And a certain man came from Baalsalisa bringing to the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty leaves of barley, and new corn in his scrip. And he said: Give to the people, that they may eat.43 And his servant answered him: How much is this, that I should set it before a hundred men? He said again: Give to the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord: They shall eat, and there shall be left.44 So he set it before them: and they ate, and there was left according to the word of the Lord.
From Ba’al-Shalishah. The name of a province. But [Targum] Yonoson rendered, “from the land toward the south.” “בַּעַל” is an expression meaning “a plain.” There are many [such expressions] in Scripture.
Bread from the first crop. It was during Pesach, when the grain ripens.
In their shells. In its wrapper.
To the people. To the disciples [of the prophets] whom he sustained.
Let all thy works, O lord, praise thee: and let thy saints bless thee.11 They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom: and shall tell of thy power:15 The eyes of all hope in thee, O Lord: and thou givest them meat in due season.16 Thou openest thy hand, and fillest with blessing every living creature.17 The Lord is just in all his ways: and holy in all his works.18 The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him: to all that call upon him in truth.
A person, then, who remains the same and yet babbles to himself about the change for the better he has undergone in baptism should attend to what Paul says: "If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself." For you are not what you have not become; whereas the gospel says of the regenerate that "he gave all those who received him the power to become God's children." Now the child born of someone certainly shares his parent's nature. If, then, you have received God and become his child, let your way of life testify to the God within you; make it clear who your Father is! The marks by which we recognize God are the very ones by which a son of his must show his relation to him: "he opens his hand and fills everything living with joy"; "he overlooks iniquity"; "he relents of his evil purpose";29 "the Lord is kind to all and is not angry with us every day"; "God is straightforward, and there is no unrighteousness in him"31—and the similar sayings scattered through Scripture for our instruction. If you are like this, you have genuinely become a child of God. But if you persist in displaying the marks of evil, it is useless to babble to yourself about the birth from above. Prophecy will tell you, "You are a son of humankind, not a son of the most High. You love vanity and seek lies. You fail to realize that the only way one is magnified is by becoming holy."
I therefore, a prisoner in the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called,2 With all humility and mildness, with patience, supporting one another in charity.3 Careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.4 One body and one Spirit; as you are called in one hope of your calling.5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism.6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all.
Such examples, therefore, brethren, it is right that we should follow; since it is written, "Cleave to the holy, for those that cleave to them shall [themselves] be made holy." And again, in another place, [the Scripture] saith, "With a harmless man thou shalt prove thyself harmless, and with an elect man thou shalt be elect, and with a perverse man thou shalt show thyself perverse." Let us cleave, therefore, to the innocent and righteous, since these are the elect of God. Why are there strifes, and tumults, and divisions, and schisms, and wars among you? Have we not [all] one God and one Christ? Is there not one Spirit of grace poured out upon us? And have we not one calling in Christ? [Ephesians 4:4-6] Why do we divide and tear to pieces the members of Christ, and raise up strife against our own body, and have reached such a height of madness as to forget that "we are members one of another?" [Romans 12:5] Remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, how He said, "Woe to that man [by whom offences come]! It were better for him that he had never been born, than that he should cast a stumbling-block before one of my elect. Yea, it were better for him that a millstone should be hung about [his neck], and he should be sunk in the depths of the sea, than that he should cast a stumbling-block before one of my little ones." Your schism has subverted [the faith of] many, has discouraged many, has given rise to doubt in many, and has caused grief to us all. And still your sedition continueth.
After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is that of Tiberias.2 And a great multitude followed him, because they saw the miracles which he did on them that were diseased.3 Jesus therefore went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples.4 Now the pasch, the festival day of the Jews, was near at hand.5 When Jesus therefore had lifted up his eyes, and seen that a very great multitude cometh to him, he said to Philip: Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?6 And this he said to try him; for he himself knew what he would do.7 Philip answered him: Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one may take a little.8 One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, saith to him:9 There is a boy here that hath five barley loaves, and two fishes; but what are these among so many?10 Then Jesus said: Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. The men therefore sat down, in number about five thousand.11 And Jesus took the loaves: and when he had given thanks, he distributed to them that were set down. In like manner also of the fishes, as much as they would.12 And when they were filled, he said to his disciples: Gather up the fragments that remain, lest they be lost.13 They gathered up therefore, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above to them that had eaten.†14 Now those men, when they had seen what a miracle Jesus had done, said: This is of a truth the prophet, that is to come into the world.15 Jesus therefore, when he knew that they would come to take him by force, and make him king, fled again into the mountain himself alone.
(iii. de Trin. c. 18) Five loaves are then set before the multitude, and broken. The broken portions pass through into the hands of those who break, that from which they are broken all the time not at all diminishing. And yet there they are, the bits taken from it, in the hands of the persons breakingd. There is no catching by eye or touch the miraculous operation: that is, which was not, that is seen, which is not understood. It only remains for us to believe that God can do all things.
About CSB. A personal translation of the New Testament, rendered directly from the public-domain Greek in a literary style — not a scholarly critical edition, and not for liturgical or doctrinal authority. It is one reader's work, offered for enjoyment; where it matters, weigh it against an established translation. (Placeholder text — final wording to come.)