What Does Matthew 14:20 Mean in the King James?
And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The crowd’s fullness is only part of the provision: what exceeds it remains, and the excess is gathered.
THE MEANING
Your need is not the only measure in view: everyone eats until satisfied, and what exceeds that fullness is gathered into baskets. Provision in this scene reaches beyond immediate consumption into what can be carried forward.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that provision ends at bare sufficiency is undone here: after everyone is filled, a surplus remains.
THE ROOT
περισσεῦον
perisseuon
GROWS FROM
περισσεύω
perisseuō
To exceed the measure; to abound or be in surplus.
“remained” in this verse is perisseuon. The Greek word names what is left as what exceeds the measure, not merely as an afterthought. Its root also gives words for abundance, so the verse holds satisfaction and surplus together.
ALSO GROWS
perissos: More than enough; abundant.
περισσός
This related form makes clear that the remaining food belongs to the language of abundance.
perisseia: Abundance; surplus.
περισσεία
This noun carries the same sense of what exceeds, illuminating why the remainder is gathered.
κλασμάτων
klasmatōn
GROWS FROM
κλάω
klaō
To break; in this context, to break bread into pieces.
English presents the fragments as separate leftovers, while the Greek keeps the pieces connected to the breaking that made them. The food is broken to be shared, and those same pieces remain available to gather.
ALSO GROWS
klasis: Breaking; the breaking of bread.
κλάσις
The same root names the breaking through which bread is shared, linking the fragments to the act of provision.
klaō: To break.
κλάω
In Matthew 14:19, this verb describes Jesus breaking the loaves before they are distributed; here its root remains audible in the fragments gathered afterward.
THE PATTERN
Provision reaches satisfaction and can exceed the need it meets.
And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the LORD, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,THE THREAD
When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.John uses the same Greek roots: κλάσματα (klasmata, broken pieces) and περισσεύσαντα (perisseusanta, what exceeds or remains). Gathering the surplus shows that fullness does not make the remainder meaningless; even what exceeds the need is preserved.
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