Matthew 14:21

21 Those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Matthew 14:21 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 14:21

And they that had eaten were about five thousand men,
&c.] The word "about", is omitted in the Vulgate Latin, in Munster's Hebrew Gospel, and in the Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions, which expressly say there were so many. A large number indeed, to be fed with five loaves and two fishes!

besides women and children;
who were not taken into the account, though they all ate, and were filled, it not being usual with the Jews to number their women; and who might be near as large a number as the men: for generally there is a very great concourse of the female sex, and of children, where anything extraordinary, or out of the way, is to be seen or heard; and of this sort was a large number of Christ's audience, who only came out of curiosity, or for one sinister end or another.

Matthew 14:21 In-Context

19 He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass; and he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes.

20 They all ate, and were filled. They took up twelve baskets full of that which remained left over from the broken pieces.

21 Those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat, and to go ahead of him to the other side, while he sent the multitudes away.

23 After he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into the mountain apart to pray. When evening had come, he was there alone.