And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.
All Commentaries on Mark 8:9 Go To Mark 8
Jerome
AD 420
Or else, the seven loaves are the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the fragments of the loaves are the mystical understanding of the first week.
The small fishes blessed are the books of the New Testament, for our Lord when risen asks for a piece of broiled fish.
Again, the seven baskets are the seven Churches. By the four thousand is meant the year of the new dispensation, with its four seasons. Fitly also are there four thousand, that in the number itself it might be taught us that they were filled with the food of the Gospel.
