Feeding Five Thousand

(Matthew 14.13-21; Mark 6.30-44; Luke 9.10-17)

6 Jesus crossed Lake Galilee, which was also known as Lake Tiberias. ² A large crowd had seen him work miracles to heal the sick, and those people went with him. ^3-4 It was almost time for the Jewish festival of Passover, and Jesus went up on a mountain with his disciples and sat down.^[a]

⁵ When Jesus saw the large crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we get enough food to feed all these people?” ⁶ He said this to test Philip, since he already knew what he was going to do.

⁷ Philip answered, “Don't you know that it would take almost a year's wages^[b] just to buy only a little bread for each of these people?”

⁸ Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the disciples. He spoke up and said, ⁹ “There is a boy here who has five small loaves^[c] of barley bread and two fish. But what good is that with all these people?”

¹⁰ The ground was covered with grass, and Jesus told his disciples to tell everyone to sit down. About 5,000 men were in the crowd. ¹¹ Jesus took the bread in his hands and gave thanks to God. Then he passed the bread to the people, and he did the same with the fish, until everyone had plenty to eat.

¹² The people ate all they wanted, and Jesus told his disciples to gather up the leftovers, so that nothing would be wasted. ¹³ The disciples gathered them up and filled twelve large baskets with what was left over from the five barley loaves.

¹⁴ After the people had seen Jesus work this miracle,^[d] they began saying, “This must be the Prophet^[e] who is to come into the world!” ¹⁵ Jesus realized that they would try to force him to be their king. So he went up on a mountain, where he could be alone.