Luke 9:10

10-17. The Feeding of the Five Thousand.

10. told him all that they had done This brief and meagre record, to which nothing is added by the other Evangelists, contrasts so strongly with the joyous exultation of the Seventy over their success, that we are led to infer that the training of the Twelve was as yet imperfect, and their mission less successful than the subsequent one.

went aside privately The reasons beside the natural need of the Twelve and of our Lord for rest were (1) the incessant interruptions from the multitude, which left them no leisure even to eat (Mark 6:31), and (2) (as we see from the context) the news of the murder of John the Baptist and Herod's enquiries about Jesus. Perhaps we may add (3) the desire to keep in retirement the Paschal Feast which He could not now keep at Jerusalem. This event constitutes another new departure in the ministry of Christ.

into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida There are here great variations in the MSS. and the best reading is to a city called Bethsaida.The omission may be due to the fact that there was nothing approaching to "a desert place" corresponding to this description near the only Bethsaida which was well known to the copyists, viz. the little fishing suburb of Capernaum on the west of the lake (Bethsaida of Galilee, John 12:21), Mark 6:45. This may also explain the variation of -village" for -city." It is only in recent times that we have been made familiar with the existence of the otherBethsaida Bethsaida Julias (Mark 8:22), at the north of the lake, another

-House of Fish" which had been recently beautified by Herod Philip (Luke 3:1) and named by him after the beautiful but profligate daughter of Augustus, Jos. Antt.xviii. 2, § I; B. J.11. § 1. The ruins of this town still exist at Telui (a corruption of Julias),and close by it is the green, narrow, secluded plain of El Batihah, which exactly meets the description of the Evangelists. This important discovery, which explains several serious difficulties of this Gospel, is due to Reland (Palaest.p. 504), and shews us how easily difficulties would be removed if we knew all the facts.