Old/New Testament
The feeding of the five thousand
30 The apostles came back to Jesus and told him all they had done and taught. 31 “All right,” he said, “it’s time for a break. Come away, just you, and we’ll go somewhere lonely and private.” (Crowds of people were coming and going and they didn’t even have time to eat.)
32 So they went off privately in the boat to a deserted spot. 33 And . . . crowds saw them going, realized what was happening, hurried on foot from all the towns, and arrived there first. 34 When Jesus got out of the boat he saw the huge crowd, and was deeply sorry for them, because they were like a flock without a shepherd. So he started to teach them many things.
35 It was already getting late when his disciples came to him and said, “Look: there’s nothing here. It’s getting late. 36 Send them away. They need to go off into the countryside and the villages and buy themselves some food.”
37 “Why don’t you give them something?” Jesus replied.
“Are you suggesting,” they asked, “that we should go and spend two hundred dinars and get food for this lot?”
38 “Well,” said Jesus, “how many loaves have you got? Go and see.”
They found out, and said, “Five, and a couple of fish.”
39 Jesus told them to sit everyone down, group by group, on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in companies, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, looked up to heaven, blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples to give to the crowd. Then he divided the two fish for them all. 42 Everyone ate, and had plenty. 43 They picked up the leftovers, and there were twelve baskets of broken pieces, and of the fish.
44 The number of men who had eaten was five thousand.
Jesus walks on water
45 At once Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and set sail across towards Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 He took his leave of them and went off up the mountain to pray.
47 When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the shore. 48 He saw they were having to work hard at rowing, because the wind was against them; and he came to them, in the small hours of the night, walking on the sea. He intended to go past them, 49 but they saw him walking on the sea and thought it was an apparition. They yelled out; 50 all of them saw him, and they were scared stiff.
At once he spoke to them.
“Cheer up,” he said, “it’s me. Don’t be afraid.”
51 He came up to them and got into the boat, and the wind stopped. They were overwhelmed with astonishment. 52 They hadn’t understood about the loaves, because their hearts were hardened.
53 They made landfall at Gennesaret, and tied up the boat. 54 People recognized Jesus as soon as they got out of the boat, 55 and scurried about the whole region to bring sick people on stretchers to wherever they heard that he was. 56 And wherever he went, in villages, towns or in the open country, they placed the sick in the market-places and begged him to let them touch even the hem of his garment. And all who touched it were healed.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.