And Jesus said unto them,
How many loaves have you?
And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes.
All Commentaries on Matthew 15:34 Go To Matthew 15
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Since however they still spoke of the multitude merely, and the place, and the wilderness (for whence, it is said, should we have in a wilderness so many loaves, as to fill so great a multitude?); and not even so understood what He said, He proceeds to contribute His own part, and says unto them,
How many loaves do you have? And they say, Seven, and a few little fishes. Matthew 15:34
And they no more say, But what are these among so many? John 6:9 as they had said before. So that although they reached not His whole meaning, yet nevertheless they became higher by degrees. For so He too, arousing their mind hereby, puts the question much as He had done before, that by the very form of the inquiry He might remind them of the works already done.
But as you have seen their imperfection hereby, so observe the severity of their spirit, and admire their love of truth, how, writing themselves, they conceal not their own defects, great as they were. For it was no small blame to have presently forgotten this miracle, which had so recently taken place; wherefore they are also rebuked.
And herewith consider also their strictness in another matter, how they were conquerors of their appetite; how disciplined to make little account of their diet. For being in the wilderness and abiding there three days, they had seven loaves.
Now all the rest He does as on the former occasion; thus He both makes them sit down on the ground, and He makes the loaves multiply themselves in the hands of the disciples.
