The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 235

tion, were In the hribit of distributing, out sa!.iefe.ctorily explained the reuon o.f this of their comprirative e.bnn<lrince, food to omission of important portions of our Lord's thoBB persona in the villriges who wore poorer publio ministry. The roe.son for St. Luke's tlmn themeelvee. It we.a, no doubt, for some such lmllowed object e.s this thrit the crireFul action here probably will never be guessed. oollectlon of the frngm,mte which filled We mn•t, however, in a.II theories which twelve baskets wris mride. The" be.ekete" we may form of the composition of theee Gos- (r:ophin118) were usually co.fried by travelling pels, never !nee sight of this fa.et, that while Jews to keep their food from contracting Le- SS. Matthew ancl Peter (Mark) were eye- viticril pollution in Gentile places. Juvenal, iu e. well-known p118BO.ge (' Sat.,' iii. 14), witnesses of the events of the life, St. Luke, writes of the Jews travelling a.bout lt"ly and his ma.&ter, Paul, simply reproduced wit!, no ba.gge.ge save e. little bundle of hay wba.t they bs.d heard or read. We may, to serve as a. pillow, e.nd this cophiuue, or therefore, suppose that St. Luke exercised basket, for their food. So abundant had larger discretionary powers in dealing witb. beeu the provi~ion created by J csus, that the fragments collected far exceeded the materials derived from othen than the original stock of fooJ whioh the cliacip(es other two, who desired, no doubt, to repro- gave to Jesus to bless, to break, e.nd to <llll- duce a fairly general summary of their tribute among the five thousand and up- Di vine Master's acts. On encl, a theory of ward who were feel that memorable after- composition, a gap in the etnry like the one nnou. Thie miracle ie the only one in the we are now alluding to, in the more eclectic entire Galilme.n miuistry which is told by e.ll the four evangelists. It evidently had Gospel of St. Luke, ,rnultl ee~m eca.rcely e. very prominent place in the teaching of possible in the first two Gospels. We, of the first de.ye. Rationalizing interpretation course, make no allusion here to the Fourth in the case of this miracle is singularly at Gospel; the whole plan and d,·sign of St. fault. After eighteen centuries of unre- John was different to that upon which the mitting hostility to the teaching of Jesus Christ, not even e. plausible explanation of firot three were modelled. this miraculous multiplica.tion of the loaves Vers. 18-27.-Jesm' question to hu O!Dn: e.nd fishes has been found by adverse critics. Who did they think he was V He te/J.a them In our own de.ye, Rene.n, following the of a 1u.ffering Messiah, and descnou the lo, ancient interpretation of Paulus, simply of hia own true foll.ower,. suggests that the multitudes were fed by Ver. 18.-And it came to pa111, as he was me.teriale provided by themselves. "Every e.lone praying, his disoiples were with him: one took hie little store of provision from and he asked them, saying, Whom say the his wallet; they lived on very little "-an people that I am 1 With th, se abru1,t expla.ne.tion, e.e it he.a been happily termed, words, St, Luke changes for his readers the "ludicrously inadequate." time and scene. Since the miracle of feed- After the relation of the great miracle of ing the five thousand at Beth,e.1<le. Julias, Jesus had preaclied at Cllperno.um the feeding the five thousand, St. Luke omits famous sermon on the "Bre.. d uf life" (re- in hie Gospel e. variety of incidents and ported in John vi.); he had wandered to severe.I discourses told 11,t greater or lesser the north-east 11s far as the maritillle cities length by the other evangelists. For in• of Tyre o.ud SiJou; h1td rerurueJ again to stance, tl1e reverential amazement of the the Dectlpolio region for e. brief wjourn; and then once more ha.d turned his footsteps people when the nature of the stupenuous north; and it was in the extreme con.fines miracle in connection with the creation of of the Holy Land, iu the neighbourhood of the loaves e.nd fishes fl11shed upon them, Cresarea l'uilippi, and close to the gre"t -they wished to recognize him as King foun le.in, the source of the Sll.cred J or,Lm, o.t Messiah; the walking on the sea; the the foot of the southern riJge uf Hermon, where he put the momentous question here long and important discourse on the true chronicled, to hie li.stening disciples. Much Breod nt Capernnum, the text of which woe had bnppened since the Jive thuu,e.nd were the late great mirncle of the loo.ves; the fed. Tile defection which the Master haJ journey among the heo.then o.s far e.s Tyre foreseen when he comme11ceJ ui.i parnble- e.nd Siclon; the meetiug with the Syro- tee.ching with the sad ,tory of the "sower," bod begun. After the great Ce.peruau,u phoouici1\n woman; the feeding of the four sermon (John vi.), many had fallen u.w,,y thousand, etc. These inoidente e.re re- from him ; the enthusiusm for his IHmls ltlto,l in M11tt. xiv.-xvi. 12; Mark vi. 45- w11s rapidly waning; the en,[ Wllb u.lreaJy viii. ::!O; Johu vi. No cowwcuta,lur hu in eight. ••Well," he Wik& IHI; own, " whu.t  236 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, LORE. [ou. 1x. 1-62,