f. 36b Ephraim, Dia (Mis.) p. 134 62 MATTHEW XIV, 19—XV. 5 This, that /e looked up to Heaven, and blessed, and brake, etc., because in the wilderness when God gave manna, they were insolent, and blasphemed, etc, He shewed in His looks that He gave to the Father, what happened, and that He was not in opposition to God, according to their calumnies. That they took up of the fragments that remained, twelve baskets. This was furnished by Providence, first, so that the Disciples might carry these things, that they might the better perceive the miracle that was wrought ; second, that it might not be supposed that He employed a hallucination of wizards, but when the remnants were kept for a day or two, it might be believed that He really wrought [it]; third, that the abundance of His gift might be known, and that they might confess His greatness which was not like others, who had received power to work for the benefit of their fellow- creatures; such as Moses, and Elia with that widow; and fourth, in order that others also who were far off might eat, and the miracle might appear. It is handed down by the doctors of the schools, that it was not equal and perfect bread that was added, but crumbs that were multiplied, for accord- ing as our Lord brake and gave to His disciples, it was added, and much in every place, before our Lord, and also in the hands of the Disciples, and before those who ate. Others [say] that those fragments that they took up from our Lord, became equal bread before the multitudes, but this is not likely ; because if they were fragments, they were changed to equal bread. Perhaps it was supposed, that it was not what our Lord brake and gave, but that it was brought from some other quarter. As to the expression “the fourth watch,’ the Scriptures say that there were four watches of the night; each one of them being divided into three hours, This, that zvhoscever shall say to his father or to his mother, It is my Jnophus, gift, whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me. According to the history Antig. XI v1 AMace.1.14 Acts 24.1 of Josephus, after the Return, Greek kings made war upon the Jews, and molested them in many ways, so as even to build a theatre in Jerusalem, which was called a Gymnasium, either being pleased with them or afraid of them; and because of their intercourse with them, that many even accepted the culture of the Greeks, like Tech and others, and they did not confess the resurrection of the body, but only of souls, like the belief of the followers of Plato, that they said the body is like the membrane to the foetus, and the shell to the chicken, etc., and that it exists not for its own being, but for the sake of others, and that it is therefore superfluous; hence they not only despised the body as super- fluous, but also its progenitor, for they honour only those who instruct souls in the education of religion, In this mind they abolished the first