[304] Against Neander’s attempt at reconciliation, compare De Wette, exeg. Handb. 1, 3, s. 77. [↑]
[305] This indication has been recently followed up by Weisse. He finds the key to the history of the miraculous multiplication of the loaves, in the question addressed by Jesus to the disciples when they misunderstand his admonition against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. He asks them whether they did not remember how many baskets they had been able to fill from the five and again from the seven loaves, and then adds, How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, etc. ([Matt. xvi. 11]). Now, says Weisse, the parallel which Jesus here institutes between his discourse on the leaven, and the history of the feeding of the multitude, shows that the latter also is only to be interpreted parabolically (s. 511 ff.). But the form of the question of Jesus: πόσους κοφίνους (σπυρίδας) ἐλάβετε; how many baskets ye took up, presupposes a real event; we can form no conception, as we have already remarked in relation to the history of the temptation, of a parable in which Jesus and his disciples would have played a principal part; moreover, the inference which Jesus would convey is, according to the text, not that because the present narrative was figurative, so also must be the interpretation of the subsequent discourse, but that after the earlier proof how superfluous was any solicitude about physical bread where Jesus was at hand, it was absurd to understand his present discourse as relating to such. [↑]
| [2 Kings iv. 43], LXX.: τί δῶ τοῦτο ἔνώπιον ἑκατὸν ἀνδρῶν; | [John vi. 9]: ἀλλὰ ταῦτα τί ἐστιν εἰς τοσούτους; |
| [Ibid. v. 44]: καὶ ἕφαγον, καὶ κατέλιπον κατὰ τὸ ῥῆμα Κυρίου. | [Matt. xiv. 20]: καὶ ἔφαγον πάντες, καὶ ἐχορτάσθησαν, καὶ ἦραν τὸ περισσεῦον τῶν κλασμάτων, κ.τ.λ. |
[308] Exeg. Handb. 2, s. 237 f. [↑]
[309] Joma f. 39, 1: Tempore Simeonis justi benedictio erat super duos panes pentecostales et super decem panes προθέσεως, ut singuli sacerdotes, qui pro rata parte acciperent quantitatem olivæ, ad satietatem comederent, imo ut adhuc reliquiæ superessent. [↑]