Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Matthew 14:20

τὸ περισσεῦον τῶν κλασμάτων. κλασμάτων connected with κλάσας, therefore not ‘fragments’ in the sense of crumbs of bread, but the ‘portions’ broken off for distribution.

δώδεκα κοφίνους. The same word is used for baskets in the four accounts of this miracle, and also by our Lord, when He refers to the miracle (ch. Matthew 16:9); whereas a different word (σπυρίδες) is used in describing the feeding of four thousand and in the reference made to that event by our Lord (ch. Matthew 16:10). Juvenal describes a large provision-basket of this kind, together with a bundle of hay, as being part of the equipment of the Jewish mendicants who thronged the grove of Egeria at Rome: ‘Judæis quorum cophinus fœnumque supellex, III. 14,’ ‘cophino fœnoque relicto | arcanam Judæa tremens mendicat in aurem,’ VI. 542. The motive for this custom was to avoid ceremonial impurity in eating or in resting at night.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Matthew 14:20

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