A BASKET — specifically the small, sturdy wicker HAND-BASKET a traveler carried, well enough known as Jewish gear that Roman satirists mocked Jews in the city for carrying one everywhere (a kophinos and a bundle of hay, so as to keep kosher provisions and a portable bed together without depending on Gentile food or lodging). ⚠ Matthew counts twelve of them left over from the five loaves and two fish (14:20) — one for each of the Twelve, feeding a crowd in a Jewish region. When a second feeding happens in Gentile territory (15:32-38, not yet on these pages), Matthew switches to a different word, spyris, a larger provisions hamper with no particular ethnic association (the same word used of the basket Paul is lowered from a wall in, Acts 9:25) — and counts seven, not twelve. The vocabulary itself seems to be tracking who is being fed. → first discussed at Matt 14:20