ACC ~ John 6 v10

THE SEASON

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: “Now there was a great deal of grass in the place,” and therefore the place where they sat down was pleasing, and the weather was good. It was Nisan (more or less April), when the earth usually becomes adorned with growing weeds, especially in those regions with hotter weather. He also had indicated this above by saying, “Now the Passover was near.” COMMENTARY ON JOHN 3.6.10. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:132. Theodore also posits that the disciples were afraid of malcontents among the crowd.

FIVE THOUSAND FED IN JOHN AND ACTS

HILARY OF POITIERS: And so, taking the loaves and fishes, the Lord looked up to heaven, then blessed and broke them, giving thanks to the Father that, after the law and the prophets, he has himself become the evangelical bread. And when he had commanded the people to sit down on the grass, not to lie prone on the earth, but to sit upheld by the law, each one spread his own good works, like the grass of the earth, under him. The bread is also given to the apostles, because it is through them the gifts of the divine grace are to be given. Then the people ate of the five loaves and two fishes and were filled. And of the fragments of the bread and of the fishes, after all who had sat down were satisfied, there remained over enough to fill twelve baskets: that is, the hunger of the multitude is satisfied by the word of God coming to them from the teaching of the law and the prophets. And the abundance of the divine goodness, kept in reserve for the people of the Gentiles, has overflowed from the source of eternal food unto the filling of the twelve apostles.

And the number of those who ate is, we find, the same as that of those who were to believe. For, as we learn from the book of the Acts, out of the numbers of the people of Israel five thousand believed. [1] For, the miracle of these things extends even to the measure of the reason that underlies them. The bread together with the fishes broken for the feeding of the people increased to the need of the number of people who believed, and to the number of apostles chosen to be filled with heavenly graces. The quantity conformed to the number, and the number to the quantity. ON MATTHEW 14.11. [2]

[1] Acts 4:4.

[2] SSGF 2:120*; PL 9:1000-1001.