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Mat_15:33 ff. See note on Mat_14:15 ff.
ἡμῖν ] “Jam intelligebant discipuli, suas fore in ea re partes aliquas,” Bengel.
ὥστε ] not a telic particle (de Wette), but what is meant is: such a quantity of bread as will be sufficient for their wants, and so on. The use of ὥστε after τοσοῦτος in a way corresponding to this is of very frequent occurrence (Plat. Gorg. p. 458 C). See Sturz, Lex. Xen. IV. p. 320; Kühner, II. 2, p. 1003. Notice the emphatic correlation of τοσοῦτοι and τοσοῦτον .
The perplexity of the disciples, and the fact of their making no reference to what was formerly done under similar circumstances, combined with the great resemblance between the two incidents, have led modern critics to assume that Matthew and Mark simply give what is only a duplicate narrative of one and the same occurrence (Schleiermacher, Scholz, Kern, Credner, Strauss, Neander, de Wette, Hase, Ewald, Baur, Köstlin, Hilgenfeld, Holtzmann, Weiss, Weizsäcker, Volkmar, Keim, Scholten); while Wilke and Bruno Bauer maintain, though quite unwarrantably, that in Mark the account of the second instance of miraculous feeding is an interpolation; and Weiss, on the other hand, is of opinion that this evangelist has constructed his duplicate out of materials drawn from two distinct sources (1865, p. 346 f.). As a consequence of this duplicate-hypothesis, it has been found necessary to question the authenticity of Mat_16:9 f., Mar_8:19. The whole difficulty in connection with this matter arises chiefly out of the question of the disciples, and the fact of their seeming to have no recollection of what took place before,—a difficulty which is not to be got rid of by reminding us of their feeble capacities (Olshausen), but which justifies us in assuming that there were actually two instances of miraculous feeding of a substantially similar character, but that (Bleek) in the early traditions the accounts came to assume pretty much the same shape, all the more that the incidents themselves so closely resembled each other.
Mat_15:34. ἰχθύδια ] Observe the use of the diminutive on the part of the disciples themselves (“extenuant apparatum,” Bengel); the use of ἰχθύας , on the other hand, in the narrative, Mat_15:36.
Mat_15:35. κελεύειν τινι ] occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, though frequently in Homer and later writers (Plat. Rep. p. 396 A). See Bornemann in the Sächs. Stud. 1843, p. 51.
Mat_15:37. Seven baskets full is in apposition with τὸ περισς . τ . κλασμ .,
σπυρίς is the term regularly employed to denote a basket for carrying provisions when on a journey, sporta. Comp. Arr. Ep. iv. 10. 21; Athen. viii. p. 365 A; Valckenaer, Schol. I. p. 455. The seven baskets corresponded to the seven loaves, Mat_15:34; the twelve baskets, Mat_14:20, to the twelve apostles.
χωρὶς γυναικ . κ . παιδ .] See note on Mat_14:21.