John 6:1-9

Contemporary English Version

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?”