Chapter XLV.—Of the Order and the Method in Which All the Four Evangelists Come to the Narration of the Miracle of the Five Loaves.

93. After stating how the report of John’s death was brought to Christ, Matthew continues his account, and introduces it in the following connection: “When Jesus heard of it, He departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed Him on foot out of the cities. And He went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick.”553    Matt. xiv. 13, 14. He mentions, therefore, that this took place immediately after John had suffered. Consequently it was after this that those things took place which have been previously recorded—namely, the circumstances which alarmed Herod, and induced him to say, “John have I beheaded.”554    Luke ix. 9. For it must surely be understood that these incidents occurred subsequently which report carried to the ears of Herod, so that he became anxious, and was in perplexity as to who that person possibly could be of whom he heard things so remarkable, when he had himself put John to death. Mark, again, after relating how John suffered, mentions that the disciples who had been sent forth returned to Jesus, and told Him all that they had done and taught; and that the Lord (a fact which he alone records) directed them to rest for a little while in a desert place, and that He went on board a vessel with them, and departed; and that the crowds of people, when they perceived that movement, went before them to that place; and that the Lord had compassion on them, and taught them many things; and that, when the hour was now advancing, it came to pass that all who were present were made to eat of the five loaves and the two fishes.555    Mark vi. 30–44. This miracle has been recorded by all the four evangelists. For in like manner, Luke, who has given an account of the death of John at a much earlier stage in his narrative,556    Luke iii. 20. in connection with the occasion of which we have spoken, in the present context tells us first of Herod’s perplexity as to who the Lord could be, and immediately thereafter appends statements to the same effect with those in Mark,—namely, that the apostles returned to Him, and reported to Him all that they had done; and that then He took them with Him and departed into a desert place, and that the multitudes followed Him thither, and that He spake to them concerning the kingdom of God, and restored those who stood in need of healing. Then, too, he mentions that, when the day was declining, the miracle of the five loaves was wrought.557    Luke ix. 10–17.

94. But John, again, who differs greatly from those three in this respect, that he deals more with the discourses which the Lord delivered than with the works which He so marvellously wrought, after recording how He left Judæa and departed the second time into Galilee, which departure is understood to have taken place at the time to which the other evangelists also refer when they tell us that on John’s imprisonment He went into Galilee,—after recording this, I say, John inserts in the immediate context of his narrative the considerable discourse which He spake as He was passing through Samaria, on the occasion of His meeting with the Samaritan woman whom He found at the well; and then he states that two days after this He departed thence and went into Galilee, and that thereupon He came to Cana of Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine, and that there He healed the son of a certain nobleman.558    John iv. 3, 5, 43–54. But as to other things which the rest have told us He did and said in Galilee, John is silent. At the same time, however, he mentions something which the others have left unnoticed,—namely, the fact that He went up to Jerusalem on the day of the feast, and there wrought the miracle on the man who had the infirmity of thirty-eight years standing, and who found no one by whose help he might be carried down to the pool in which people afflicted with various diseases were healed.559    [Augustin here passes over one of the most difficult questions in connection with the Gospel history. The length of our Lord’s ministry turns upon the feast referred to in John v. If it was passover, then John refers to four passovers; and our Lord’s ministry extended over three years and a few weeks. If some other feast is meant, the ministry covered but two years and a few weeks.—R.] In connection with this, John also relates how He spake many things on that occasion. He tells us, further, that after these events He departed across the sea of Galilee, which is also the sea of Tiberias, and that a great multitude followed Him; that thereupon He went away to a mountain, and there sat with His disciples,—the passover, a feast of the Jews, being then nigh; that then, on lifting up His eyes and seeing a very great company, He fed them with the five loaves and the two fishes;560    John v.-vi. 13. which notice is given us also by the other evangelists. And this makes it certain that he has passed by those incidents which form the course along which these others have come to introduce the notice of this miracle into their narratives. Nevertheless, while different methods of narration, as it appears, are prosecuted, and while the first three evangelists have thus left unnoticed certain matters which the fourth has recorded, we see how those three, on the one hand, who have been keeping nearly the same course, have found a direct meeting-point with each other at this miracle of the five loaves; and how this fourth writer, on the other hand, who is conversant above all with the profound teachings of the Lord’s discourses, in relating some other matters on which the rest are silent, has sped round in a certain method upon their track, and, while about to soar off from their pathway after a brief space again into the region of loftier subjects, has found a meeting-point with them in the view of presenting this narrative of the miracle of the five loaves, which is common to them all.

CAPUT XLV. Ad miraculum de quinque panibus quo ordine ab omnibus, et quemadmodum ventum sit.

93. Sequitur ergo Matthaeus, cum dixisset nuntiatum esse Christo quod Joannes occisus sit, et ita narrationem contexit: Quod cum audisset, inquit, Jesus, secessit inde in navicula in locum desertum seorsum. Et cum audissent turbae secutae sunt eum pedestras de civitatibus. Et exiens vidit turbam multam, et misertus est eis, et curavit languidos eorum (Matth. XIV, 13, 14). Hoc continuo post Joannis passionem factum esse commemorat. Unde post haec, facta sunt illa quae primo narrata sunt, quibus motus Herodes dixit, Joannem ego decollavi. Illa enim posteriora debent intelligi, quae ad Herodem pertulit fama, ut moveretur, et haesitaret quisnam iste esse posset, de quo audiret talia, cum Joannem ipse occidisset. Marcus autem posteaquam passionem Joannis narravit, commemorat discipulos missos rediisse ad Jesum, et renuntiasse illi omnia quae egerant et docuerant; et Dominum eis (quod ipse solus commemorat) dixisse ut requiescerent pusillum in deserto, et ascendisse cum eis in navem, et isse: et turbas hoc videntes praevenisse eos illuc; quarum misertum Dominum docuisse multa; et hora jam progrediente factum esse ut de quinque panibus et duobus piscibus omnes qui aderant pascerentur (Marc. VI, 30-44). Quod miraculum omnes quatuor Evangelistae commemoraverunt. Lucas etiam qui jam longe supra de Joannis passione narraverat (Luc. III, 20), ex occasione qua diximus, nunc posteaquam commemoravit illam Herodis haesitationem de Domino quisnam esset, hoc continuo subjungit quod Marcus, id est, rediisse ad illum Apostolos, et narrasse illi quaecumque fecerant, et assumptis eis secessisse in locum desertum, atque eo secutas turbas, et locutum esse de regno Dei, et eos qui cura indigebant sanasse: atque inde etiam ipse die declinante commemorat miraculum de quinque panibus factum (Id. IX, 10-17).

94. At vero Joannes, qui multum ab eis tribus Evangelistis eo distat, quia magis in sermonibus quos Dominus habuit immoratur, quam in factis quae mirabiliter fecit, posteaquam commemoravit eum relicta Judaea abiisse iterum in Galilaeam, quod tunc intelligitur factum, cum et alii Evangelistae dicunt eum Joanne tradito isse in Galilaeam; posteaquam ergo id commemoravit Joannes, in transitu ejus per Samariam multa quae locutus est ex occasione illius Samaritanae quam invenit ad puteum, contexit narrationi suae: et post duos dies dicit eum inde exiise in Galilaeam, deinde venisse in Cana Galilaeae, ubi fecerat de aqua vinum, et sanasse filium reguli cujusdam (Joan. IV, 3, 5, 43-54). Alia vero, quae illum in Galilaea fecisse atque dixisse alii dixerunt, Joannes tacet: sed sane, 1125 quod illi tacuerunt, dicit ascendisse eum in die festo Jerosolymis, et fecisse ibi miraculum illud de homine qui triginta octo annos habebat in infirmitate, nec habebat hominem a quo in piscinam deponeretur, in qua variis valetudinibus affecti sanabantur; et ex hac occasione multa eum locutum fuisse commemorat. Post haec eum dicit abiisse trans mare Galilaeae, quod est Tiberiadis, et secutam multitudinem magnam: deinde abiisse in montem, et ibi sedisse cum discipulis suis, proximo Pascha die festo Judaeorum: tum levatis oculis et visa multitudine maxima, pavisse eam de quinque panibus et duobus piscibus (Joan. V-VI, 13); quod et caeteri Evangelistae dicunt. Ac per hoc, praetermisisse illum per quae illi narrando ad hujus miraculi commemorationem venerunt, certum est: verumtamen tanquam ex alia narrationis via, cum et illi tacuissent quae iste dixisset, ad hoc miraculum de quinque panibus occurrerunt sibi et illi tres qui pene pariter ambulabant, et iste qui sermonum Domini alta consectans, per alia quae illi tacuerunt circumvolavit quodammodo, et eis ad miraculum de quinque panibus pariter commemorandum, non multo post ab eis rursus in altiora revolaturus occurrit.