Matthew 15:32-39

Feeding the four thousand (Mark 8:1). The multitudes in this case being heathen (see Matthew 15:31), the miracle is no bare repetition of the feeding of the five thousand (Matthew 14:13). That symbolised the communication of Christ to Israel, but this symbolised His communication to the Gentile world.

Several recent commentators regard this miracle as only another version of the feeding of the five thousand. They argue, (1) that Jesus would not have repeated a miracle; (2) that the apostles would not have said, 'Whence should we have so many loaves in a desert place, as to fill so great a multitude?' if Jesus had worked a similar miracle before. These arguments would be weighty if the two miracles occurred in different Gospels, or were derived from different sources. But this is not the case. The two miracles occur both in St. Matthew and St. Mark, the common matter of which Gospels is by general consent assigned to Peter himself. Peter's narrative also contains a saying of Jesus in which the two miracles are expressly distinguished: see Matthew 16:9; Mark 8:19.