Matthew 14:13–14:21, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Matthew 14:13–14:21
Compassion feeds the crowd through shared provision
Jesus withdraws, receives a pursuing crowd with compassion and healing, refuses to dismiss them hungry, blesses five loaves and two fish, and feeds thousands with leftovers.
What helps us understand it
Place in the book
Matthew as a wholeMatthew 14:13–14:21 contributes “Compassion feeds the crowd through shared provision” to Matthew's movement from covenant ancestry and kingdom proclamation through teaching, signs, conflict, Passion, resurrection, and the commission among all nations.
Jesus withdraws, receives a pursuing crowd with compassion and healing, refuses to dismiss them hungry, blesses five loaves and two fish, and feeds thousands with leftovers. Its received position is thought unit 76 of 149. The unit's reviewed main point is: Jesus withdraws, receives a pursuing crowd with compassion and healing, refuses to dismiss them hungry, blesses five loaves and two fish, and feeds thousands with leftovers.
How the passage moves
The miracle report echoes wilderness provision and works through disciples, but it does not disclose a reproducible technique or reduce women and children to an afterthought in the total.
This feeding does not promise food multiplication on demand, replace food systems, exploit hunger for conversion, or erase women and children from the crowd.
Why this reading fits
Literary-form control
Matthew presents this event as testimony about Jesus' authority and compassion. The narrated miracle is not a technique, a cure guarantee, a diagnosis of disability or illness, or permission to replace medical care and careful evidence.
A phrase that matters
compassion
See SBLGNT and STEP data for the exact inflected form · splanchnizomai
This wording can affect the unit's interpretation or prevent an older-English misuse.
How this should shape us
What accountable response follows?
When needs interrupt grief or retreat, combine compassionate provision with sustainable limits and shared participation; do not promise multiplication or erase women and children from the count.
Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
What the unit does
Jesus withdraws, receives a pursuing crowd with compassion and healing, refuses to dismiss them hungry, blesses five loaves and two fish, and feeds thousands with leftovers.
How to read its form
Matthew presents this event as testimony about Jesus' authority and compassion. The narrated miracle is not a technique, a cure guarantee, a diagnosis of disability or illness, or permission to replace medical care and careful evidence.
What the unit cannot be made to do
This feeding does not promise food multiplication on demand, replace food systems, exploit hunger for conversion, or erase women and children from the crowd.
Original-language wording and grammarTechnical detail appears only where it helps
compassion
deep concern that moves Jesus toward care
How certain? probableWhat the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
First-century setting and recoverable limits
The miracle report echoes wilderness provision and works through disciples, but it does not disclose a reproducible technique or reduce women and children to an afterthought in the total.
How certain? probableWhy translations sometimes differMaterial translation choices
KJV language note — “compassion”
The pinned KJV remains the displayed text. SBLGNT, STEP morphology, and the exact NET notes were checked for Matthew 14:13–14:21; only wording that changes ordinary understanding is surfaced here.
How certain? strongEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
Israel's Scriptures and Jewish setting
Matthew presents Jesus, disciples, crowds, interpreters, institutions, practices, and disputes within Israel's scriptural story and first-century Jewish diversity. Jesus withdraws, receives a pursuing crowd with compassion and healing, refuses to dismiss them hungry, blesses five loaves and two fish, and feeds thousands with leftovers.
How certain? strongHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Scripture, Gospel parallels, and later reading
Interpret Matthew 14:13–14:21 first within Matthew. Synoptic and wider canonical connections may clarify repetition and difference but must not silence Matthew's wording, unit boundary, Jewish setting, or visible uncertainty.
How certain? strongTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
Matthew locates this unit within God's kingdom, Jesus' authority and compassion, Israel's Scriptures, accountable discipleship, and the movement toward cross and resurrection: Jesus withdraws, receives a pursuing crowd with compassion and healing, refuses to dismiss them hungry, blesses five loaves and two fish, and feeds thousands with leftovers.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
God's action in Matthew 14:13–14:21 cannot be converted into control of bodies, guaranteed outcomes, ethnic superiority, coercion, political dominion, or any misuse explicitly rejected by this unit.
How certain? strongCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
This feeding does not promise food multiplication on demand, replace food systems, exploit hunger for conversion, or erase women and children from the crowd.
A memorable saying, conflict, miracle, judgment image, or fulfillment line in Matthew 14:13–14:21 can be detached from its complete unit and first-century setting.
Jesus withdraws, receives a pursuing crowd with compassion and healing, refuses to dismiss them hungry, blesses five loaves and two fish, and feeds thousands with leftovers. Matthew presents this event as testimony about Jesus' authority and compassion. The narrated miracle is not a technique, a cure guarantee, a diagnosis of disability or illness, or permission to replace medical care and careful evidence.
Keep observation, speaker, narrator, literary image, historical reconstruction, theological synthesis, and modern application in their proper order.
Jesus withdraws, receives a pursuing crowd with compassion and healing, refuses to dismiss them hungry, blesses five loaves and two fish, and feeds thousands with leftovers.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and thought-unit coverage.
Matthew 14:13–14:21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Greek wording and punctuation control without treating one edition as a complete apparatus.
SBLGNT official text file data/sblgnt/text/Matt.txt, Matthew 14:13–14:21
Supports: Morphology and lexical cross-check for the expressions actually discussed in this thought unit.
STEP Bible Data TAGNT rows for Matthew 14:13–14:21
Supports: Verse-attached textual, translation, language, historical, Jewish-background, and Synoptic notes for this unit.
NET Bible Matthew PDF, printed pp. 1808-1867, exact tn/tc/sn entries attached to 14:13–14:21
Supports: Critical literary orientation with source, setting, historical, and theological judgments retained as interpretations.
Yale Bible Study, course unit 'Feeding the Hungry,' Matthew 14-16 study guide
Supports: Whole-book orientation and unit placement, including visible uncertainty about authorship, date, setting, and purpose.
Enter the Bible Matthew course, 'Summary,' 'Outline,' 'Background,' 'Introductory Issues,' 'Theological Themes,' and passage index entry for Matthew 14:13–14:21
Supports: One complete confessional reading checked against the text, critical scholarship, and Jewish-context controls.
O'Donnell, online Matthew commentary, heading and paragraphs explicitly covering Matthew 14:13–14:21
Supports: Jewish setting, Scripture, Torah debate, named groups, practices, and anti-Judaism control at the passage address.
Gale, Matthew introduction and verse-addressed annotations, first-edition print pp. 1-54, exact annotation at Matthew 14:13–14:21
Supports: Literary-dependence analysis with Markan priority, Two-Source/Q, Farrer, and Matthean-priority alternatives kept distinct.
Goodacre, The Synoptic Problem, chapters 1-5, with the Synoptic parallels and order bearing on Matthew 14:13–14:21
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Matthew 14:13–14:21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording and punctuation control without treating one edition as a complete apparatus.
Exact location: SBLGNT official text file data/sblgnt/text/Matt.txt, Matthew 14:13–14:21
Open the Matthew Greek text file ↗Lexical and grammatical evidence
STEP Bible Data
Tyndale House Cambridge
Tyndale House Cambridge, repository snapshot verified 2026
Supports: Morphology and lexical cross-check for the expressions actually discussed in this thought unit.
Exact location: STEP Bible Data TAGNT rows for Matthew 14:13–14:21
Open source ↗open translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Matthew with Translators' and Textual Notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2005-2026 online edition
Supports: Verse-attached textual, translation, language, historical, Jewish-background, and Synoptic notes for this unit.
Exact location: NET Bible Matthew PDF, printed pp. 1808-1867, exact tn/tc/sn entries attached to 14:13–14:21
Open source ↗open university bible study course
The Gospel of Matthew Course and Study Guides
Harold W. Attridge and Michal Beth Dinkler
Yale Bible Study, Yale Divinity School, current 2026 online edition
Supports: Critical literary orientation with source, setting, historical, and theological judgments retained as interpretations.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, course unit 'Feeding the Hungry,' Matthew 14-16 study guide
Open source ↗open seminary bible study course
Matthew Course
James L. Boyce; revised by Kristofer Phan Coffman
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, 2023 revision
Supports: Whole-book orientation and unit placement, including visible uncertainty about authorship, date, setting, and purpose.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Matthew course, 'Summary,' 'Outline,' 'Background,' 'Introductory Issues,' 'Theological Themes,' and passage index entry for Matthew 14:13–14:21
Open source ↗open confessional commentary
Matthew
Douglas Sean O'Donnell
The Gospel Coalition Bible Commentary, current 2026 online edition
Supports: One complete confessional reading checked against the text, critical scholarship, and Jewish-context controls.
Exact location: O'Donnell, online Matthew commentary, heading and paragraphs explicitly covering Matthew 14:13–14:21
Open source ↗scholarly annotated translation
Matthew, in The Jewish Annotated New Testament
Aaron M. Gale; edited by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler
Aaron M. Gale, Matthew introduction and annotations, print pp. 1-54; related essays and sidebars in The Jewish Annotated New Testament, first edition.
Supports: Jewish setting, Scripture, Torah debate, named groups, practices, and anti-Judaism control at the passage address.
Exact location: Gale, Matthew introduction and verse-addressed annotations, first-edition print pp. 1-54, exact annotation at Matthew 14:13–14:21
Open source ↗open access scholarly monograph
The Synoptic Problem: A Way Through the Maze
Mark Goodacre
T&T Clark; author-authorized open release, 2001; open release 2011
Supports: Literary-dependence analysis with Markan priority, Two-Source/Q, Farrer, and Matthean-priority alternatives kept distinct.
Exact location: Goodacre, The Synoptic Problem, chapters 1-5, with the Synoptic parallels and order bearing on Matthew 14:13–14:21
Open source ↗