Mana From Heaven -- Jesus Feeding The Five Thousand Series

I recall a day at Trinity College Theological School when, during a Homiletics Class, a mature-aged feminist student preparing for ministry challenged me. She demanded that I account for the disciples counting only the men to the exclusion of women and children in the story of Jesus feeding the Five Thousand.

The question was cleverly crafted because most of the class were students from a graduate intensive course I had taught on postmodern thought between the semesters, with special reference to celebrated feminist thinkers such as Julia Kristeva and the like. So, they were all warm towards the challenge this student raised, and I saw their eyes lighting up, wondering how their professor might tackle this challenge.

I had to think on my feet fast and decided to give a practical answer with some humour in it. I said, “To the contrary, I think the disciples perhaps took count of the women and children first and then took count of the men to double up the figure because men often eat twice as women and children do.”

The whole class burst into laughter, and the penny dropped for everyone that the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand was reported not to be a text for feminist critique. The report also did not intend to exclude the women and children being counted for the feed.

Matthew clearly states that the five thousand were the number of men who were present (Mt.14:21). Even if we are to take the most conservative count, the crowd may have been something like six thousand two hundred people in total.

If my humorous answer were to be challenged on any mathematical formula, I had an answer as a backup, which I must share with you before we hear what God has to teach us through this story today.

That backup answer was this.

I am sure you know that the gospels also tell another story about Jesus feeding 4000 people (Matthew 15:32-39 and Mark 8:1-10). You will be interested to know that most New Testament scholars believe that this was the original story.

This makes a lot of sense because the countryside where Jesus performed this miracle was not a bustling metropolis. The event's location was Bethsaida, a remote fishing village near the Sea of Galilee. Today, archeologists say that around 2000 people may have lived there at the time of Jesus. So, even for 4000 people to be present means people from the nearby villages of Magdala (also called Migdal) and Gennesaret had to come to listen to Jesus.

(An important footnote: It is unlikely people from Chorazin had come that day. Jesus had denounced Chorazin (along with Bethsaida and Capernaum) because it was village where Jesus preached and performed miracles, but he did not receive a positive response from its people (Matthew 11:20-24 & Luke 10:13). Although the gospels have no mentioning of Jesus visiting Magdala, it is possible that he ministered there, especially because we know that Mary Magdalene was from that village (Luke 8:1-3).

If there were any people outside Bethsaida at the feeding, it has to be from Gennesaret where people positively responded to Jesus’ ministry there (Mark 6:53-56). However, the distance between Bethsaida and Gennesaret is about 11 kilometers (about 7 miles). It is unlikely that families from the villages of Magdala and Gennesaret had come on foot that day to see Jesus and stayed on until late.

New Testament scholars say that the account of the story got somewhat exaggerated and, over time, emerged as two stories -- one story of Jesus feeding 4000 and then a second story of him feeding 5000 at a another event. Perhaps this is because there was a gap of about 50 years between the event taking place and the gospel writers reporting it, and like cherished stories in our families about our great-grandparents or the cities in which we live, the story got a bit exaggerated with the addition of another 1000 people.

During biblical times, as a rule, when they came across two or more accounts of one event with discrepancies, they were not investigated or dismissed but accepted as two sacred traditions of the same event.

For example, you know that there are duplicate stories of God creating the world Genesis 1 and 2), the Flood (Genesis 6-9), the story of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt appears in many places in the books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the giving of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:4-21) the resurrection of Jesus is reported with many variations by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Enough of biblical exegesis. Let’s get back to finding out what God wants us to hear today through His Word.

Today, let us accept the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand because there is a deeper theological value to the number 5000 people than a numerical value.