And he said unto them,
How is it that you do not understand?
All Commentaries on Mark 8:21 Go To Mark 8
Theophylact of Ochrid
AD 1107
After that our Lord had worked the miracle of the loaves, He immediately retires into another spot, lest on account of the miracle, the multitudes should take Him to make Him aking.Wherefore it is said, “And straightway He entered into a ship with His disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha.”.
Or they seek for a sign from heaven, that is, they wish Him to make the sun and moon stand still, to bring down hail, and change the atmosphere; for they thought that He could not perform miracles from heaven, but could only in Beelzebub perform a sign onearth.
Now, the reason why the Lorddid not listen to them was, that the time of signs from heaven had not arrived, that is, the time of the second Advent, when the powers of the heaven shall be shaken, and the moon shall not give her light. But in the time of the first Advent, all things are full of mercy, and such things do not take place.
The Lord indeed quits the Pharisees, as men uncorrected; for where there is a hope of correction, thereit is right to remain; but where the evil is incorrigible, we should go away. There follows: “Now they had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf.”.
By a special providence also the disciples forgot to take bread, that they might be blamed by Christ, and thus become better, and arrive at a knowledge of Christ’s power. For it goes on, “And He charged them, saying, Take heed, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod.”.
He means by leaven their hurtful and corrupt doctrine, full of the old malice, for the Herodians were the teachers, who said that Herod was the Christ.
But the disciples themselves thought that the Lord spoke of the leaven of bread. Wherefore it goes on, “And they reasoned amongst themselves, saying, it is because we have no bread;” and this they said, as not understanding the power of Christ, who could make bread out of nothing; wherefore the Lord reproves them. For there follows: “And when Jesus knew it, He said unto them, Why reason ye because ye have no bread? "For if the leaven mentioned above means perverse traditions, of course the food, with which the people of God was nourished, means the true doctrine.
