Cyril of Alexandria

When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?”

“A lesson most excellent did Christ again devise for His disciples, and fittest for the most holy men, both persuading them in utter straits to overcome cowardice in respect of hospitality, and to cast far away hesitation hereto, rather with more zealous motions to attain…”

But He was asking this to test him, for He knew what He was about to do.

“Therefore one may well say to the words of Philip and Andrew also, Will the Lord's Hand suffice not?”

Philip answered, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to have a small piece.”

“Feebly again does Philip advance, not to the power of Jesus to do all things, and that easily, but on hearing Whence shall we buy said to prove him, forthwith he catches at it, and looks at the means by money alone, not conceiving that…”

“Have the people sit down,” Jesus said. Now there was plenty of grass in that place, so the men sat down, about five thousand of them.

“The Saviour practised His accustomed gentleness, and takes away the sharpness of His reproaches. For He doth not rebuke bitterly His disciples, albeit they were deeply slumbering in respect of their faintheartedness and littleness of faith in Him: but rather He leads them by His…”

And when everyone was full, He said to His disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over, so that nothing will be wasted.”

“To some one Christ may seem out of sparing of the fragments to have bidden His disciples to gather them together. Yet (I think) every one will fitly imagine, that Christ would not endure to descend to such littleness: and why say I Christ?”

So they collected them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

“But greater yet and more noteworthy, and of exceeding profit to us, is this: consider how by this miracle He makes us most zealous in our desire to exercise hospitality most gladly, wellnigh calling aloud to us by the things that were done, that the…”

When evening came, His disciples went down to the sea,

“The first sign having been miraculously accomplished, His flight and withdrawal are economically found to be the root again and occasion of another, and the Wonderworker proceeds, as it is written, from might to might.”

got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was already dark, and Jesus had not yet gone out to them.

“Many things at once are being profitably contrived, and the circumstances drive the disciples to a more zealous search after the Saviour.”

When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the sea—and they were terrified.

“When they are separated by great interval from the land, and it was like that they in their trouble would no way be saved (for they were now in the midst of the sea) then Christ thrice longed for appears to them.”

Then they were willing to take Him into the boat, and at once the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

“The Lord not only releases the voyagers from dangers, wondrously shining on them, but also frees them both from toil and sweat, by His God-befitting Power thrusting forward the ship on to the opposite shore.”

The next day, the crowd that had remained on the other side of the sea realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not boarded it…

“The miracle does not escape notice, I mean Jesus walking on. the very sea, although it took place by night and in the dark, and was ordered in secret.”

So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor His disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum to look for Him.

“These men follow Him, marvelling perchance at His miracles, yet not receiving any profit from them unto the duty of faith, but as though they were making some return to the Wonder-worker by merely bestowing on Him a not undesired praise.”

When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they asked Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?”

“Their speech takes the form of being that of those who love Him and feigns sweetness, but is convicted of being exceeding senseless and childish.”

Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, it is not because you saw these signs that you are looking for Me, but because you ate the loaves and had your…

“We will say something common, yet worn by little use. Great teachers are often wont to be not slightly angry, when they are questioned about vain and useless matters.”

Then they inquired, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”

“Not of good purpose is the enquiry, nor yet as one might suppose does the question proceed from desire of knowledge on their part, but is rather the result of exceeding arrogance.”

So they asked Him, “What sign then will You perform, so that we may see it and believe You? What will You do?

“The disposition of the Jews unveils itself by little and little, although, hidden and as yet buried in less overt reasonings. For they were saying in their folly, What shall we do that we might work the works of God?”

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true…

“Now too does the Saviour most severely convict them of being without understanding, and exceedingly ignorant of what is in the Mosaic writings.”

For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

“It was needful not only to remove Moses from God-befitting Authority, according to their conception, and to show that he was a minister of that miraculous working, rather than the bestower of it, but also to lessen the wonder though miraculously wrought, and to show…”

“Sir,” they said, “give us this bread at all times.”

“Hereby is clearly divulged, though much desiring to be hid, the aim of the Jews, and that one might see that it is not lawful for the Truth to lie, which said that not because they saw the miracles, were they therefore eager to follow…”

But as I stated, you have seen Me and still you do not believe.

“By many words doth He struggle with them, and in every way urge them to salvation by faith. But He was not ignorant, as God, that they would run off to unbelief, as their sister or intimate foster sister, and would regard as nought, Him…”

Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never drive away.

“All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me, It did not behove the Lord simply to say, Ye have both seen Me and believe not, but it was necessary that He should bring in besides the reason of their blindness, that they might…”

For it is My Father’s will that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last…

“Having now defined the good Will of the Father, He makes it clear, and sets it forth more at large for the consideration of the hearers, through repeating it yet again.”

At this, the Jews began to grumble about Jesus because He had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”

“Again are they angry who of those things which are spoken by Christ understand no whit: and herein may be especially seen the uninstructed mind.”

“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus replied.

“The Jews look down upon Jesus, ignorant that His Father is in heaven, and in nowise acknowledging that He is by Nature Son of the Lord of all, but looking only to His earthly mother and Joseph.”

not that anyone has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only He has seen the Father.

“Having foreseen as God, that they would no wise receive the revelation through the Spirit, nor would take in the Wisdom from above in its illuminations, but would reject out of much ill-advisedness the very duty of seeing the Father and (so to say) of…”