And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. They did all eat, and were filled - Little or much is the same in the hands of Jesus Christ. Here was an incontestable miracle - five thousand men, besides women and children, fed with five cakes and two fishes! Here must have been a manifest creation of substance - the parts of the bread were not dilated to make them appear large, nor was there any delusion in the eating - for they all ate, and were all filled. Here then is one miracle of our Lord attested by at least five thousand persons! But did not this creation of bread prove the unlimited power of Jesus? Undoubtedly: and nothing less than eternal power and Godhead could have effected it.
They took up - twelve baskets - It was customary for many of the Jews to carry a basket with them at all times: and Mr. Wakefield's conjecture here is very reasonable: - "By the number here particularized, it should seem that each apostle filled his own bread basket." Some think that the Jews carried baskets in commemoration of their Egyptian bondage, when they were accustomed to carry the clay and stubble to make the bricks, in a basket that was hung about their necks. This seems to be what Sidonius Apollinaris refers to in the following words, Epist. vii. 6. Ordinis res est, ut, (dum in allegorica versamur Aegypto) Pharao incedat cum diademate, Israelita cum Cophino.
These words of Alcimus Avitus, lib. v. 30, are to the same effect: -
Servitii longo lassatam pondere plebem,
Oppressos cophinis humeros, attritaque collo
It appears that a basket about the neck, and a bunch of hay, were the general characteristic of this long enslaved and oppressed people in the different countries where they sojourned.
Juvenal also mentions the Basket and the hay: -
Cum dedit ille locum, cophino faenoque relicto,
Arcanam Judaea tremens mendicat in aurem
Sat vi. 542
A gypsy Jewess whispers in your ear -
Her goods a basket, and old hay her bed,
She strolls, and telling fortunes, gains her bread
Dryden
And again, Sat iii.:13: -
Nunc sacri fontis nemus, et delubra locantur
Judaeis, quorum cophinus, faenumque supellex
Now the once hallowed fountain, grove, and fane,
Are let to Jews, a wretched, wandering train,
Whose wealth is but a basket stuff'd with hay
Gifford
The simple reason why the Jews carried baskets with them appears to be this: - When they went into Gentile countries, they carried their own provision with them, as they were afraid of being polluted by partaking of the meat of heathens. This also obliged them probably to carry hay with them to sleep on: and it is to this, in all likelihood, that Juvenal alludes.
After five thousand were fed, twelve times as much, at least, remained, as the whole multitude at first sat down to! See the note on Luke 9:16.