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Matthew Chapter 14

Chapter XIV.

1. At that time Herod the Tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus;
2. And said to his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore mighty powers are operative in him:
3. For Herod laying hold of John, bound him, and put him in prison, on account of Herodias his brother Philip's wife.
4. For John said to him, It is not lawful for you to have her.
5. And being willing to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they accounted him as a prophet.
6. But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced in the midst, and pleased Herod.
7. Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatever she should ask.
8. But she, being instructed by her mother, said, Give me here in a charger the head of John the Baptist.
9. And the king was sorry, nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given.
10. And sending, he beheaded John in the prison.
11. And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel, and she brought it to her mother.
12. And His disciples coming, took the body, and buried it, and came and told Jesus.
13. And Jesus hearing, departed thence in a ship to a desert place privately: and the multitudes hearing, followed Him on foot out of the cities.
14. And Jesus going forth saw much multitude, and was moved with compassion towards them, and healed their sick.
15. But when it was evening, His disciples came to Him saying, The place is desert, and the hour is now past; send away the multitudes, that going into the villages, they may buy themselves victuals.
16. But Jesus said to them, They need not depart, give you them to eat.
17. But they say to Him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.
18. But He said, Bring them here to Me.
19. And commanding the multitudes to lie down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fishes, looking up to heaven, He blessed, and breaking, gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes.
20. And they did all eat, and were satisfied; and they took up the overplus of the fragments, twelve baskets full.
21. But they that had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
22. And immediately Jesus constrained His disciples to get into a ship, and to go before Him to the other side, whilst He sent the multitudes away.
23. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain privately to pray, and during the evening He was there alone.
24. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.
25. But in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.
26. And the disciples seeing Him walking on the sea, were troubled, saying, It is a phantom: and they cried out for fear.
27. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Have confidence, I am, be not afraid.
28. But Peter answering Him, said, Lord, if You are, command me to come to You on the waters.
29. But He said, Come: and Peter coming down from the ship, walked on the waters, to come to Jesus.
30. But seeing the wind strong, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me.
31. And immediately Jesus stretching out the hand, caught hold of him, and says to him, O you of little faith, wherefore did you doubt?
32. And when they were come up into the ship the wind ceased.
33. But they that were in the ship, coming worshiped Him, saying, Truly, You are the Son of God.
34. And being passed over, they came into the land of Gennesareth.
35. And the men of that place having knowledge of Him, sent out into all that country round about, and brought to Him all that were diseased;
36. And besought Him, that they might only touch the hem of His garment, and as many as touched were made whole.

EXPOSITION.

Chapter XIV.

Verse 13. And Jesus hearing, departed thence in a ship to a desert place, &c. - Inasmuch as the state of ignorance of truth, in which the Gentiles were, is signified by a wilderness, and the desire of truth by hunger, and instruction from the Lord by feeding, therefore it came to pass that the Lord retired into the wilderness, and there taught the multitude who sought Him, and afterwards fed them; that this took place in the wilderness may appear in Matt 14:13-22. AE 730.

Verse 14. Healed their sick.-'Charity and faith constitute spiritual life, which life sickens when the false is in the place of truth, which is of faith; and evil is in the place of good, which is of love; for those things bring that life into the death which is called spiritual death, and which is damnation, just as diseases bring the natural life to its death; hence it is that by disease, in the internal sense, is signified evil. AC 8364. See also Exposition, chap. 4:23, 8:2, and AE 962.

Verses 15-21. On the miracle of the five loaves and two fishes.-This miracle was worked, because the Lord had before taught His disciples, and because they received His doctrine and appropriated it to themselves; this was what they ate spiritually, hence natural eating followed, namely, flowed in from heaven with them, as manna with the sons of Israel, whilst they were ignorant. For when the Lord wills, spiritual food, which is also real food, but only for spirits and angels, is turned into natural, in like manner as into manna every morning. AE 617.

The particular things in this miracle, with the numbers themselves also mentioned in it, are significative; five thousand men, besides women and children, signify all who are of the church in truths derived from good; men (viri), those who are in truths, women and children, those who are in goods; loaves of bread, signify the goods, and fishes, the truths of the natural man; feeding,signifies spiritual nourishment from the Lord; twelve baskets of fragments, signify thence the knowledges of truth and good in all abundance and fullness. AE 430.

Verse 19. He blessed, and breaking, namely,the loaves and the fishes-signified the communication of His divine,and thereby conjunction with His disciples and the people, by the goods and truths which were signified by the loaves, and also by the fishes. AE 340.

In the ancient church, bread was broken when it was given to another, and thereby was signified to communicate, and to appropriate good, from that which wo possess as our own, and thus to do an act of mutual love; for when bread is broken, and given to another, there is then so much communicated from what we possess; for when bread is broken among several, one bread then becomes mutual, consequently, there is conjunction by charity; hence it is evident, that the breaking of bread was a significative of mutual love. Inasmuch as this rite was received and customary in the ancient church, therefore also by the breaking itself was meant the provision which was made common. That bread denotes the good of love, may be seen, AC 276, 680, 1798. Hence it is, that the Lord, when He gave bread, break it, as in Matthew 14:19, 15:36. AC5405. See also AC 9416.

The twelve baskets of fragments which were taken up, signify what is full, thus full instruction., and full benediction. AE 548.

Verse 23. He went up into a mountain privately to pray. - Mountains, among the most ancient people, signified the Lord, because it was their practice to worship Him on mountains; the reason of which was, because mountains are the highest parts of the earth, hence mountains signified things celestial, which also they called the highest things, consequently, love and charity, thus the good things of love and charity, which are celestial. In an opposite sense, they are called mountains in the Word who are elated in mind, thus a mountain denotes self-love itself. That mountains signify the Lord, and, for that reason, signify all things celestial, or the good things of love and charity, appears from the following passages in the Word: Ps 72:3 ; Ezek 20:40; Isa 2:2, 25:6, 7, 65:9, 57:15; on which account, also, the Lord published the law from Mount Sinai. The Lord, also, by mountains, means love and charity, where, speaking of the consummation of the age, He says, "That they who are in Judea should then flee to the mountains. Matt 24:16. From the signification of mountain it may appear why the Lord so often retired to the mountains, as stated in Matthew 14:23, 15:29, 30, 31, 17:1, 28:16, 17. AC795, 2708. See also AE 405. AR 336.

Verses 24 - 33. On the miracle of Jesus walking on the sea. - All the particulars related in this miracle signify Divine spiritual things, which yet do not appear in the letter; as the sea, the Lord's walking upon it, the fourth watch in which He came to His disciples; also the ship, that Jesus entered into it, and that He thence restrained the wind and the waves of the sea, besides the rest of the things mentioned; but the spiritual things which are signified, there is no need here to explain singly; only that the sea signifies the ultimate of heaven and of the church, inasmuch as in the ultimate borders of the heavens there are seas; the Lord walking upon the sea, signified the presence and the influx of the Lord into them also, and hence life from the divine communicated to those who are in the ultimates of heaven: their life from the divine was represented by the Lord's walking on the sea; and their obscure and wavering faith was represented by Peter's walking upon the sea and beginning to sink, but being caught hold of by the Lord he was saved; to walk also in the Word signifies to live: this being done in the fourth watch, signified the first state of the church, when it is twilight, and the morning is at hand, for then good begins to act by truth, and then is the Lord's coming; the sea, in the mean time, being put in commotion by the wind, and the Lord restraining it, signifies the natural state of life which precedes, which state is unpacific, and as it were tempestuous: but when the state is nearest to the morning, which is the first state of the church with man, because the Lord is then present with the good of love, tranquillity of mind is effected. AE 514. See also Exposition, chap. 8:24, and AR 238.

Verse 31. O you of little faith, &c. - The reason why the Lord called the disciples men of little faith, when they could not do miracles in His name, was because the disciples did indeed believe the Lord to be the Messiah or Christ, likewise the Son of God, and the Prophet of Whom it is written in the Word, but still they did not believe in Him as God Omnipotent, and that Jehovah the Father was in Him; and yet in proportion as they believed Him to be a man, and not at the same time God, His Divine [principle], to which Omnipotence belonged, could not become present with them by faith, for faith causes the Lord to be present, as was said above; but faith in Him as a map only, does not bring His Divine Omnipotence present. AE 815.

Verse 36. As many as touched were made perfectly whole.- See Exposition, chap. 8:3, 9:20.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS.

Chapter XIV.

Verse 20. The overplus of the fragments.-What is here rendered the overplus of the fragments, is called in the common version of the New Testament, the fragments that remained, but it is expressed in the original Greek by perisseuon ton klasmaton, which literally means the overplus of the fragments. The expression is remarkable, and, like other expressions in the Sacred Scriptures, has reference to the internal meaning of the subject treated of, which in this case is the appropriation of spiritual good and truth from the Lord. In all such appropriation it would appear that there is what is here called perisseuon,or an overplus, that is to say, more than man can appropriate, since the powers of appropriation on the part of man are limited, and no one has a capacity to receive all the spiritual food which is presented to his acceptance. The law respecting this overplus is, that it should be gathered up, agreeably to the Lord's express command; (John 6:12.) in other words, it ought to be acknowledged that there is such an overplus, and the overplus itself ought to be acknowledged to be the Lord's.

Verse 24. Tossed by the waves.-The original word, here rendered tossed, is basanizomenon, from basanizo, which properly signifies to explore, or to examine by torture, and hence is applied to denote the state of spiritual temptation here figuratively described, for all spiritual temptation is attended with exploration, this being its end to make evils manifest, and by manifesting to remove them.

Verse 27. I am, be not afraid.-What is here rendered I am, in the common version of the New Testament is rendered it is I, but the original Greek is ego eimi, which is literally I am, and thus marks the Divinity of the Redeemer, being the same thing as if He had called Himself Jehovah.