1728 | Matthew 14:1
John the Baptist Beheaded
14:1-12pp— Mk 6:14-29
14 At that time Herod j the te trarch heard the re ports about Jesus, k 2 and he said to his
at ten dants,“ This is John the Bap tist; l he has risen from the dead! That is why mirac u lous pow ers are at work in him.”
3 Now Herod had ar rested John and bound him and put him in prison m be cause of He rodias, his brother Phil ip’ s wife, n 4 for John had been say ing to him:“ It is not law ful for you to have her.” o 5 Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the peo ple, be cause they considered John a prophet. p
6 On Her od’ s birth day the daugh ter of He ro dias danced for the guests and pleased Herod so much 7 that he prom ised with an oath to give her what ever she asked. 8 Prompted by her mother, she said,“ Give me here on a plat ter the head of John the Bap tist.” 9 The king was dis tressed, but be cause of his oaths and his din ner guests, he or dered that her re quest be granted 10 and had John be headed q in the prison. 11 His head was brought in on a plat ter and given to the girl, who car ried it to her mother. 12 John’ s dis ci ples came and took his body and bur ied it. r Then they went and told Jesus.
14:1 j Mk 8:15; Lk 3:1, 19; 13:31; 23:7, 8; Ac 4:27; 12:1 k Lk 9:7‐9
14:2 l Mt 3:1
14:3 m Mt 4:12; 11:2 n Lk 3:19, 20
14:4 o Lev 18:16; 20:21 14:5 p Mt 11:9 14:10 q Mt 17:12 14:12 r Ac 8:2
14:14 s Mt 9:36 t Mt 4:23
14:17 u Mt 16:9
14:19 v 1Sa 9:13; Mt 26:26; Mk 8:6; Lk 24:30; Ac 2:42; 27:35; 1Ti 4:4
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
14:13-21pp— Mk 6:32-44; Lk 9:10-17; Jn 6:1-13 14:13-21Ref— Mt 15:32-38
13 When Jesus heard what had hap pened, he with drew by boat pri vately to a sol i tary place. Hear ing of this, the crowds fol lowed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had com pas sion on them s and healed their sick. t
15 As eve ning ap proached, the dis ci ples came to him and said,“ This is a re mote place, and it’ s al ready get ting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the vil lages and buy themselves some food.” 16 Jesus re plied,“ They do not need to go away. You give them some thing to eat.” 17“ We have here only five loaves u of bread and two fish,” they an swered. 18“ Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he di rected the peo ple to sit down on the grass. Tak ing the five loaves and the two fish and look ing up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. v
Then he gave them to the dis ci ples, and the dis ci ples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were sat is fied, and the dis ci ples picked up twelve bas ket fuls of bro ken pieces that were left over. 21 The num ber of those who ate was about five thou sand men, besides women and children.
14:1 – 12 Matthew explains the reason for and result of John’ s imprisonment( 11:2). 14:1 Herod the tetrarch. Herod Antipas, one of the three sons of Herod the Great among whom his kingdom was divided( see chart / map, pp. 1700 – 1701). Antipas received the provinces of Galilee and Perea. See note on 2:22. 14:2 risen from the dead. Matthew begins with Antipas’ s reaction to Jesus sometime after John the Baptist died, and then Matthew moves back in time to explain how John had come to be executed. Jews did not normally believe in reincarnation, but some ancient pagans did, from whom Antipas must have gotten the notion. Why that would have given Jesus the ability to work miracles that John never performed is unclear, but superstitious beliefs are often illogical. At any rate, Herod recognized similarities between the two men. 14:3 This Philip appears to be a different Philip than the one who received part of Herod the Great’ s kingdom( Luke 3:1). Herodias divorced this Philip to marry his brother Antipas, and John dared to rebuke Herod publicly for it. 14:6 – 7 the daughter of Herodias. Called a“ girl”( Greek korasion) in Mark 6:22, a term often used for a young teenager. Given the reputation of the Herodian family for throwing debauched parties, the girl’ s dance may have been sexually suggestive, and Antipas may have uttered his oath when he was drunk. 14:8 Mark 6:19 explains that Herodias was the one most upset over John’ s rebuke of her divorce and remarriage. An underage daughter would naturally turn to her when Antipas made his lavish promise, so Herodias requests John’ s beheading and the public proof of it. 14:9 Antipas’ s moral weakness and cowardice are reflected in his refusal to go back on the rash vow he had made in front of his guests, probably some of the elite of his society. 14:13 – 36 In contrast to those who refuse to recognize who Jesus and John truly are in 13:53— 14:12, here Jesus shows himself to be the bread of life for Israel( vv. 13 – 21; cf. John 6:25 – 59) and reveals his divine nature to the Twelve( vv. 22 – 36). 14:13 – 21 The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels, which signals its importance. Jesus appears as a new and greater Moses, who fed the crowds with supernatural bread in the wilderness( cf. Exod 16), and as a new and greater Elisha, who fed a hundred people with 20 hand-size loaves of bread and still had leftovers( 2 Kgs 4:42 – 44). 14:13 withdrew. From the potential hostility that had led to John’ s martyrdom. privately to a solitary place. Perhaps also for prayer and respite. In light of v. 22, it appears Jesus is on the northeast side of the Sea of Galilee. But the crowds quickly catch up with him. 14:16 You give them something to eat. Perhaps Jesus is merely setting up the disciples for the next stage of the conversation. 14:17 loaves of bread. Hand-size loaves. The bread and fish were probably intended for one boy’ s( or possibly one family’ s) dinner( cf. John 6:9), not for the multitudes. 14:19 None of the Gospels describes how the miracle occurred. Jesus“ gave thanks” to God and“ broke the loaves” in preparation for distributing them to those present, just as a Jewish father typically would do at the start of any main meal. Many have seen a foreshadowing of the Last Supper here( cf. 26:26), but this is less certain. 14:20 They all ate and were satisfied. The heart of the miracle. Indeed, the multiplication of the loaves was so bountiful and overflowing that there were“ twelve basketfuls of broken pieces... left over.” 14:21 women and children. Would have been less likely to follow Jesus a long distance from their villages, but with 5,000“ men” present and large families the norm, the total number could easily have ranged from 10,000 to 20,000 people.