Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, 'He gave them bread out of heaven{Greek and Hebrew use the same word for "heaven", "the heavens", "the sky", and "the air".} to eat.'"

 For one thing, they were eager to support Jesus when he gave them what they wanted. He had healed them and fed them; and they would thereupon have made him their leader. There is such a thing as a bought loyalty. There is such a thing as cupboard love. Dr. Johnson, in one of his more cynical moments, defined gratitude as "a lively sense of favours still to come." 