Matthew 14:13-21
Jesus feeds 5000
14:13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.
14:14 When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.
14:15 When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”
14:16 Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”
14:17 They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.”
14:18 And he said, “Bring them here to me.”
14:19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
14:20 And all ate and were filled, and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.
14:21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
[13]᾿Ακούσας δὲ ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς ἀνεχώρησεν ἐκεῖθεν ἐν πλοίῳ εἰς ἔρημον τόπον κατ᾿ ἰδίαν· καὶ ἀκούσαντες οἱ ὄχλοι ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ πεζῇ ἀπὸ τῶν πόλεων.
[14] Καὶ ἐξελθὼν ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς εἶδε πολὺν ὄχλον, καὶ ἐσπλαγχνίσθη ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς καὶ ἐθεράπευσε τοὺς ἀρρώστους αὐτῶν.
[15] ὀψίας δὲ γενομένης προσῆλθον αὐτῷ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ λέγοντες· ἔρημός ἐστιν ὁ τόπος καὶ ἡ ὥρα ἤδη παρῆλθεν· ἀπόλυσον τοὺς ὄχλους, ἵνα ἀπελθόντες εἰς τὰς κώμας ἀγοράσωσιν ἑαυτοῖς βρώματα.
[16] ὁ δὲ ᾿Ιησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· οὐ χρείαν ἔχουσιν ἀπελθεῖν· δότε αὐτοῖς ὑμεῖς φαγεῖν.
[17] οἱ δὲ λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· οὐκ ἔχομεν ὧδε εἰ μὴ πέντε ἄρτους καὶ δύο ἰχθύας.
[18 ]ὁ δὲ εἶπε· φέρετέ μοι αὐτοὺς ὧδε.
[19] καὶ κελεύσας τοὺς ὄχλους ἀνακλιθῆναι ἐπὶ τοὺς χόρτους, λαβὼν τοὺς πέντε ἄρτους καὶ τοὺς δύο ἰχθύας, ἀναβλέψας εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν εὐλόγησε, καὶ κλάσας ἔδωκε τοῖς μαθηταῖς τοὺς ἄρτους, οἱ δὲ μαθηταὶ τοῖς ὄχλοις.
[20] καὶ ἔφαγον πάντες καὶ ἐχορτάσθησαν, καὶ ἦραν τὸ περισσεῦον τῶν κλασμάτων δώδεκα κοφίνους πλήρεις.
[21] οἱ δὲ ἐσθίοντες ἦσαν ἄνδρες ὡσεὶ πεντακισχίλιοι χωρὶς γυναικῶν καὶ παιδίων.
Comments
A desolate place covered with grass is the scene of this miraculous feeding and satisfaction of over 5,000. Green grass (χόρτος) sates (χορτάζειν) cattle just as the meal sates human beings reclining on grass. ἀνακλιθῆναι ἐπὶ τοὺς χόρτους (v. 19) grass becomes an figurative dining hall.
[13] ἔρημον τόπον: ἔρημος, ὁ, ἡ (Attic Gk), ‘desolate’, ‘lonely’, ‘solitary’ (LSJ s.v.,1), of places; same meaning in koine (Bauer-Danker, 1A). Cf. v. 15, ἔρημός ἐστιν ὁ τόπος. The ‘desolate place’ must have been unpopulated, hence uncultivated.
κατʼ ἰδίαν, ‘in private’, a prep. phrase that serves as an adv.; attested in koine Gk (LSJ s.v. ἴδιος, VI.3). Wishing to remain alone, Jesus goes to a ‘lonely place’.
[14] ἐσπλαγχνίσθη: aor. tense, σπλαγχνίζομαι, deponent pass. vb (i.e., it lacks an active form), ‘have pity, feel sympathy’ (Bauer-Danker), a koine vb; derived from the plural τὰ σπλάγχνα, viscera, entrails, esp. of sacrificial animals (in Homer and cl. Gk). Emotion is felt in one’s guts.
ἀρρώστους: ‘weak’, ‘sickly’(cl. Gk) in a moral or physical sense (Montanari); in koine, ‘sick’, ‘ill’ (Bauer-Danker). The adj. is used in modern Gk.
[19] ἀνακλιθῆναι: pass., ἀνακλίνομαι, ‘lie down, recline at a meal’ (Bauer-Danker s.v. ἀνακλίνω, 2). Jesus orders the multitude to recline as at a meal.
χόρτους: χόρτος, generally, ‘any feeding-ground, pasturage, freq. in pl.’ (LSJ s.v., I.2), cl. Gk; so also in koine: ‘almost always of green grass standing in a field or meadow’ (Bauer-Danker s.v.). Cf. Engl. horticulture.
[20] ἐχορτάσθησαν: χορτάζομαι, pass., ‘eat their fill, of cattle’ (cl. Gk: LSJ s.v. χορτάζω, Ι); in koine, of human beings, ‘be satisfied with food or drink’ (Bauer-Danker s.v., 2). Cattle feeding on grass χορτάζονται; the 5,000 plus in our pericope are similarly sated by feeding on loaves and fish.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 