Feeding of the Four Thousand

Biblical Text and Narrative

The Feeding of the Four Thousand appears in Matthew 15:32-39 and Mark 8:1-10. The miracle does not appear in Luke or John.

The crowd had been with Jesus for three days, and their food had run out. Jesus said that he had compassion on the multitude and was concerned that if he sent them away hungry, they would faint on the way. The disciples asked where they could find enough bread in the wilderness. When Jesus asked how many loaves they had, they answered that they had seven. Jesus had the crowd sit down on the ground, took the loaves, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to distribute. The fish were distributed in the same way. All ate and were filled, and when the leftover fragments were gathered, they filled seven baskets. Matthew gives the number who ate as "four thousand men, beside women and children," while Mark gives it as "about four thousand." Afterward Jesus got into a boat and went to the region of Magadan (Matthew; "Magdala" in the KJV) or Dalmanutha (Mark).

Background

Matthew places this event immediately after Jesus healed many sick people on a mountain beside the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 15:29-31). Mark records that Jesus traveled through the region of Tyre and Sidon and came to the Sea of Galilee by way of the Decapolis (Mark 7:31). The Decapolis was a region of Hellenistic cities southeast of the lake. For this reason, some interpreters hold that many in the crowd were Gentiles.

The Greek word for the "baskets" that held the leftovers is spyris (σπυρίς). It differs from kophinos (κόφινος), the word rendered "baskets" in the account of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. Because spyris is also used for the basket in which Paul was let down over the city wall (Acts 9:25), it is generally understood to have been a relatively large basket.

Significance in the Wider Biblical Context

This account of feeding a crowd in the wilderness recalls two Old Testament events. One is the manna and quail that Israel received in the wilderness; the other is the occasion when Elisha fed a hundred men with twenty loaves of barley and had some left over (2 Kings 4:42-44). In addition, Jesus' actions of taking bread, giving thanks, breaking it, and giving it out parallel the scene of the Last Supper. For this reason, the miracle is sometimes read in connection with the Lord's Supper.

Both Gospels follow this miracle immediately with two scenes. First, the Pharisees demand a sign from heaven. Then, when the disciples become anxious because they have forgotten to bring bread, Jesus reminds them of the number of baskets left over at the Feeding of the Five Thousand and the Feeding of the Four Thousand and asks, "How is it that ye do not understand?" (Mark 8:14-21; Matthew 16:5-12).

Interpretation and Debates

• Is it the same event as the Feeding of the Five Thousand? Because the two accounts are similar, some scholars hold that a single event was handed down in two versions. Evangelical interpreters, by contrast, generally regard them as two distinct events, citing Mark 8:19-20, where Jesus refers to the two miracles separately. This discussion is also connected to the Synoptic Problem.
• Symbolism of the numbers: Some interpreters associate the twelve baskets of the Feeding of the Five Thousand with the twelve tribes of Israel, and the seven baskets of the Feeding of the Four Thousand with the Gentile world or with completeness. On this reading, the miracle points to the expansion of Jesus' ministry from the Jews to the Gentiles. The text itself, however, does not explain the meaning of the numbers.
• Nature of the miracle: Some within liberal theology explain the event as people sharing with one another the food each had brought. The evangelical tradition reads it as the text presents it: a supernatural miracle performed by Jesus.
• On the name: The element "two fish" (ieo, 二魚) in the Korean name was adopted to match the name of the Feeding of the Five Thousand (obyeong-ieo, "five loaves and two fish"). The text speaks only of "a few little fishes" (Matthew 15:34) or "a few small fishes" (Mark 8:7) and does not state that there were exactly two.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, the Feeding of the Four Thousand is less widely known than the Feeding of the Five Thousand, and it is also referred to as "the miracle of feeding the four thousand." Sermons on the passage commonly address three themes: Jesus' compassion for the multitude, the gospel reaching even the Gentiles, and the disciples' failure to understand even after witnessing the earlier miracle.