Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Had nothing to eat (mh exontwn ti fagwsin). Genitive absolute and plural because oxlou a collective substantive. Not having what to eat (deliberative subjunctive retained in indirect question). The repetition of a nature miracle of feeding four thousand in Decapolis disturbs some modern critics who cannot imagine how Jesus could or would perform another miracle elsewhere so similar to the feeding of the five thousand up near Bethsaida Julias. But both Mark and Matthew give both miracles, distinguish the words for baskets (kofinos, sfuriv), and both make Jesus later refer to both incidents and use these two words with the same distinction (Mark 8:19 f.; Matthew 16:9 f.). Surely it is easier to conceive that Jesus wrought two such miracles than to hold that Mark and Matthew have made such a jumble of the whole business.
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