Four Thousand Fed
FOUR THOUSAND FED
MATTHEW 15:29-39
Again Jesus feeds thousands. He doesn’t do it to make a point, but simply because his heart goes out to them.
This passage presents a close parallel to 14:13-22; in both passages great crowds come to Jesus and have their sick folk healed, and then are miraculously fed. The healings described in 15:30f. may recall the prophecy of the new age in Isaiah 35:5f. (cf. 11:5). The glorifying of “the God of Israel” (15:31) suggests that these people were Gentiles.
As for the two feedings, the intention of the two evangelists (Mark and Matthew) who record both was probably discerned by Hilary and Augustine when they interpreted the former as Christ’s communication of himself to the Jews, and the latter as his self-communication to the Gentiles. If blessing to the Gentiles is indeed symbolized by the feeding of the 4,000, this narrative comes very aptly here, after the teaching of 15:10-20 and the incident of 15:21-28. The various numbers appearing in the narrative (which constitute its main difference from the feeding of the 5,000) have been allegorized in this sense, including the “three days” of 15:32, as though they reminded the reader that Christ’s unrestricted self-communication to the Gentiles could not take place until he was raised from the dead (cf. 28:19). It has even been pointed out that two distinct Greek words for “basket” are used in 14:20 and 15:37, and that the word used in the former passage had a specially Jewish association, whereas that in 15:37 is a quite general word for “fish-creel.” Another verbal variation appears when “blessed” in 14:19 is compared with “having given thanks” in 15:36; the former denotes the ascription of blessing to God, while the latter is eucharisteõ, but this should not be taken to imply a eucharistic significance, for it is to this day the commonest Greek verb meaning “to thank.”
The whereabouts of “Magadan” (15:39) is as uncertain as that of the parallel Dalmanutha in Mark 8:10; the KJV “Magdala” represents a later attempt to replace an unknown place-name by a familiar one. Some point west of the lake is probably indicated.
Consider the view that the bringing of gospel blessings to the Gentiles is anticipated in the three main divisions of chapter 15.