Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [Matthew: Chapter 14].
universe surely has power to go on creating what he wills to do.
14:20 {Were filled} (\echortasth•san\). Effective aorist passive
indicative of \chortaz•\. See Mt 5:6. From the substantive
\chortos\ grass. Cattle were filled with grass and people usually
with other food. They all were satisfied. {Broken pieces} (\t•n
klasmat•n\). Not the scraps upon the ground, but the pieces
broken by Jesus and still in the "twelve baskets" (\d•deka
kophinous\) and not eaten. Each of the twelve had a basketful
left over (\to perisseuon\). One hopes that the boy (Joh 6:9)
who had the five loaves and two fishes to start with got one of
the basketsful, if not all of them. Each of the Gospels uses the
same word here for baskets (\kophinos\), a wicker-basket, called
"coffins" by Wycliff. Juvenal (_Sat_. iii. 14) says that the
grove of Numa near the Capenian gate of Rome was "let out to Jews
whose furniture is a basket (_cophinus_) and some hay" (for a
bed). In the feeding of the Four Thousand (Matthew and Mark) the
word \sphuris\ is used which was a sort of hamper or large
provisions basket.
14:21 {Beside women and children} (\ch•ris gunaik•n kai
paidi•n\). Perhaps on this occasion there were not so many as
usual because of the rush of the crowd around the head of the
lake. Matthew adds this item and does not mean that the women and
children were not fed, but simply that "the eaters" (\hoi
esthiontes\) included five thousand men (\andres\) besides the
women and children.
14:22 {Constrained} (\•nagkasen\). Literally, "compelled" or
"forced." See this word also in Lu 14:23. The explanation for
this strong word in Mr 6:45 and Mt 14:22 is given in Joh
6:15. It is the excited purpose of the crowd to take Jesus by
force and to make him national king. This would be political
revolution and would defeat all the plans of Jesus about his
kingdom. Things have reached a climax. The disciples were
evidently swept off their feet by the mob psychology for they
still shared the Pharisaic hope of a political kingdom. With the
disciples out of the way Jesus could handle the crowd more
easily, {till he should send the multitudes away} (\he•s hou
apolus•i tous ochlous\). The use of the aorist subjunctive with
\he•s\ or \he•s hou\ is a neat and common Greek idiom where the
purpose is not yet realized. So in 18:30; 26:36. "While"
sometimes renders it well. The subjunctive is retained after a
past tense instead of the change to the optative of the ancient
http://www.ccel.org/r/robertson_at/wordpictures/htm/MT14.RWP.html (5 of 7) [28/08/2004 09:03:12 a.m.]