panions
reached the place, and of the return therefrom, are conformable to the
assumption that Bethsaida Julias in Perea and not Bethsaida in Galilee,
was the town to which the "desert place" referred to was an outlying
district.

5. The Earlier and the Later Evening.--Matthew specifies two evenings of
the day on which the five thousand were fed; thus "when it was evening"
the disciples asked Jesus to send away the multitude; and later, after
the miraculous feeding and after the disciples had left by boat, and
after the crowds had departed, "when the evening was come" Jesus was
alone on the mountain (Matt. 14:15, 23; compare Mark 6:35, 47). Trench
_Notes on the Miracles_, (p. 217) says: "St. Matthew and St. Mark with
him, makes two evenings to this day--one which had already commenced
before the preparations for the feeding of the multitude had begun
(verse 15), the other now, when the disciples had entered into the ship
and set forth on their voyage (verse 23). And this was an ordinary way
of speaking among the Jews, the first evening being very much our
afternoon ... the second evening being the twilight, or from six o'clock
to twilight, on which absolute darkness followed." See Smith's _Dict._,
article "Chronology," from which the following excerpt is taken:
"'Between the two evenings' (margin of Exo. 12:6; Numb. 9:3; 28:4) is a
natural division between the late afternoon when the sun is low, and the
evening when his light has not wholly disappeared, the two evenings into
which the natural evening would be cut by the commencement of the civil
day if it began at sunset."

6. Watches of the Night.--During the greater part of Old Testament time,
the people of Israel divided the night into three watches, each of four
hours, such a period being that of individual sentinel duty. Before the
beginning of the Christian era, however, the Jews had adopted the Roman
order of four night-watches, each lasting three hours. These were
designated numerically, e.g. the fourth watch mentioned in the text (see
Matt. 14:25), or as even, midnight, cock-crowing, and morning (see Mark
13:35). The fourth watch was the last of the three-hour periods between
sunset and sunrise, or between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. and therefore extended
from 3 to 6 o'clock in the morning.

7. The Hem of the Garment.--The faith of those who believed that if they
could but touch the border of the Lord's garment they would be healed,
is in line with that of the woman