥστε — so too, iConjunction
τὸνtonTheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ὄχλονochloncrowdG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
θαυμάσαιthaumasaiwas amazedG2296
√ θαυμάζω — to wonderVerbAorist Infinitive Active
thaumazō: to wonder Aorist infinitive in a result clause. Gill measures the reaction honestly: they had come expecting miracles, and still “these were so much beyond what they could have imagined, that they were amazed.” Expectation was met and then overrun.
βλέπονταςblepontaswhen they sawG991
√ βλέπω — to look at (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Plural
κωφοὺςkōphous[the] muteG2974
√ κωφός — blunted, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
λαλοῦνταςlalountasspeakingG2980
√ λαλέω — to talk, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Plural
κυλλοὺςkyllous[the] crippledG2948
√ κυλλός — rocking about, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
ὑγιεῖςhygieisrestoredG5199
√ ὑγιής — healthy, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
hygiēs: healthy, sound The text-critical pressure point of the unit. Pulpit: the clause “is omitted by א and some other manuscripts, the Vulgate and other versions, and some modern editors.” Gill weighs the same evidence the other way and keeps it, since the crippled were named among those brought in v. 30. We print it and flag it.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
χωλοὺςchōlous[the] lameG5560
√ χωλός — "halt", iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
περιπατοῦνταςperipatountaswalkingG4043
√ περιπατέω — to tread all around, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Plural
peripateō: to tread all around, to walk Present participle: continuous walking about, not one successful step. The word is the ordinary New Testament verb for a manner of life, which is why Henry can move from the literal to “the maimed and the lame to walk in holy obedience” without forcing the language.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τυφλοὺςtyphlous[the] blindG5185
√ τυφλός — opaque (as if smoky), iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
βλέπονταςblepontasseeingG991
√ βλέπω — to look at (literally or figuratively)VerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Masculine Plural
blepō: to look at Used of the crowd and of the blind in the same breath. Matthew's catalogue here answers his own catalogue in v. 30 item for item, and the verse's own repetition of this verb makes the crowd's sight the fourth miracle in the list, if the reader is willing to be caught by it. That last step is ⚙ ours, offered as a reading and not as a claim about Matthew's intent.
καὶkaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐδόξασανedoxasanthey glorifiedG1392
√ δοξάζω — to render (or esteem) glorious (in a wide application)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
doxazō: to render glorious Aorist active plural, and the only response recorded. Barnes reduces it to its parts: “to glorify here means to praise; to acknowledge his power and goodness.” Poole draws the contrast with the leaders of the chapter's opening: “The Pharisees ascribed these operations to the devil's power, but the poor people owned them as the works of God.”
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ΘεὸνTheonGodG2316
√ θεός — figuratively, a magistrateNounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἸσραήλIsraēlof IsraelG2474
√ Ἰσραήλ — Israel (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Israēl: Israel The covenant name, standing where a pagan crowd would have named a healing god. Gill notes the edge: the title distinguishes Him “from the fictitious deities of the Gentiles,” marking Him as the God “by whom God was known, and worshipped, and was their Covenant God, and Father.”
32

Then Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “I have compassion for this crowd, because they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may faint along the way.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Ho Iēsous proskalesamenos autou tous mathētas eipen Splanchnizomai epi ton ochlon hoti prosmenousin ēdē moi treis hēmerai kai echousin ouk ti phagōsin kai ou thelō apolysai autous nēsteis mē pote eklythōsin en tē hodō

Word by word35 · parsed
δὲdeThenG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ὉHoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
προσκαλεσάμενοςproskalesamenoscalledG4341
√ προσκαλέομαι — to call toward oneself, iVerbAorist Participle MiddleNominative Masculine Singular
proskaleomai: to call toward oneself Aorist middle participle. He summons them to Himself before He acts. Pulpit reads the gesture as deliberate counsel, “treating them not as servants, but as friends,” and sets it beside Genesis 18:17, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” Gill adds the plainer motive: to try their faith.
αὐτοῦautouHisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
τοὺςtousG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
μαθητὰςmathētasdisciples [to Him]G3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounAccusative Masculine Plural
εἶπενeipen[and] saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
ΣπλαγχνίζομαιSplanchnizomaiI have compassionG4697
√ σπλαγχνίζομαι — to have the bowels yearn, iVerbPresent Indicative Middle or Passive1st Person Singular
splanchnizomai: to have the bowels yearn The strongest word in the unit, and the only stated cause of the miracle. Gill, guarding the two natures, refers it to Christ as man, “whose bowels yearned towards them,” and then immediately draws the priestly conclusion: our high priest “is touched with the feeling of the infirmities of men, of every sort, both of soul and body.” Pulpit collects the other occurrences (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; 20:34) and the Old Testament analogues of divine pity.
ἐπὶepiforG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὸνton[this]G3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ὄχλονochloncrowdG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
ὅτιhotibecauseG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
προσμένουσίνprosmenousinthey have already beenG4357
√ προσμένω — to stay further, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
prosmenō: to stay further, to cleave to Present tense, with ēdē (“already”) and three days pressing on it. Pulpit's gloss on the Hebrew reckoning is worth keeping: “three days” would be one whole day and parts of two others. What the verb records is not endurance of hunger but refusal to leave.
ἤδηēdē. . .G2235
√ ἤδη — even nowAdverb
μοιmoiwith MeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
τρεῖςtreisthreeG5140
√ τρεῖς — "three"AdjectiveNominative Feminine Plural
ἡμέραιhēmeraidaysG2250
√ ἡμέρα — day, iNounNominative Feminine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔχουσινechousinhaveG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
οὐκouknothingG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
τίtiG5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Neuter Singular
φάγωσινphagōsinto eatG5315
√ φάγω — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Active3rd Person Plural
phagō: to eat Aorist subjunctive in an indirect question, literally “they do not have what they might eat.” The construction leaves the object open, which is the gap the seven loaves will fill.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οὐouvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
θέλωthelōI do not wantG2309
√ θέλω — to determine (as an active option from subjective impulseVerbPresent Indicative Active1st Person Singular
ἀπολῦσαιapolysaito send them awayG630
√ ἀπολύω — to free fully, iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
apolyō: to free fully, to release He says He will not apolysai them fasting. In v. 39, after they are filled, He does exactly this: apolysas tous ochlous. The unit is held together by one verb used twice, refused and then performed, and the difference between the two is the meal.
αὐτοὺςautous. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
νήστειςnēsteishungryG3523
√ νῆστις — not eating, iAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
nēstis: not eating, fasting A word of only two verses, shared with Mark's parallel. Henry, reading the dismissal of v. 39 back into this refusal, draws the limit: those Christ feeds, He fills, yet “they must not look for miracles to find their daily bread.”
μή‿mēvvvG3361
√ μή — (adverb) not, (conjunction) lestAdverb
ποτεpoteorG4219
√ πότε — interrogative adverb, at what timeConjunction
ἐκλυθῶσινeklythōsinthey may faintG1590
√ ἐκλύω — to relax (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Subjunctive Passive3rd Person Plural
eklyō: to relax, to be unstrung Aorist passive subjunctive under mē pote. The fear is collapse on the road home, a fear for people already on their way rather than for people at rest. The Shepherd's calculation includes the journey He is about to send them on.
ἐνenalongG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
τῇtētheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Feminine Singular
ὁδῷhodōwayG3598
√ ὁδός — a roadNounDative Feminine Singular
33

The disciples replied, “Where in this desolate place could we find enough bread to feed such a large crowd?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai hoi mathētai legousin autō Pothen en erēmia hēmin tosoutoi artoi hōste chortasai tosouton ochlon

Word by word15 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
οἱhoiTheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
μαθηταίmathētaidisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
λέγουσινlegousinrepliedG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
legō: to lay forth, to say Historic present. The tense puts the reader inside the objection as it is spoken, and Ellicott, Pulpit and Gill all feel its force as a difficulty for faith rather than only for logistics.
αὐτῷautōG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ΠόθενPothenWhereG4159
√ πόθεν — from which (as interrogative) or what (as relative) place, state, source or causeAdverb
ἐνeninG1722
√ ἐν — "in," at, (up-)on, by, etcPreposition
ἐρημίᾳerēmiathis desolate placeG2047
√ ἐρημία — solitude (concretely)NounDative Feminine Singular
erēmia: solitude, desert The place-word of every wilderness feeding. Its bare form with no demonstrative makes the disciples' complaint into something larger than one hillside: in a desolation there is by definition nothing. Pulpit notes that Israel made the identical calculation at the Red Sea and under Moses at the quails (Exodus 17; Numbers 11), and Calvin, whom Pulpit quotes, will not let us look down on them for it.
ἡμῖνhēmincould we [find]G1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Plural
τοσοῦτοιtosoutoienoughG5118
√ τοσοῦτος — apparently from G3588 (ὁ) and G3739 (ὅς)) and G3778 (οὗτος) (including its variations)Demonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Plural
tosoutos: so much, so many The demonstrative is used twice in one sentence, of loaves and of crowd, so that the size of the need and the size of the impossibility are named with the same word. It is the rhetorical spine of the objection.
ἄρτοιartoibreadG740
√ ἄρτος — bread (as raised) or a loafNounNominative Masculine Plural
ὥστεhōstevvvG5620
√ ὥστε — so too, iConjunction
χορτάσαιchortasaito feedG5526
√ χορτάζω — to fodder, iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
chortazō: to fodder, to fill Aorist infinitive in a result clause with hōste. The disciples set the standard themselves: nothing less than full. The narrative will meet their own word exactly in v. 37, ἐχορτάσθησαν, and Verifier confirms the lexeme shared with Matthew 14:20, Mark 8:8 and Luke 9:17, the other feedings.
τοσοῦτονtosoutonsuch a largeG5118
√ τοσοῦτος — apparently from G3588 (ὁ) and G3739 (ὅς)) and G3778 (οὗτος) (including its variations)Demonstrative PronounAccusative Masculine Singular
ὄχλονochloncrowdG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
34

“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Posous artous echete Kai ho Iēsous legei autois Hepta de Hoi eipan kai oliga ichthydia

Word by word15 · parsed
ΠόσουςPosousHow manyG4214
√ πόσος — interrogative pronoun (of amount) how much (large, long or (plural) many)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounAccusative Masculine Plural
posos: how much, how many The interrogative that sets the miracle in motion, and the one Jesus Himself will repeat in Matthew 16:10 and Mark 8:20 when He audits both feedings by their numbers (Verifier: shared G4214 with Mark 8:19, 8:20). He asks for an inventory before He supplies a need.
ἄρτουςartousloavesG740
√ ἄρτος — bread (as raised) or a loafNounAccusative Masculine Plural
ἔχετεechetedo you haveG2192
√ ἔχω — to hold (used in very various applications, literally or figuratively, direct or remoteVerbPresent Indicative Active2nd Person Plural
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἸησοῦςIēsousJesusG2424
√ Ἰησοῦς — Jesus (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
λέγειlegeiaskedG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αὐτοῖςautoisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounDative Masculine 3rd Person Plural
ἙπτάHeptaSevenG2033
√ ἑπτά — sevenAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
hepta: seven Seven loaves here, seven hampers in v. 37: the number is the miracle's frame, and Gill makes it the proof that this is not a garbled retelling of the five thousand. Ellicott's argument runs the same way from Matthew 16:9 to 10, where Jesus distinguishes the two events by their own numbers and basket words.
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΟἱHoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
εἶπανeipanthey repliedG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ὀλίγαoligaa fewG3641
√ ὀλίγος — puny (in extent, degree, number, duration or value)AdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
oligos: puny, few The adjective of inadequacy. Gill notes they mention it precisely “as so small a provision, that it was as nothing for such multitudes.” The smallness is the honest part of their answer.
ἰχθύδιαichthydiasmall fishG2485
√ ἰχθύδιον — a petty fishNounAccusative Neuter Plural
ichthydion: a petty fish A two-verse word, shared only with Mark's parallel account. Dried fish, Pulpit adds, was a staple commodity of the region: no delicacy, and no obvious number given, which may be why Pulpit guesses these were gathered from the crowd rather than carried by the twelve.
35

And He instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai parangeilas tō ochlō anapesein epi tēn gēn

Word by word8 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAndG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
παραγγείλαςparangeilasHe instructedG3853
√ παραγγέλλω — to transmit a message, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
parangellō: to transmit a message, to charge Aorist participle. The crowd that threw its sick at His feet is now simply commanded, and complies. Gill reads even the arrangement as service: they were set down “in rows, that they might be the better seen, and served.”
τῷtōtheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Singular
ὄχλῳochlōcrowdG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounDative Masculine Singular
ἀναπεσεῖνanapeseinto sit downG377
√ ἀναπίπτω — to fall back, iVerbAorist Infinitive Active
anapiptō: to fall back, to recline The posture word of a meal, used before a single loaf has been broken. Ellicott assumes the same orderly grouping as before, “by hundreds and by fifties,” with women and children apart, though that detail comes from the parallel accounts rather than from Matthew here. The order of a feast is imposed on a desolation.
ἐπὶepionG1909
√ ἐπί — properly, meaning superimposition (of time, place, order, etcPreposition
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
γῆνgēngroundG1093
√ γῆ — soilNounAccusative Feminine Singular
gē: soil, earth The table is dirt. Pulpit's line is the right comment on the whole unit: “He who as man had pitied them was now feeding them as God, yet not with luxuries or dainties, but with food sufficient for their needs.”
36

Taking the seven loaves and the fish, He gave thanks and broke them. Then He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

elaben tous hepta artous kai tous ichthyas kai eucharistēsas eklasen kai edidou tois mathētais de hoi mathētai tois ochlois

Word by word19 · parsed
ἔλαβενelabenTakingG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
τοὺςtoustheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
ἑπτὰheptasevenG2033
√ ἑπτά — sevenAdjectiveAccusative Masculine Plural
ἄρτουςartousloavesG740
√ ἄρτος — bread (as raised) or a loafNounAccusative Masculine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
τοὺςtoustheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
ἰχθύαςichthyasfishG2486
√ ἰχθύς — a fishNounAccusative Masculine Plural
ichthys: a fish The full word, not the diminutive of v. 34. Whatever Matthew intended, the loaves keep their number through the verse (seven, as counted, as broken, as gathered) while the fish quietly lose their smallness.
καὶkaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
εὐχαριστήσαςeucharistēsasHe gave thanksG2168
√ εὐχαριστέω — to be grateful, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
eucharisteō: to be grateful, to give thanks The one act of worship recorded in the miracle. Gill cites the Mishnah (Berakoth 7:3) for the one who blesses on behalf of the whole company, “if there were ten thousand,” and draws the lesson of contentment with a portion “be it more or less.” Poole, at v. 39, makes the same thanksgiving the one part of this history we are actually to imitate: the miracles are among Christ's miranda et adoranda, not his imitanda.
ἔκλασενeklasen[and] broke [them]G2806
√ κλάω — to break (specially, of bread)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
klaō: to break, specially of bread A single aorist. Gill notes that breaking was the office of the master of the family, so the gesture is domestic before it is miraculous: at a dirt table in a desolation, someone acts as head of the house. ⚙ The four verbs of this verse (ἔλαβεν, εὐχαριστήσας, ἔκλασεν, ἐδίδου) also stand in the order they will keep at the Supper, where Luke 22:19 and 1 Corinthians 11:24 both read εὐχαριστήσας ἔκλασεν; the Verifier confirms the shared lexemes. No commentator in this brief draws the link, so the sequence is fact and the significance is ours.
καὶkaiThenG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐδίδουedidouHe gave [them]G1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
didōmi: to give Imperfect, and the tense is where the multiplication actually lives in the grammar: the giving never reaches a completed action. Gill hears in the handing to the disciples a reproof and a witness at once, so that the men who said “from where for us” become the ones through whose hands the answer passes.
τοῖςtoistoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
μαθηταῖςmathētais[the] disciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounDative Masculine Plural
δὲdeandG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
οἱhoitheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
μαθηταὶmathētaidisciplesG3101
√ μαθητής — a learner, iNounNominative Masculine Plural
τοῖςtois[gave them] to theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
ὄχλοιςochloispeopleG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounDative Masculine Plural
37

They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai pantes ephagon kai echortasthēsan kai ēran hepta spyridas plēreis tōn klasmatōn to perisseuon

Word by word14 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πάντεςpantesThey allG3956
√ πᾶς — all, any, every, the wholeAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
ἔφαγονephagonateG5315
√ φάγω — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἐχορτάσθησανechortasthēsanwere satisfiedG5526
√ χορτάζω — to fodder, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Plural
chortazō: to fodder, to fill The verb the disciples chose in v. 33 as their impossible standard now stands in the passive of the whole crowd. Verifier confirms the lexeme shared with Matthew 14:20, Mark 8:8 and Luke 9:17, the other feeding accounts. Henry's line is simply this grammar in English: “Those whom Christ feeds, he fills.”
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἦρανēran[the disciples] picked upG142
√ αἴρω — to lift upVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
airō: to lift up The lifting of the surplus is as deliberate an act as the breaking was. Cambridge draws the double lesson from it: “One side of the lesson is the lavishness of Providence... But the leading thought is a protest against waste.” Ellicott adds a suggestion worth weighing, that since the disciples were again without provisions by Matthew 16:7, the fragments were probably given away to the poor of the villages.
ἑπτὰheptasevenG2033
√ ἑπτά — sevenAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Plural
σπυρίδαςspyridasbasketfulsG4711
√ σπυρίς — a hamper or lunch-receptacleNounAccusative Feminine Plural
spyris: a hamper, a lunch-receptacle A container big enough to lower a man from a city wall (Acts 9:25). Ellicott and Cambridge both make this word, not the general resemblance of the two stories, the decisive evidence that Matthew 14 and Matthew 15 record separate events, because Christ Himself keeps the two basket words apart in Matthew 16:9 to 10.
πλήρειςplēreis. . .G4134
√ πλήρης — replete, or covered overAdjectiveAccusative Feminine Plural
τῶνtōnG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Neuter Plural
κλασμάτωνklasmatōnof broken piecesG2801
√ κλάσμα — a piece (bit)NounGenitive Neuter Plural
klasma: a piece, a bit The genitive of content: the hampers are full of broken pieces. Nothing new was created, on Pulpit's reading; what fills seven hampers is the fragments of seven loaves.
τὸtothatG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
περισσεῦονperisseuonwere left overG4052
√ περισσεύω — to superabound (in quantity or quality), be in excess, be superfluousVerbPresent Participle ActiveAccusative Neuter Singular
perisseuō: to superabound, be in excess Present participle, and the arithmetic it reports is Pulpit's: “The number of the basketfuls corresponded to the original number of loaves; the increase of substance must therefore have been enormous.” Seven went in, seven came out, with four thousand men eaten through in between.
38

A total of four thousand men were fed, besides women and children.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

hoi de tetrakischilioi andres ēsan esthiontes chōris gynaikōn kai paidiōn

Word by word10 · parsed
οἱhoiA total ofG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
δὲde. . .G1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
τετρακισχίλιοιtetrakischilioifour thousandG5070
√ τετρακισχίλιοι — four times a thousandAdjectiveNominative Masculine Plural
tetrakischilioi: four thousand The number that distinguishes this feeding from the five thousand, and which Christ Himself cites as distinguishing it (Matthew 16:10; Mark 8:20, where the Verifier confirms the shared G2033 ἑπτά and G4214 πόσος). Pulpit turns it into an argument for authenticity: a later hand would have made the second wonder exceed the first, not fall short of it.
ἄνδρεςandresmenG435
√ ἀνήρ — a man (properly as an individual male)NounNominative Masculine Plural
anēr: a man, an individual male The census word. The evangelist counts only the men and then, in the same breath, admits the count is short. Gill refuses to let the admission pass as a formality: the women and children “were not taken into the account, though they ate as well as the men.”
ἦσανēsanwereG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbImperfect Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ἐσθίοντεςesthiontesfedG2068
√ ἐσθίω — used only in certain tenses, the rest being supplied by G5315 (φάγω)VerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
esthiō: to eat Present participle in a periphrastic imperfect: the eating is still going on as the number is taken. The verse counts a meal in progress, not a completed distribution.
χωρὶςchōrisbesidesG5565
√ χωρίς — at a space, iPreposition
chōris: at a space, apart from Separation, not addition. Pulpit notes the computation is made exactly as in Matthew 14:21, “the greatness of the miracle being thus enhanced,” since the real total is unstated and larger than the number given.
γυναικῶνgynaikōnwomenG1135
√ γυνή — a womanNounGenitive Feminine Plural
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
παιδίωνpaidiōnchildrenG3813
√ παιδίον — a childling (of either sex), iNounGenitive Neuter Plural
39

After Jesus had dismissed the crowds, He got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai apolysas tous ochlous enebē eis to ploion kai ēlthen eis ta horia Magadan

Word by word14 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiAfterG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀπολύσαςapolysas[Jesus] had dismissedG630
√ ἀπολύω — to free fully, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
apolyō: to free fully, to release The unit's hinge verb, refused in v. 32 and performed here, with a meal between the two. Gill imagines the manner of it, dismissal “either with a prayer for them, or with a suitable word of exhortation, to be thankful.” Henry draws the limit the dismissal sets: fed twice, “they must not look for miracles to find their daily bread.”
τοὺςtoustheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Plural
ὄχλουςochlouscrowdsG3793
√ ὄχλος — a throng (as borne along)NounAccusative Masculine Plural
ἐνέβηenebēHe got intoG1684
√ ἐμβαίνω — to walk on, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
embainō: to walk on, to embark The withdrawal He attempted in v. 29 and lost to the crowds is finally made, and made by water. Pulpit reads the quiet ending as deliberate: He “wished to avoid all disturbance or collision with constituted authorities; and the people dispersed quietly.”
εἰςeis. . .G1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὸtotheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Singular
πλοῖονploionboatG4143
√ πλοῖον — a sailer, iNounAccusative Neuter Singular
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἦλθενēlthenwentG2064
√ ἔρχομαι — to come or go (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
εἰςeistoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
ὅριαhoriaregionG3725
√ ὅριον — a boundary-line, iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
horion: a boundary-line Plural, and the last word of the unit before a place name. Matthew's Jesus ends this movement at a frontier rather than in a town, which is where he has spent the whole chapter: at the border of the covenant people, feeding whoever stays.
ΜαγαδάνMagadanof MagadanG3093
√ Μαγδαλά — the towerNounGenitive Feminine Singular
Magdala: the tower A name the sources cannot fix. Ellicott and Cambridge prefer Magadan; Mark has Dalmanutha, which Gill places within the coasts of Magdala and Ellicott identifies with Ain el Barideh; Barnes conjectures Migdol of Joshua 19:38; Cambridge reports Rawlinson's guess at Herodotus' Magdolus and then suspects Herodotus of confusing Migdol with Megiddo. All of that is recorded as conjecture in the sources themselves, and we flag it rather than choose.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The mountain He goes up to be found on — 15:29

Matthew spends one participle on a journey the other Gospels spend paragraphs on: μεταβὰς ἐκεῖθεν, having changed place from there. Ellicott fills the gap from the better manuscripts of Mark, a circuit that took Him through Sidon, “the one instance in which He visited a distinctly heathen city”; Pulpit adds the traverse of Decapolis. Gill supplies the motive Matthew leaves out: He had wanted to be “private and retired,” and moved on because “the fame of this last miracle would make him more public.” Then the two participles that end the verse invert the whole attempt. He goes up τὸ ὄρος, which Cambridge insists is not “a mountain” but “the mountain country; the high land, as distinguished from the low land, which He had left,” and the imperfect ἐκάθητο leaves Him sitting there, exactly where a crowd can find Him. Geneva reads the pattern rather than the geography: “Christ does not cease to be beneficial even where he is condemned, and in the midst of wolves he gathers together and cares for his flock.” Retreat and enthronement are the same motion in this verse.

ii. The catalogue thrown at his feet, and the covenant name — 15:30, 15:31

The crowd's verb is brutal. ἔρριψαν is Strong's quick toss, set by the lexicon against ballō's deliberate hurl, and Pulpit hears it exactly: “The expression implies the precipitancy With which their friends offered the sufferers to Christ's notice... with an earnest rivalry to be first attended to.” Against that, one aorist singular: ἐθεράπευσεν, a verb whose root sense Strong's gives as “to wait upon menially.” Gill marks the silence on both sides, “nor do they say a word to him,” and Henry turns the scene into its own doctrine: “the only way to find ease and relief, is to lay it at Christ's feet.” Verse 31 then repeats the catalogue in reverse order with participles, and does something the English cannot show: βλέποντας is used twice, of the watching crowd and of the healed blind, the same form for both. Over κυλλός the voices divide honestly. Barnes says restoring a hand or foot “was a direct act of creative power”; Benson, quoting Doddridge, thinks “hardly any of the miracles of our Lord were more illustrious”; Geneva reads it of members “weakened with paralysis, or by nature”; Pulpit doubts outright “whether our Lord ever exerted his creative power to replace an absent limb.” What the verse itself ends with is a title, not a diagnosis. Barnes flattens it (“to glorify here means to praise”), Pulpit sharpens it (“Jehovah, whose covenanted mercies they were enjoying”), and Poole sets it against the Pharisees of the chapter's opening, who “ascribed these operations to the devil's power.” Gill alone names the prophecy the list answers: “as was prophesied of the times of the Messiah... Isaiah 35:5.”

iii. Bowels, and the arithmetic of unbelief — 15:32, 15:33, 15:34

The miracle begins in the body of the one who works it. Σπλαγχνίζομαι is present tense and, in Strong's words, “to have the bowels yearn”; Ellicott draws the right conclusion, that here “the display of miraculous power in its highest form originates not in answer to a challenge... but simply from compassion,” and Gill moves straight from the yearning to the priesthood: “Christ, our high priest, is a merciful one, and is touched with the feeling of the infirmities of men.” Two rare words carry the danger. νήστεις (fasting) stands in only two verses of the New Testament, and ἐκλυθῶσιν (unstrung, collapsed) in five; Pulpit notes that pilgrims on the Jerusalem roads really did “run short of provisions and perish on the road.” The disciples answer with a sentence that has no verb: from where, for us, in a ἐρημίᾳ, so many loaves? Gill calls it a question “big with objections,” put “with some vehemency and astonishment.” Ellicott offers his conjecture that to them the power seemed “intermittent, a gift that came and went,” and Pulpit brings in Calvin, who scolds their dulness in Latin and then, as Pulpit is careful to record, adds “that men are always liable to a similar insensibility.” Israel at the Red Sea, and Moses over the quails, made the same calculation. The answer they give is one accusative word, Ἑπτά, and Pulpit notices the small gain: this time “They de not add, as on the former occasion, ‘But what are they among so many?’”

iv. A banquet posture on bare dirt — 15:35, 15:36, 15:37, 15:38

The command is a banquet word and the furniture is soil. ἀναπεσεῖν is “to fall back,” which Geneva glosses “to lie down backwards, as rowers do in rowing”; Pulpit observes there was not “much grass in the place” this season, so “their seat was the bare ground, their meal of the plainest character.” Then the grammar does the miracle. ἔκλασεν is one aorist break; ἐδίδου is an imperfect that never finishes, and Pulpit reads it exactly so: He “brake the viands once, and then kept continually giving of them to the twelve,” while Cambridge contrasts Matthew's aorist with Mark's “more vivid imperfect.” Pulpit locates the cause in the thanksgiving itself, “the efficient cause of the multiplication of the food,” with no fresh creation, only materials already to hand. The result is stated with the disciples' own word: they asked whether anyone could χορτάσαι such a crowd, and the narrator answers ἐχορτάσθησαν, they were filled, a foddering word used of a satisfied herd. Seven loaves went into His hands and seven σπυρίδας came back, hampers which Ellicott (and Cambridge, citing Acts 9:25) says were big enough to hold a man. Pulpit: “The number of the basketfuls corresponded to the original number of loaves; the increase of substance must therefore have been enormous.” Cambridge draws the double lesson: “One side of the lesson is the lavishness of Providence... But the leading thought is a protest against waste.” The count in v. 38 is of ἄνδρες, adult males, four thousand of them, and Gill will not let the rest disappear: the women and children “were not taken into the account, though they ate as well as the men, and whose number might be very large.”

v. He looses them away, and goes — 15:39

In v. 32 He said ou thelō apolysai autous, I do not will to loose them away fasting. Here, fed, they are loosed away: ἀπολύσας τοὺς ὄχλους. The same verb refused and then performed is the frame of the unit, and the meal is the difference between them. Henry draws the boundary that the second dismissal implies: “Though he had fed them twice, they must not look for miracles to find their daily bread. Let them go home to their callings and their own tables.” Poole, closing the chapter, states the rule of reading it: these works are among Christ's miranda et adoranda, not his imitanda, and what we may actually imitate is the thanksgiving before the bread. Pulpit finds in the numbers an argument against the theory that this is a garbled memory of the five thousand: “The number thus dismissed was less than on the previous occasion, though the provision was greater,” which “no forger would have introduced.” The destination is textually unsettled: Ellicott and Cambridge prefer Magadan against the familiar Magdala, Mark has Dalmanutha, Barnes guesses Migdol of Joshua 19:38, and Cambridge floats then half withdraws Rawlinson's Magdolus of Herodotus. Matthew's own word is τὰ ὅρια, boundary lines. He ends the unit at a border, headed for the demand of a sign.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Read only from this text, the unit is one long inversion of what a crowd deserves. They fling their sick at His feet and He waits on them; they say nothing and He answers; they have not asked for food and He is the one whose bowels turn over about it. Nobody in vv. 29 to 39 exercises faith. The Canaanite woman just before did, and Chrysostom (through Pulpit) is right that she got delay while these get everything at once. Matthew therefore refuses us the comfortable rule that mercy is drawn out by faith: here it is drawn out by need and by three days of not leaving. The one thing the crowd does is προσμένουσίν, they stay, a verb Pulpit shows is later used of cleaving to the Lord with purpose of heart. And the one thing the disciples do is arithmetic. Their sentence has no verb, only a place (a desolation), a quantity (so many), and a crowd (so great); His has one verb repeated in the imperfect, and He kept giving. If there is a doctrine in the grammar it is this: the aorist is His (one break, one thanksgiving), the imperfect is ours (the endless handing on), and the leftovers are measured in the containers of the crowd's own making. The line we have set beside this reading is ours, not Scripture, and like the rest of this layer it is offered to be tested.

Seven loaves went up the mountain and seven hampers came down: that is the arithmetic of a Shepherd, not of a caterer.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Mark's telling of the same three days: the two rarest words in the unit verbal / quotation: confirmed

Mark 8:1 to 10 is the parallel narrative, and JFB and Poole both simply refer the reader there instead of expounding Matthew. The Verifier makes the overlap measurable rather than impressionistic: Mark 8:3 shares with Matthew 15:32 the two rarest lexemes in this unit, νῆστις (G3523, fasting, present in only two verses of the Greek New Testament) and ἐκλύω (G1590, to be unstrung, in five), along with ὁδός (G3598, the road). Two two-verse and five-verse lexemes in one sentence is verbal contact, not coincidence; it is a Synoptic parallel within Greek, so no quotation of Scripture is being claimed, only that the two evangelists record the same words.

Mark 8:3 · Mark 8:8 · Mark 8:7

basis: Verifier: Matthew 15:32 and Mark 8:3 share G3523 νῆστις (in 2 vv) and G1590 ἐκλύω (in 5 vv), plus G3598 ὁδός (in 99 vv); Mark 8:7 shares the rare diminutive G2485 ἰχθύδιον (in 2 vv) with Matthew 15:34; Mark 8:8 shares G5526 χορτάζω (in 15 vv) and G2033 ἑπτά. Greek to Greek, and both New Testament, so no Testament boundary is crossed

κυλλός: made whole here, cut off there verbal / quotation: confirmed

The word BSB renders “crippled” in vv. 30 and 31 is κυλλός (G2948), and the Verifier finds it in only four verses of the Greek New Testament. Two of them are this unit; the others are Matthew 18:8 and Mark 9:43, where a hand is cut off and the maimed body is judged a better thing than a whole body in hell. Barnes and Pulpit both send the reader to Matthew 18:8 for the word's meaning, and the same passage shares χωλός (G5560, lame, in 14 vv) and πούς (G4228, foot) with Matthew 15:30. The verbal link is firm and the theology is deliberately unresolved: here the Lord restores what the disciple is elsewhere told to lose.

Matthew 18:8 · Mark 9:43

basis: Verifier: shared rare lexeme G2948 κυλλός (in 4 vv) with Matthew 18:8 and Mark 9:43, plus G5560 χωλός (in 14 vv) and G4228 πούς (in 86 vv) with Matthew 18:8; all three passages Greek and New Testament, so this is verbal contact between Gospel texts, not a quotation of Scripture

Two feedings, two basket words, and the Lord's own audit verbal / quotation: confirmed

Ellicott's case against collapsing this miracle into the feeding of the five thousand rests on the vocabulary: “the words rendered in both narratives by ‘basket’ in the Authorised version are not the same in the Greek. Here the word is σπνρις (spuris), the hamper in which provisions were packed... while in the other it was the κόφινος (cophinus).” The Verifier confirms the lexical bridges: Matthew 14:20 shares χορτάζω (G5526, in 15 vv) and φάγω with Matthew 15:37, and Matthew 16:10 shares ἄρτος and ἑπτά. Matthew 16:9 to 10 is Christ Himself auditing both events by their numbers and their basket words, which Ellicott, Gill, Poole and Pulpit all treat as decisive. Within the Gospels, so no Old Testament quotation is in view.

Matthew 14:20 · Matthew 16:10 · Mark 8:19 · Mark 8:20 · Luke 9:17

basis: Verifier: shared G5526 χορτάζω (in 15 vv) and G5315 φάγω with Matthew 14:20 and Luke 9:17; shared G740 ἄρτος (in 89 vv) and G2033 ἑπτά (in 63 vv) with Matthew 16:10 and Mark 8:19 to 20, and G4214 πόσος (in 27 vv) with Mark 8:19 to 20; all New Testament Greek, and Matthew 16:9 to 10 is an internal citation of both feedings by the Lord Himself

The catalogue that answers the question sent from prison structural / thematic: confirmed

Matthew 11:5 and Luke 7:22 answer John's messengers with a list: blind, lame, deaf. The Verifier shows all three of the unit's diagnostic lexemes shared with both verses, χωλός (G5560, in 14 vv), τυφλός (G5185, in 46 vv) and κωφός (G2974, in 12 vv). Here in vv. 30 to 31 the same catalogue is not spoken but performed, twice, forwards and then in reverse. We tier this structural rather than verbal on purpose: the words really are shared, but neither passage cites the other, and the list is a stock Messianic catalogue rather than a quotation.

Matthew 11:5 · Luke 7:22

basis: Verifier: shared G5560 χωλός (in 14 vv), G5185 τυφλός (in 46 vv), G2974 κωφός (in 12 vv) with both Matthew 11:5 and Luke 7:22; a genuine verbal overlap deliberately tiered structural because no citation is made in either direction and none of the lexemes is rare enough to force a quotation claim

Isaiah's signs, unquoted structural / thematic: confirmed

Gill is the one voice in this unit who names the prophecy: the lame walking and the blind seeing were “prophesied of the times of the Messiah, and as things to be effected by him, Isaiah 35:5.” Isaiah 35:5 to 6 promises opened eyes, unstopped ears, a leaping lame man and a singing dumb tongue; Isaiah 29:18 to 19 promises the deaf hearing and the poor rejoicing, and two verses later has the house of Jacob sanctifying the God of Israel, which is the very doxology of v. 31. Matthew supplies no citation formula here, and a Greek text cannot share Strong's numbers with a Hebrew one, so this cannot be tiered verbal at all: the basis is a matched motif plus a named commentator's identification.

Isaiah 35:5 · Isaiah 35:6 · Isaiah 29:18 · Isaiah 29:23 · Psalm 41:13

basis: No shared Strong's lexeme is computable across Testaments (Greek to Hebrew), so a verbal tier is impossible in principle; the recorded basis is Gill's explicit identification of Isaiah 35:5 at Matthew 15:31 plus the item for item match of the healing catalogue, and the covenant title “the God of Israel” which stands in Isaiah 29:23 and Psalm 41:13. Matthew gives no quotation formula

A table spread in a desolation structural / thematic: confirmed

The disciples' word for the place is ἐρημίᾳ (G2047), rare at four verses, and the Verifier's one candidate outside the Synoptic parallels is Hebrews 11:38, of those who wandered “in deserts, and in mountains,” sharing both ἐρημία and ὄρος (G3735) with Matthew 15:29 and 33. Behind the question itself lies Israel's, recorded at Psalm 78:19: can God spread a table in the wilderness? Pulpit reaches for the same history unprompted, citing Exodus 17 and Numbers 11 as the precedent for the disciples' failure of memory. Isaiah 25:6 sets the answer on a mountain, a feast of fat things for all peoples. Cross-Testament, so tiered structural: the mountain and the spread table are a shared pattern, not a quotation.

Psalm 78:19 · Exodus 16:4 · Isaiah 25:6 · Hebrews 11:38

basis: Verifier: Hebrews 11:38 shares the rare G2047 ἐρημία (in 4 vv) and G3735 ὄρος (in 63 vv), Greek to Greek; the Old Testament refs share no computable lexeme with a Greek text and rest on the motif of food given in a wilderness (Exodus 16, Psalm 78:19) and a feast on a mountain (Isaiah 25:6), with Pulpit citing Exodus 17 and Numbers 11 at Matthew 15:33. No quotation is claimed

The shepherd who feeds the flock himself typological

Geneva reads v. 29 as shepherding before any bread appears: “in the midst of wolves he gathers together and cares for his flock.” The shape of Ezekiel 34 is the same shape as this unit, and in that order: one shepherd set over the flock, the weak and the sick sought out and healed, the flock fed and made to lie down. Psalm 23 has the lying down, the table and the not wanting. Matthew's own verb χορτάζω is a foddering word, which fits a flock better than a dinner party. This is a figural reading of the narrative rather than anything Matthew states, and it is the ancient and widely held one, standing in Geneva here and assumed by Henry's whole treatment.

Ezekiel 34:23 · Ezekiel 34:16 · Psalm 23:1 · Psalm 23:5

basis: Figural, not verbal: Greek to Hebrew allows no shared Strong's number. The basis is the sequence shared with Ezekiel 34 (one shepherd, the sick healed, the flock fed and laid down) plus the fodder sense of G5526 χορτάζω at Matthew 15:33 and 37; attested in this unit by Geneva's flock gloss at Matthew 15:29. Ancient and widely held rather than novel

Took, gave thanks, broke, kept giving: the sequence that will be kept at the table verbal / quotation: confirmed

Verse 36 runs ἔλαβεν, εὐχαριστήσας, ἔκλασεν, ἐδίδου. The same four verbs, in that order, carry the institution of the Supper, where Luke 22:19 and 1 Corinthians 11:24 use the thanksgiving participle rather than Matthew 26:26's blessing. Checked directly, the Verifier returns shared G2806 κλάω (in 14 vv), G2168 εὐχαριστέω (in 37 vv), G740 ἄρτος, G2983 λαμβάνω and G1325 δίδωμι between Matthew 15:36 and Luke 22:19. Pulpit's judgment that the thanksgiving here was “the efficient cause of the multiplication of the food” fits the pattern without needing it. What is claimed is only the shared formula, Greek to Greek within the New Testament: neither passage cites the other, and no commentator in this brief connects them.

Luke 22:19 · 1 Corinthians 11:24 · Matthew 26:26

basis: Verifier pair check, Matthew 15:36 to Luke 22:19: shared G2806 κλάω (in 14 vv), G2168 εὐχαριστέω (in 37 vv), G740 ἄρτος (in 89 vv), G2983 λαμβάνω (in 243 vv), G1325 δίδωμι (in 378 vv); Matthew 15:36 to 1 Corinthians 11:24 shares G2806 and G2168. All New Testament Greek, so no Testament boundary is crossed; the link is a shared verbal sequence, not a citation

Magadan, Magdala, Dalmanutha, Migdol: a destination the sources cannot fix flagged: verify source

Verse 39's place name is unsettled at every level. Ellicott and Cambridge both report that the better manuscripts read Magadan, the familiar Magdala having displaced it; Mark says Dalmanutha, which Gill makes a place inside the coasts of Magdala and Ellicott identifies with Ain el Barideh; Poole records the older guesses that these were one town with two names, or two towns nearby. Barnes then adds a further identification, that Magdala “was probably the same place which was formerly called Migdol, Joshua 19:38,” and Cambridge floats Rawlinson's Magdolus of Herodotus while itself suspecting that Herodotus “has mistaken Migdol for Megiddo.” Gill repeats both the Herodotus and the Megiddo suggestions. We record the link and flag it: the provenance is disputed by the very sources that propose it, and no lexical check is possible across Testaments.

Joshua 19:38 · Mark 8:10

basis: Contested provenance. Barnes' equation of Magdala with Migdol (Joshua 19:38) is offered as probable, not established; Cambridge reports Rawlinson's Magdolus identification and then doubts it as a possible confusion with Megiddo; Ellicott and Cambridge prefer the reading Magadan over Magdala, and Mark 8:10 has Dalmanutha instead. Greek to Hebrew allows no shared Strong's basis. Verify before relying on it

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The God of Israel, seated on the mountain, handing out the bread ancient/widely-held

The crowd's doxology in v. 31 does not praise a healer; it glorifies τὸν Θεὸν Ἰσραήλ, which Pulpit identifies as “Jehovah, whose covenanted mercies they were enjoying,” adding that “St. Matthew is careful on all occasions to exhibit Jesus as the Messenger and Representative of the God of the Old Testament.” Eight verses later the same seated figure spreads a meal on a mountain in a desolation and satisfies every mouth, which is what Isaiah 25:6 says the LORD of hosts will do on His mountain for all peoples, and what Psalm 78:19 says Israel doubted He could do. Pulpit states the two natures in one sentence of comment: “He who as man had pitied them was now feeding them as God.” John 6:35 puts the claim in His own mouth. This is the ancient and widely held reading, and here it is anchored in Matthew's own choice of title rather than imported.

Isaiah 25:6 · Psalm 78:19 · John 6:35

Bowels that yearn: the high priest touched with our infirmities ancient/widely-held

The engine of the miracle is Σπλαγχνίζομαι, present tense, Strong's “to have the bowels yearn.” Ellicott insists on the point that this power is not produced by challenge or proof but “simply from compassion,” and Gill moves directly from the verb to the priesthood: “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,” which is Hebrews 4:15 read back into Matthew's Greek. Note what the compassion is about: not their sin, not their ignorance, but their bodies failing on the road home, ἐκλυθῶσιν ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ. The sympathy of the priest in this unit reaches as far as blood sugar and the walk back. Pulpit gathers the parallel occurrences (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; 20:34) and the Old Testament analogues of the same divine pity.

Hebrews 4:15 · Matthew 9:36 · Matthew 14:14

The signs sent back to John, performed in front of a crowd that asked for none ancient/widely-held

When John's messengers came, the answer was a list: blind see, lame walk, deaf hear (Matthew 11:5; Luke 7:22, sharing all three lexemes with this unit per the Verifier). In vv. 30 to 31 that list is not recited but done, twice over, and the crowd's response is the doxology of Isaiah 29:23, the God of Israel sanctified. Gill names the prophecy behind it, Isaiah 35:5, where the opened eye and the leaping lame belong to the day God Himself comes with recompense. The Messianic force of this catalogue is the ancient reading; what is worth noticing is that nobody here asked for a credential. The signs are spent on people who wanted only mercy, while the sign demanded in the next chapter is refused.

Matthew 11:5 · Isaiah 35:5 · Isaiah 29:23 · Matthew 16:1

Seven, and the ground outside the covenant novel

⚙ A reading we mark as our own and as novel: Matthew has just recorded the Canaanite woman fed from the children's table, and Pulpit notes that the crowds here belong to a “semi-Gentile district,” with Gill and Pulpit both placing the approach through Decapolis. The earlier feeding ended with twelve κόφινοι, the number of Israel's tribes; this one ends with seven σπυρίδες, hampers Ellicott says were large enough to hold a man. Christ Himself makes the two counts and the two basket words the thing to be remembered (Matthew 16:9 to 10). If the numbers carry any figure, this is a meal whose fullness is measured by something other than twelve, on a mountain where a Gentile borderland glorifies the God of Israel. None of the commentators in this brief draws that inference, the numbers may be simple reportage, and Ellicott's own use of them is apologetic rather than symbolic. Held loosely, and marked novel.

Matthew 15:27 · Matthew 16:9 · Acts 9:25

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: one clause of v. 31 is genuinely disputed. Pulpit reports that “the maimed to be whole” is “omitted by א and some other manuscripts, the Vulgate and other versions, and some modern editors,” and Gill surveys the same evidence (absent from the Arabic, Ethiopic and Vulgate and from Munster's Hebrew Gospel, present in the Syriac and “most Greek copies”) and keeps it because the crippled are named among those brought in v. 30. We print the BSB text and flag the clause rather than quietly settling it. In v. 39 the place name is unsettled too: Ellicott and Cambridge prefer Magadan, Mark reads Dalmanutha, and the identifications with Migdol, Megiddo and Herodotus' Magdolos are conjectures the sources themselves qualify.

Sources: JFB supplies no exposition for this unit at all, referring the reader to Mark 7:31 and 8:10; Poole does the same for vv. 29 to 31 and Benson for vv. 32 to 39. Where those voices appear here, that is what they say, and the reader should know they are pointers rather than comment. Henry's entry is a single block covering 15:29 to 39, so his sentences are not verse-specific. Benson's most striking claim, that severed limbs were recreated and whole languages infused, is quoted by him from Doddridge and Macknight; Geneva and Pulpit read κυλλός far more modestly, and we have left the disagreement standing rather than choosing for the reader.

What is uncertain in our own layer: the doubled βλέποντας of v. 31 and the shift from ichthydia to ichthyas between vv. 34 and 36 are facts of the interlinear, but the meaning we hang on them is inference and may be nothing more than ordinary variation. Strong's suggestion that oros is “perhaps akin to” airō is a lexicographer's conjecture, noted as such. The seven and twelve reading in the last Christ entry is marked novel because no commentator in this brief supports it. Threads: the Verifier's candidate list for this unit is dominated by the Mark 8 parallel, and no Old Testament link here can carry a verbal tier, since Strong's numbers are not shared across Greek and Hebrew; every Old Testament contact below is therefore tiered structural or typological, with its basis stated.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)