MYTHOS
The story of Jesus feeding the four and the five thousand is generally treated as a two separate miracles in Mark 6:30-44 and Mark 8:1-9 and in Matthew 14:13-21 and Matthew 15:29-29. The Gospels of Luke and John only contain the story of the feeding of five thousand in Luke 9:10-17 and John 6:1-13. Miracles are, for the most part, highly personal experiences. I've experience the miraculous in my own life, but as Rabbi Jonathan Sachs has rightly pointed out they rarely convince anyone to become religious or prove the validity of the person who experienced such an event religious beliefs. I am not going to address the accounts of Jesus miraculous healing of individuals as recorded in the Synoptic Gospels because they are events that are subjectively experienced rather than objectively understood.
Unexplained (miraculous) healings are a likelihood, particularly in the ancient past. While one can speculate as to why they occurred; that they may have had a scientific or psychological reason for occurring, it would be presumptuous to say that they did not occur which begs the question why consider the "miracles" of Jesus feeding the four and five thousand as myths? Could not Jesus have performed such miracles? Perhaps.
Whereas healing miracles can be claimed today because there are healings that, for a lack of better word, "miraculously" happen for which there is no current known medical or scientific reason for their occurrence. On the other hand, there appears to be more magic than miracle in these mass "feeding" events of the Gospels if taken literally. What marks them as myths, in my opinion, is a specificity in their telling that points to their being metaphorical myths rather than actual events for which there are no like events by which to suggest possibility.
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New Testament myths often contain coded messages that point to their being more than stories intended to confirm Jesus as the Messiah by displaying supernatural acts like feeding four thousand men (not to mention women and children) with seven loaves of bread and a few fish or feeding five thousand men (not to mention women and children) five loaves of bread and two fish. One cannot help but notice the use of specific numbers regarding how many loaves, how many fish, or how many people, the time of day, the location and other features of these stories. Such specifics are not backed by verifiable fact and if they occurred some two thousand years ago, at best would have to be considered one-off events that have no explanation and no applicable meaning in the twenty-first century. The writers of these Gospels would have been aware of the mythic mystery they were presenting and as such used coded language to give it meaning.
For example, four thousand people, like forty years or forty days and forty nights, is basically saying there was a lot of people. The number 4, however, has numerological significance as well as representing wholeness as in the creation of the universe (i.e Sun, Moon, planets, and stars) the four corners of the earth and in this context might represent the whole world of "men." [I'd like to say humans or mankind but these stories are specifically patriarchal, reflecting who in the culture of the time was counted as important. For the moment I'm going to stick with the Gospel script.} Any number that is a multiple of 5 is connected to the notion of grace, particularly in the New Testament. As such both the feeding of the 4000 and the 5000 as multiples of 5 represents acts or symbols of God's grace.
Then there is the meal itself consisting of bread and fish. Why not merely say some loaves and some fish? Why seven loaves of bread in the case of feeding four thousand and five loaves and two fish in the case of feeding five thousand? Why the specificity? Obviously these numbers mean something. In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke Jesus has his disciples, in the story of feeding the five thousand, seat them in groups of 50 or 100, which lends to being able to count how many men were present, but why that number Why not smaller groups?
What makes this myth so "magical" is that after feeding the four thousand men from seven loaves of bread, the disciples pick up seven baskets full of left over bread, which means that more bread was generated as it was being handed out than the seven original loaves which was used to establish it as a miraculous event. The same is true in the case of feeding the five thousand men, the disciples pick up twelve baskets of bread. So let unravel the numbers for a moment.
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Seven is a holy number. It is the number of completion and wholeness as on the seventh day God rested after creating the cosmos and all living things. Five loaves reflects the grace of God, the two fish also represent faith in the feeding of the five thousand. In astrological circles the two fish represent Pisces, which in Christian astrological circles represent faith. As Christians are aware that an early symbol for Christ or being a Christian was to draw a fish, which in Greek is ICTHOS whose five Greek letters serve as an anagram meaning Jesus Christ God's Son Savior. The number 2 in Christian numerology also implies multiplicity and cooperation In this story, the disciples fill twelve baskets The obvious correlation of twelve baskets is to the twelve tribes of Israel being fed. The number 12 also is used to demonstrate the perfect power of God as 12 is a perfect number.
One can interpret the meaning of these numbers in several ways. If one knows the numerological value of the numbers then one can decipher the meaning behind the story. Numerology undergirds many stories in the New Testament. This particularly noticeable in the Johannine scriptures attributed to Jesus' disciple John. I have already addressed the mythic element of John's presentation of this story in a post on "The Bread of Life." The Gospel of John offers a unique mythic telling of this story that supports the Pagan Continuation Hypothesis talked about in the preceding posts on the Mythic Jesus. I encourage everyone to read my post on John's presentation of Jesus feeding the five thousand here.
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That all the Gospels were written decades after Jesus' death and were likely edited throughout the following three centuries after his death is something to give serious consideration to. It is quite possible that the feeding of the four and five thousand are two versions of the same story. That the Gospels of Luke and John only has the feeding of the five thousand indicates that both authors of these gospels didn't see a need to write about two similar events.
As noted in my last post, the wilderness is a place of testing and self-discovery. Like God, Jesus is leading these crowds into the wilderness to find themselves. There is also an eschatological theme present in these stories as what makes the disciples anxious about sending the people home is that it is late in the day and the people will get and looking for food. It is possible that their anxiety is due to the fact the hungry people can quickly become hangry people who will take what is not theirs. Here we see a metaphorical need for haste in feeding the multitudes before it is too late. In addition to their concerns about their own safety, if night falls, the people will have to wander through the wilderness without sustenance. They could become lost and weakened from hunger. They could easily become prey for wild beasts who are also looking to be fed, which in mythical terms is a reference to the demonic.
When they bring their concerns to Jesus, they are undoubtedly shocked when Jesus says, "Feed them." Against all reason about their and the people's safety, they bring out their meager rations. What initiates this miracle, is Jesus blessing the bread and the fish. In the Synoptic Gospels breaks the bread and in some cases the fish and distribute them to the people. Jesus turns their fear into a feast. One cannot help but notice the connection between this act of Jesus and the Jesus breaking bread at the Last Supper. As such this myth serves as a precursor to that event and it is why this myth is found in all four Gospel.
MEANING
Spiritual hunger is a major theme being addressed in these stories. To take them literally as a "miracle" of feeding large numbers hungry men as proof of Jesus divinity would miss the point of completely. These are myths that address the biblical (if not perennial) truth that humanity is not fed by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4 and Deuteronomy 8:3).
Speaking of Deuteronomy 8, there is a likely connection between these feeding stories and the mythical journey of Israelites in the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt in which God feeds them with manna; a tangible emblem of every life-giving word of wisdom that comes from the mouth of God. God feeds the Israelites with not only with miraculous bread, but also wisdom to understand who they are and whose they are. The same is true with these feeding stories. The wisdom of God is as tangible as the bread we eat and God feeds those who seek it.
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Christians are prone to misunderstand what is an essential story in all four Gospels of the New Testament canon. Fundamentalist, who are perpetually sidetracked by insisting that everything the Bible has to say must be taken as fact, see the meaning of this miracle as proof that Jesus is God, citing nothing is impossible with God. (Matthew 19:26) While this is a standard teaching of most theistic religions, fundamentalist are largely inhibited by their literalism from probing the depths of scripture beyond its surface meanings.
More mainline Christians have tried to explain the "miracle" by giving it a rational basis for happening; as in, the miracle, in all likelihood, was the result of Jesus and his disciples deciding to share their meager stash of loaves and fish which prompted those who came prepared for the possibility of finding themselves in a place where no food was available to wisely bring t their own stash of loaves of bread and fish with them. So when the disciples started passing around the loaves and the fish, those who had fish and bread merely passed the loaves and fish that Jesus blessed on to those who might not have been as prepared, which explains why everyone was fed and why the disciples were able to pick seven or twelve baskets of bread pieces. I have heard at least two sermons based on this interpretation of these stories.
There are serious flaws with this interpretation. Who were these men? They were Jews like Jesus and his disciples. On the surface this interpretation inadvertently fosters an anti-Semitic stereotype associated with Jews as being hoarders, selfish, and only looking out for their self interests. Another flaw is that it deprives this story of being a miracle of Jesus in which Jesus blesses the ordinary to manifest the extraordinary, something not readily perceived by the human mind, the communal spiritual hunger we all share.
The Gospel of Matthew demonstrates the metaphorical nature of this myth in Matthew 16:5-12 when his disciple were the ones to forget to bring bread:
When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”They discussed this among themselves and said, “It is because we didn’t bring any bread.” Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand?
Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. [Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®]
All of Jesus' teachings underscore the richness and fullness of God's grace and love for all. He frequently uses yeast to illustrate what he called the Kingdom of God. But here we see that there are different kinds of yeast, metaphorically speaking. Teachings that attract people are memetic and have the ability to spread for good or bad just like five or seven loaves expanded to five or seven baskets of left-over bread.
Another feature regarding the feeding of the five thousand in the Synoptic Gospels is that Jesus doesn't appear concerned about the time of the day it is or that people would have to find their way home in the dark on empty stomachs. It is the disciples who are concerned to which Jesus says, "Well, do something about that." This is not too subtle of a message that when we see people hunger for physical and spiritual food to do something; to check one's or the communities resources and offer what we have to meet the needs of others as distributers of God's grace.
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In the twenty-first century, this myth's importance is underscored by the sense of haste that resonates with the need to do something about the important issues that we are faced with; climate change, political and economic turmoil, wars that threaten world war and nuclear annihilation, the scourge of racism and rising nationalism worldwide, the refugee/immigration catastrophe that is already taking place, and in the United States, the almost daily tragedy of gun violence and mass shooting. Amidst all of this is the feeling that religion has gone missing, stuck in its outdated doctrines and dogmas while believing Jesus or God will do something about the needs that face us if we but bring it to God's or Jesus' attention. This myth tells us otherwise.
It tells us that we are led by Jesus' teachings to comprehend the wilderness of our making in order to find ourselves by listening to voice of Jesus, the voice telling us "Well, do something! What do you have to meet the physical and spiritual hunger that is looking you in the face." Complacency disguised as praying about it is not the answer, prayer without a desire to act is nothing more than an act in futility. Ora et labora - not prayer alone but a willingness to work at finding and implementing solutions quickly is what is needed. Darkness, in its many shapes and forms is upon us. Yet there is hope that in our actions, God will act as President Kennedy said in his inaugural address in 1961, "...that here on earth God's work must truly be our own. "
Finally, the communal nature of this myth cannot be dismissed. Jesus breaking bread and distributing it to the masses is essential to understanding this myth and its application in the twenty-first century. The use of numerology and astrology is present to underscore the universality of this myth. While it is true that we exist because of creative power (word) of that which we call God, that power empowers us to be creative which is obvious in all the technological and scientific advances made within this new century alone. there is hope that should prompt us to be involved and be concerned with finding valid solutions to address the encroaching darkness that we as a species have greatly contributed to. The clarion call to do something is vital to God's intervening blessing.
Until next time, stay faithful.
Norm
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