Luke

9:11-17

The mission of the Messiah, 1:5-9:50

6. The children of the Messiah, 9:1-50

ii] The feeding of the 5,000

The apostles have returned from their mission, and do so with popular acclaim, so much so that Jesus decides to withdraw to Bethsaida, but the crowds follow. On this particular day, a crowd has gathered and Jesus speaks to them about the coming kingdom. Later in the day, the twelve encourage Jesus to send the crowd home for food and rest, but Jesus tells his disciples that they should feed them. The twelve could only round up five loaves and two pickled fish, but with this ploughman's lunch, Jesus feeds all those who have gathered to hear him speak. Just counting the men alone, the crowd numbers over five thousand.

In the dawning age of the kingdom of God, the Lord of the wilderness sustains his people.

i] Context: See 9:1-9. The feeding of the 5,000 is the second episode of The dawning of the kingdom in the children of the Messiah, 9:1 to 9:50. The opening episodes take us back to the Exodus story. As Moses is sent to call the people of Israel out of Egypt, so Jesus sends out his apostles to call out a people for God, 9:1-10. As God sustained his people in their wilderness journey, so Christ feeds those who come to him.

ii] Structure: The feeding of the 5,000:

iii] Interpretation:

iv] Synoptics:

The feeding of the 5,000, v11-17. i] The setting, v11. Only Luke tells us that Jesus and the apostles have withdrawn to Bethsaida, but like the other gospels, the scene for the teaching, and later, the miracle of the loaves and fishes, is erhmoV, "a deserted place" - presumably a remote place in the vicinity of Bethsaida. Mark has Jesus "teaching" the crowd, Matthew has him "healing the sick"", and Luke has him speaking (elalei) to the crowd and also healing the sick. Luke specifies Jesus' message, namely, "he spoke to them about the kingdom of God."

de "but" - but/and [the crowds]. Transitional, indicating a step in the narrative / paragraph marker.

gnonteV (ginwskw) aor. part. "learned about it" - having known, realised that Jesus was going to Bethsaida. The participle is adverbial, usually treated as temporal; "When the crowds learned it", ESV.

autw/ dat. pro. "him" - [they followed] him. Dative of direct object after the verb "to follow after."

apodexamenoV (apodecomai) aor. mid. part. "he welcomed" - [and] having welcomed [them he was speaking]. Attendant circumstance participle expressing action accompanying the verb "to say, speak"; "he welcomed them and spoke to them." The imperfect of the verb "to speak" is possibly used indicate inceptive action, "he began to speak to them."

autoiV dat. pro. "to them" - to them. Dative of indirect object.

peri + gen. "about" - about, concerning. Expressing reference / respect.

tou qeou (oV) gen. "of God" - [the kingdom] of god. For "the kingdom of God", see tou qeou, 4:43.

touV .... econtaV (ecw) aor. part. "those who [needed]" - [and he was healing] the ones having [a need]. The participle serves as a substantive, accusative direct object of the verb "to heal." The imperfect of the verb "to heal" is possibly used to indicate ongoing action.

qerapeiaV (a) gen. "healing" - of healing. The genitive is adjectival, epexegetic, specifying the "need", or verbal, objective, so receiving the action of the verbal noun "need."

ii] A logistical problem emerges, v12. "Crowds" had followed Jesus to Bethsaida, but now Jesus is teaching "a crowd" in a remote place, and it is late in the afternoon. The adjective erhmoV, "deserted", means "a remote place", not so much "a desert", but Exodus typology may be intended. The twelve suggest to Jesus that it is time to send the people back to Bethsaida and the surrounding villages - not an unreasonable, nor unfaithful suggestion, simply good sense. Note how the title "the twelve" and "the apostles" is interchangeable for Luke.

klinein (klinw) aor. inf. "late [in the afternoon]" - [but/and the day began] to tip, decline. The infinitive is complementary, completing the sense of the verb "to begin"; "Now, the day was drawing to a close."

proselqonteV (prosercomai) aor. part. "came" - [but/and the twelve] having approached [said to him]. Attendant circumstance participle expressing action accompanying the verb "to say"; "the twelve went up to him and said", Rieu.

iJna + subj. "so" - [send away the crowd] that. Introducing a final clause expressing purpose, "in order that."

poreuqenteV (poreuomai) "they can go" - having gone [into the round = surrounding villages and farms, they may lodge and they may find food]. Attendant circumstance participle expressing action accompanying the subjunctive verbs "to lodge" and "to find."

oJti "because" - because [we are here in a remote, desolate place]. Introducing a causal clause explaining why the people need to be sent home.

iii] A problem beyond the ability of the twelve, v13. The suggestion by Jesus that the twelve should provide the food, serves to set the ground for the miracle, rather than expose the apostle's lack of faith. The apostles can round up very little in the way of food (all four accounts record the same amount), which means they would have to go off and buy the rest. Luke would have us realise that this is a daunting task, given that the crowd numbers five thousand men, let alone women and children, and it's already evening.

fagein (fagw) aor. inf. "to eat" - [but/and he said toward them, you yourselves give] to eat [to them]. The infinitive serves as the object of the verb "to give." Note again Luke's use of proV, "toward", to form an indirect object, instead of a dative.

hJmin dat. pro. "we have" - [but/and they said, there are not] to us. The dative here is possessive; "all we have is five loaves and two fishes", Barclay.

pleion h] "only" - more or = more than [five loaves and two fish]. The disjunctive h] with the comparative adverb "more", takes the sense "more than"; "we have no more than ....." Luke implies that the provisions are those held by the apostles (unlike John), but as Marshall points out, this fact should not be pressed in application, eg., "the church must feed the world from its own resources."

ei mhti + subj. "unless" - if not. Rather than introduce an exceptive clause, "except", or conditional clause, "unless", this construction is likely deliberative here, expecting a negative answer, so Zerwick, Culy, Thomson. "You can't mean that - Are we to go and buy food for all this crowd?"

poreuqenteV (poreuomai) aor. pas. part. "we go" - having gone [we may buy]. Attendant circumstance participle expressing action accompanying the subjunctive verb "to buy"; "are we to go and buy ......"

eiV + acc. "for" - [food] into = for [all this people]? Here expressing advantage, as NIV.

gar "-" - because [there were about five thousand men]. Introducing a causal clause explaining why it would be difficult for the disciples to purchase food for the crowd; "For the men number about five thousand", Rieu. Possibly a "parenthetical remark", Thompson, etc....

iv] Jesus provides for his people, v14-16. Jesus has the disciples divide the crowd into groups of fifty (Mark has hundreds and fifties). Presumably, this is for practical distribution purposes, although numerous theories are proposed based on Exodus 18:21, Deuteronomy 1:15, cf., Hendriksen, who asks, "and is not the true Israel of the old dispensation continued in the church of the new?".

klisiaV (a) "groups" - [but/and he said toward the disciples of him, make sit down them] groups. The accusative complement of the direct object "them", standing in a double accusative construction and asserting a fact about the object; "Tell the people to sit in groups of fifty", CEV. "Group" is used here of "a group of people eating together", BDAG.

wJsei "about" - about [fifty apiece]. This comparative particle, when used with numbers, expresses approximation. The preposition ana is distributive here, "by fifties", BDAG.

apantaV adj. "everyone" - [and they did thus and sat down] all = everyone. The adjective serves as a substantive, accusative direct object of the verb "to cause to sit down."

All five verbs used in the words of distribution are found in all three synoptic gospels. Other than the verb "to look up", these verbs are used in the words of distribution in the Lord's supper, again in all three synoptic gospels, although Luke uses eucaristw, "to give thanks", rather than eulogew, "to bless". In the feeding of the 5,000, the NIV translates euloghsen, "he blessed", as "he gave thanks", on the assumption that, given the context, "to bless" means "to give thanks." The verbs are aorist, other than "to give" which is imperfect, expressing the durative nature of the distribution. It is obvious that there would be a melding of the oral traditions of the feeding of the 5,000 and the Lord's supper and this probably explains the alignment of the words of distribution. None-the-less, Luke may want to align both episodes as a foretaste of the messianic banquet. It is interesting how both Matthew and Luke emphasise the distribution of the bread by not referring to the distribution of the fish.

labwn (lambanw) aor. part. "taking" - [but/and] having taken [the five loaves and the two fish, having looked up into the heaven]. As with "having looked up", attendant circumstance participle expressing action accompanying the verb "to bless", but they may also be treated as adverbial, temporal, "Then taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he blessed them", Moffatt.

autouV pro. "them" - [he blessed] them [and broke]. Both Matthew and Mark do not have "them", just "blessed and broke". It is likely, even with Luke's words, that we have an example of short-talk (semantic density), "and looking up to heaven, he said a blessing to God for / over them (the food)", ie., taking "them" as an accusative of respect, "with respect to ...". Given the context of a meal, a blessing to God for the food means much the same as giving thanks to God for the food, "he said a blessing over them", ESV. It is possible that the sense is "he blessed them", NASB, ie., Jesus actually blessed the food, so Nolland - consecrated it for special use???

edidou (didwmi) imperf. "[then] he gave them" - [and] was giving. The imperfect is used to express durative action, possibly inceptive, "and began to give them to the disciples."

toiV maqhtaiV (hV ou) dat. "to the disciples" - to the disciples. Dative of indirect object.

paraqeinai (paratiqhmi) aor. inf. "to distribute to" - to set before. The infinitive is adverbial, final, expressing purpose; "in order to serve to the people".

tw/ oclw/ (oV) dat. "the people" - the crowd. Dative of direct object after the para prefix infinitive "to set before."

v] A concluding observation, v17. All the people eat and are satisfied, and the maqhtaiV, "disciples" (presumably the twelve are still in mind), are left holding baskets full of undistributed food. It is unlikely that the klasmatwn, "fragments", refers to scraps of food picked up off the ground. The description conveys a sense of abundance, a banquet prefiguring the messiah's eschatological banquet.

to perisseusan (perisseuw) aor. part. "that were left over" - [and they ate and all were satisfied, and] the thing having abounded [was picked up]. The participle serves as a substantive, nominative subject of the verb "to take up."

autoiV dat. pro. "-" - in them. The dative is instrumental, expressing means, "by them", although Culy suggests it serves as a dative of interest, advantage, "for them."

klasmatwn (a atoV) gen. "of broken pieces" - [twelve baskets] of fragments. The genitive is adjectival, attributive, idiomatic / content; "baskets full of fragments". The nominal phrase, "twelve baskets of fragments", stands in apposition to to perisseusan, "the thing having abounded."

Luke Introduction

Exegetical Commentaries

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