Matthew14chapter 14

The marriage John denounced was a genuine scandal with political consequences. Antipas dismissed his first wife, a daughter of King Aretas of Nabatea, in order to marry Herodias, who was the wife of his own half-brother. Josephus reports that the insult led to war with Aretas, and that many Jews regarded Antipas's later military defeat as God's judgement for what he did to John.

The birthday banquet is a Greco-Roman scene, not a Jewish one. A ruler feasting his officers, entertainment during the drinking, and a grand public oath sworn before guests he could not lose face in front of — the trap Herod walks into is a trap made of honour.

The feeding takes place in open country in spring, which is why there is grass to sit on. Five loaves would have been small flat barley cakes, the cheap bread of the poor. Counting only the men, as Matthew does, follows the ordinary practice of the day and means the actual crowd was considerably larger.

The fourth watch is Roman timekeeping: the night was split into four watches, so this is roughly three to six in the morning. The disciples had been fighting a headwind for most of the night on a lake where the wind funnels down the valleys after dark.