proclaimed himself to be God manifested in the flesh ; and, by innumerable miracles, wrought in his own name and by his own power, he had proved himself to be so: but they believed him not, and could not conceive of him in his true and proper character as their incarnate God : and to this ignorance and unbelief our Lord traces the very feelings which they had shewn on a similar occasion : " How is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey himd?" They " thought him to be only such an one as them- selves6;" and to that must be traced the excess of wonder which they expressed on this most interesting occasion.]
2. Of forgetfulness —
[Within the space of twelve hours from that time, they had seen his miracle of the loaves, in which they themselves had been the instruments of dispensing to five thousand men a few loaves and fishes. They themselves had seen the bread increasing in their own hands before their eyes, whilst they were in the very act of distributing it to the people ; and, after having fed to the full the whole multitude, they had taken up in fragments probably ten or a dozen times more in quantity than there was at the beginning f. Now, had they kept this in mind, they could never have been so surprised at his walking on the sea, or his stilling of the winds ; which were, in fact, no greater miracles than that which they had so recently witnessed, and in which they themselves had borne such a distinguished part. Hence the Evangelist blames them for their conduct, and ascribes to their forgetfulness of the one miracle their astonishment at the other : " they were sore amazed, and wondered ; for they considered not the miracle of the loaves "~\
3. Of obduracy —
[They had not been duly impressed with the miracle of the loaves. If they had felt as became them on that occasion, they would never have been filled with such overpowering astonishment on this. But they were in an insensible and obdurate state : and therefore the Evangelist says, " they wondered; for their heart was hardened.''' In like manner, when, in the next chapter, our Lord bade them to " beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of Herod," and they understood him as giving directions only respecting bread, he said to them, " Have ye your heart yet hardened?" and then, calling to their remembrance two different seasons when he had fed immense multitudes with a few loaves, he repeated with anger that just reproof, " How is it that ye do not understand^?"
d Mark iv. 40, 41. e ps. 1. 21.
f ver. 41—44. e Mark viii. 14—21.