Origen, COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW Complete

Translated by John Patrick.

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Page 89

Again, there, the three Evangelists say in the very same words that "He took the five loaves and the two fishes and looking up to heaven He blessed;" [5542] but here, as Matthew and Mark have written, "Jesus gave thanks and brake;" [5543] there, they recline upon the grass, but here they sit down upon the ground. You will moreover investigate in the accounts in the different places the variation found in John, who wrote in regard to that transaction that Jesus said, "Make the men sit down," [5544] and that, having given thanks, He gave of the loaves to them that were set down, but he did not mention this miracle at all. [5545] Attending, then, to the difference of those things which are written in the various places in regard to the loaves, I think that these belong to a different order from those; wherefore these are fed in a mountain, and those in a desert place; and these after they had continued three days with Jesus, but those one day, on the evening of which they were fed. And further, unless it be the same thing for Jesus to do a thing of Himself and to act after having heard from the disciples, consider if those to whom Jesus shows kindness are not superior when He fed them on the spot with a view to showing them kindness. And, if according to John, [5546] they were barley loaves of which the twelve baskets remained over, but nothing of this kind is said about these, how are not these superior to the former? And the sick of those He healed, [5547] but here He heals these, along with the multitudes, who were not sick but blind, and lame, and deaf, and maimed; wherefore also in regard to these the four thousand marvel, [5548] but in regard to the sick no such thing is said.

[5542] Matt. xiv. 19; Mark vi. 41; Luke ix. 16.

[5543] Matt. xv. 36; Mark viii. 6.

[5544] John vi. 10.

[5545] Or, did not mention the occasion of this.

[5546] John vi. 13.

[5547] Matt. xiv. 14.

[5548] Matt. xv. 31.

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