“When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve.”
When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? Twelve, they replied — the memory test: Jesus walks the disciples back through the first feeding, asking the specific numbers. Twelve basketfuls for five thousand people — the disciples remember the number correctly. The memory of the data point without the comprehension of what it means is precisely the disciples' condition: they have the information but not the understanding.
Church Fathers on Mark 8:19
After that our Lord had worked the miracle of the loaves, He immediately retires into another spot, lest on account of the miracle, the multitudes should take Him to make Him a king.
Now in Matthew we read that He entered into the parts of Magdala [ed. note: Magedam]. But we cannot doubt that it is the same place under another name; for several manuscripts even of St. Mark have only Magdala.
The Pharisees, then, seek a sign from heaven, that He, Who had for the second time fed many thousands of men with a few loaves of bread, should now, after the example of Moses, refresh the whole nation in the last time with manna sent down from heaven, and dispersed amongst them all.
Read all 15 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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