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| Exposition of the Details of the Miracle.
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2. Exposition of the
Details of the Miracle.
Jesus, then, because of the power which He gave to the
disciples, even the power of nourishing others, said, Give ye them to
eat.5344
But (not denying that they can give
loaves, but thinking that there were much too few and not sufficient to
feed those who followed Jesus, and not considering that when Jesus
takes each loaf—the Word—He extends it as far as He wills,
and makes it suffice for all whomsoever He desires to nourish), the
disciples say, We have here but five loaves and two fishes.5345
Perhaps by the five loaves they meant
to make a veiled reference to the sensible words of the Scriptures,
corresponding in number on this account to the five senses, but by the
two fishes either to the word expressed5346
and the word conceived,5347
which are a relish,
so to speak, to the sensible things contained in the Scriptures;
or, perhaps, to the word which had
come to them about the Father and the Son. Wherefore also after
His resurrection He ate of a broiled fish,5348
having taken a part from the disciples, and having received that
theology about the Father which they were in part able to declare to
Him. Such is the contribution we have been able to give to the
exposition of the word about the five loaves and the two fishes; and
probably those, who are better able than we to gather together the five
loaves and the two fishes among themselves, would be able to give a
fuller and better interpretation of their meaning. It must be
observed, however, that while in Matthew, Mark, and Luke,5349
| 5349 Matt. xiv. 17; Mark vi. 38; Luke ix.
13. | the disciples say that they have the five
loaves and the two fishes, without indicating whether they were wheaten
or of barley, John alone says, that the loaves were barley
loaves.5350
Wherefore,
perhaps, in the Gospel of John the disciples do not acknowledge that
the loaves are with them, but say in John, “There is a lad here
who has five barley loaves and two fishes.”5351
And so long as these five loaves and
two fishes were not carried by the disciples of Jesus, they did not
increase or multiply, nor were they able to nourish more; but, when the
Saviour took them, and in the first placed looked up to heaven, with
the rays of His eyes, as it were, drawing down from it power which was
to be mingled with the loaves and the fishes which were about to feed
the five thousand; and after this blessed the five loaves and the two
fishes, increasing and multiplying them by the word and the blessing;
and in the third place dividing and breaking He gave to the disciples
that they might set them before the multitudes, then the loaves and the
fishes were sufficient, so that all ate and were satisfied, and some
portions of the loaves which had been blessed they were unable to
eat. For so much remained over to the multitudes, which was not
according to the capacity of the multitudes but of the disciples who
were able to take up that which remained over of the broken pieces, and
to place it in baskets filled with that which remained over, which were
in number so many as the tribes of Israel. Concerning Joseph,
then, it is written in the Psalms, “His hands served in the
basket,”5352
but about the
disciples of Jesus that they took up that which remained over of the
broken pieces twelve baskets, twelve baskets, I take it, not half-full
but filled. And there are, I think, up to the present time, and
will be until the consummation of the age with the disciples of Jesus,
who are superior to the multitudes, the twelve baskets, filled with the
broken pieces of living bread which the multitudes cannot eat.
Now those who ate of the five loaves which existed before the twelve
baskets that remained over, were kindred in nature to the number five;
for those who ate had reached the stage of sensible things, since also
they were nourished by Him who looked up to heaven and blessed and
brake them, and were not boys nor women, but men. For there are,
I think, even in sensible foods differences, so that some of them
belong to those who “have put away childish
things,”5353
and some to those
who are still babes and carnal in Christ.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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