# Matthew 14.14 **Book:** [Matthew](/codex/matthew-the-apostle/) · NASB95 ## Verse > When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick. (Matthew 14:14, NASB95) ## Immediate context (±2 verses) **NASB95** ([NASB95](/codex/nasb95/)) > 12. His disciples came and took away the body and buried it; and they went and reported to Jesus. 13. Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself; and when the people heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities. > > **14. When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.** > > 15. When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, 'This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.' 16. But Jesus said to them, 'They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!' (Matthew 14:12-16, NASB95) ## Setting - **Speaker:** Matthew the Evangelist (narrator); Jesus is the actor. - **Audience:** the original narrative crowd is multitudes from "the cities" who have followed Jesus; Matthew's literary audience is primarily the Jewish-Christian readership (the traditional view of Matthew's audience). - **Location:** the wilderness / desolate area on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, near Bethsaida (Luke 9:10 specifies). The narrative setting is the lead-up to the **feeding of the 5,000** (Matthew 14:15-21), the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels. - **Time period:** c. AD 29-30, middle of Jesus's Galilean ministry. Matthew writes c. AD 60-80 (early dating preferred by most conservative scholars). ## Theological reading The verse compresses **the divine compassion of Jesus** into a single narrative beat. Three claims: 1. **Jesus's emotional life, *splanchnizomai*.** *Esplanchnisthē ep' autois*, "He felt compassion (*splanchnizomai*) for them." The verb *splanchnizomai* is *the* signature compassion-verb of Jesus in the Gospels. It derives from *splanchna*, the inward parts (heart, liver, intestines), the Hebrew / Greek seat of deep emotion. The verb describes the most visceral form of pity / compassion, not a polite sympathy but a gut-deep emotional response. 2. **Compassion as the motive for ministry.** Jesus's miraculous healings are *grounded in compassion*, not display-of-power. The literary structure: He saw → compassion → healed. The compassion is not optional ornament; it is the *moving cause* of the miracles. 3. **Healing of the *sick*.** *Etherapeusen tous arrōstous autōn*, "He healed their sick." The healings are not selective showpieces; the implication is comprehensive, He attended to the sick among the crowd. The *therapeuō* (healed) verb is the standard Gospel-healing term, used 43 times across the NT. ## *Splanchnizomai*, the Christ-compassion word The Greek verb *splanchnizomai* (G4697) appears 12 times in the NT, and **all 12 uses are of Jesus or in parables describing Jesus / God-figures**. The verb's NT distribution: - **Of Jesus directly:** Matthew 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 18:27 (in parable but Jesus is the figure); 20:34; Mark 1:41; 6:34; 8:2; 9:22 (the father's appeal); Luke 7:13. - **In parables of God-figures:** Luke 10:33 (the Good Samaritan); 15:20 (the prodigal-son's father). The pattern: *splanchnizomai* is **the gospel writers' chosen word for Christ's distinctive compassion**. It is used of *no other NT figure*. The grammar of the verb (passive / deponent) gives it middle-voice force: Jesus is *moved* with compassion, *seized* by it. The compassion *acts on Him*; He responds to it. ## Compassion as Christological / divine attribute The verse contributes to the **Christology of divine compassion**. Three connections: 1. **YHWH's *racham* / *chesed* (mercy / lovingkindness)**, see [H2617 - hesed](/codex/h2617-hesed/). The OT presents YHWH as *abounding in lovingkindness* (Exodus 34:6). Christ's *splanchna*-compassion is the embodied / incarnated continuation of YHWH's covenantal-compassionate character. 2. **The "compassion of God" tradition.** Psalm 103:13, "as a father has compassion (*racham*) on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him." Isaiah 49:15, God's compassion exceeds even a mother's compassion for her nursing infant. Christ's *splanchnizomai* in the Gospels is the *visible, embodied form* of this divine compassion. 3. **Christ as the human face of God's mercy.** John 14:9, "he who has seen Me has seen the Father." The Father's compassion-character is visible in the Son's *splanchnizomai*. The cross itself is the supreme expression of divine *splanchnizomai*: God so loved the world that He gave His Son ([John 3.16](/codex/john-3-16/)). ## The narrative-theological structure The verse opens the feeding-of-the-5,000 narrative (Matthew 14:13-21 / Mark 6:30-44 / Luke 9:10-17 / John 6:1-15). The structure: 1. **v. 13**, Jesus withdraws after hearing of John the Baptist's death (a personal grief / withdrawal context) 2. **v. 14a**, He goes ashore and sees the crowds 3. **v. 14b**, He is moved with compassion and heals the sick 4. **vv. 15-21**, He multiplies the loaves and fish to feed 5,000 men + women / children The placement of compassion-language *before* the miraculous-feeding signals that compassion is the *driving motive*. The miracle is not a sign-of-power isolated from human need; it is the *outworking of compassion in response to need*. The narrative also has anti-Herod typology: - **Verses 1-12**, Herod's banquet, climaxing in John the Baptist's beheading (a banquet of vengeance and lust) - **Verses 13-21**, Jesus's banquet, climaxing in the feeding of 5,000 (a banquet of compassion and provision) The literary contrast: Herod / Jesus, vengeance / compassion, beheading / feeding, kingdom-of-this-world / kingdom-of-God. Matthew structures the narrative so the compassion of Christ stands out against Herod's cruelty. ## Apologetic / anti-mythicism significance The verse is in ris3n's "Debunking Christian Plagiarism" cluster (Hercules, Horus, Serapis Christus). The defense: 1. **The character of Jesus's miracles is distinctive.** Pagan miracle-stories typically depict gods (Zeus, Hercules, Asclepius) acting from various motives, display, anger, lust, capricious favor. Jesus's miracles are uniformly grounded in **compassion** and **kingdom-arrival** themes. The verb *splanchnizomai*, used of no other figure, captures the distinctive moral-emotional quality of His miraculous activity. 2. **The historical character of the Jesus narrative.** The mundane-narrative details, withdrawing after John's death, going ashore, the crowd's persistent following, the disciples' practical-logistical concern, are not mythical-pattern but historical-circumstantial. The feeding-of-the-5,000 is the *only miracle* recorded in all four Gospels (Mt 14, Mk 6, Lk 9, Jn 6), quadruple-attestation in the historical-Jesus criteria, the strongest possible NT-internal evidence. 3. **Anti-docetism / divine-emotion validation.** Luke 24:39 (see [Luke 24.39](/codex/luke-24-39/)) defends Jesus's full physical-bodily reality; Matthew 14:14 defends His full emotional-affective reality. Christ is not a passionless / Stoic / docetic figure; He has real compassion, real grief, real joy, real anger. This refutes both ancient docetism (Christ only *seemed* human) and Stoic-influenced classical theism's discomfort with divine emotion (Christ as the visible expression of the Father, who Himself "is not without passions", contra the strict Hellenistic *apatheia* tradition). ## Patristic / scholarly note Patristic engagement with *splanchnizomai* primarily through the homiletic tradition. Chrysostom (*Homilies on Matthew* 49) develops the compassion-grounded-miracle theme. Origen (*Commentary on Matthew*) reads the feeding miracle eucharistically, with compassion as foundation. Augustine (*Tractates on John*; *Sermons on the Gospels*) treats Christ's compassion at length. Modern conservative: D. A. Carson (*Matthew* EBC, 1984/2010); R. T. France (*Matthew* NICNT, 2007); Craig Blomberg (*Matthew* NAC, 1992); Donald Hagner (*Matthew* WBC, 1993-95); Leon Morris (*The Gospel According to Matthew*, 1992), all develop the compassion-grounded-miracle theme. The "divine emotion" debate engages classical theism's *impassibility* doctrine vs the biblical narrative of Christ's emotional life. Modern conservative-evangelical engagement: Bruce Ware (*God's Lesser Glory*, 2000; *Their God Is Too Small*, 2003); Rob Lister (*God Is Impassible and Impassioned*, 2013), argues for a nuanced compatibilist view: God is impassible (not subject to creaturely-disordered passions) yet *impassioned* (genuinely moved with covenantal-perfection emotions, especially in the incarnate Christ). ## Apologetic significance The verse anchors: 1. **The character of Christ's miraculous ministry**, compassion-grounded, not power-display. 2. **The continuity of YHWH's compassion in Christ**, OT *chesed* / *racham* embodied in Jesus's *splanchnizomai*. 3. **The full emotional-affective humanity of Christ**, against docetism, against caricatured impassibility. 4. **The distinctive moral character of Jesus**, vs comparative-religion alternative figures. 5. **The quadruple-attestation feeding miracle**, strong historical-Jesus methodology evidence. ## Key words - G4697 - splanchnizomai, *splanchnizomai* (be moved with compassion), the Christ-compassion verb - G2323 - therapeuo, *therapeuō* (heal), the standard healing-term - G3793 - ochlos, *ochlos* (crowd / multitude), the recipients - G3173 - megas, *megas* (large / great), modifier of crowd ## Connection to other passages - Mark 6:34, parallel; the Markan form - John 6:1-15, Johannine parallel; quadruple-attestation - Luke 9:10-17, Lukan parallel - Matthew 9:36, parallel *splanchnizomai* of Jesus seeing the crowds "like sheep without a shepherd" - Matthew 15:32; 20:34, additional *splanchnizomai* moments - Mark 1:41, Jesus moved with compassion for the leper - Luke 7:13, Jesus moved with compassion for the widow of Nain - [H2617 - hesed](/codex/h2617-hesed/), OT-side mercy / lovingkindness vocabulary - Exodus 34:6-7, YHWH's character of compassion / mercy - [Luke 24.39](/codex/luke-24-39/), full bodily-humanity of Christ (parallel anti-docetism) ## Quoted in **Arguments and defeaters:** - [Liar Lunatic or Lord](/codex/liar-lunatic-or-lord/) --- _Scripture quotations taken from the **New American Standard Bible®** (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by **The Lockman Foundation**. Used by permission. All rights reserved. [www.lockman.org](https://www.lockman.org)_