Miraculous multiplication of bread

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Miraculous multiplication of bread, depiction in Codex Egberti , around 980–993 AD (Trier City Library, Ms. 24, fol. 47v.)

Two miracles of Jesus are referred to as the miraculous multiplication of bread , in which it was possible to feed and satisfy several thousand people on the Sea of ​​Galilee with an extremely small amount of food. The first of the two miracles, the “feeding of the five thousand”, is told in all four biblical Gospels . The “feeding of the four thousand” as the second miracle of this kind can only be found in Matthew and in the Gospel of Mark .

action

Feeding the 5000

The miracle story begins with a change of location: Jesus and his disciples take a boat across the Sea of ​​Galilee to a lonely area. This does not go unnoticed by the population, so that a crowd follows them on foot and even arrives on the bank before them ( Mk 6.33  EU ).

“When he got out, he saw the many people and felt sorry for them; for they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he taught them for a long time. "

- Mk 6.34  EU

The evangelist Luke describes how Jesus spoke about the kingdom of God . He also healed the sick who were in the crowd. When evening falls, the disciples advise him to send the people away so that they can find shelter and eat in the surrounding villages ( Lk 9:11 f.  EU ).

"He replied: 'You give them something to eat!'"

- Mk 6.37  EU

Thereupon the disciples object (in the Gospel of John Philip is explicitly mentioned as the spokesman , Jn 6,7  EU ) that not even 200 silver groschen would be enough to buy a little food for everyone present. Jesus asked the disciples to see how much food there was. After the disciples checked, they told Jesus that they could only find five loaves of bread and two fish. The Evangelist John becomes more detailed here and describes that the five barley loaves and the two fish were brought by a boy whom the disciple Andreas was able to find ( John 6 : 9  EU ). Then the actual miracle act begins, which is quoted here as an example from the Gospel of John:

The disciple Andreas with the boy who, according to Jn 6: 9, brought the loaves and the fish (Juan de Espinal: Milagro de los panes y los peces , painting in the town hall of Seville )

“Jesus said, 'Let the people sit down!' There was a lot of grass there. There they sat down; there were about five thousand men.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave the people as much as they wanted; he did the same with the fish.
When the crowd was full, he said to his disciples: 'Gather the leftover pieces so that nothing goes wrong!' They gathered up and filled twelve baskets with the chunks that were left over from the five barley loaves after they had eaten.
When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, 'This is really the prophet who is to come into the world.' "

- Joh 6,10-14  EU

The place of the event is limited in the Gospels to a mountain ( Jn 6,3  EU ) near the city of Betsaida ( Lk 9,10  EU ). The Gospel of John gives the time when the 5000 were fed as shortly before the Passover ( Jn 6,4  EU ).

Feeding the 4000

A duplication of the Gospel of Matthew (15.32–39 EU ) and the Gospel of Mark (8.1–10 EU ) tells of a “feeding of the four thousand”.

Interpretative approaches

Today's theology describes the miraculous multiplication of bread together with the miracle of wine at the wedding at Cana , the wonderful catches of fish and sometimes the story of the coin in the mouth of a fish as a miracle of gifts from Jesus. One speaks of gift miracles, because here Jesus "makes material goods available in a wonderful way". What they have in common is that “no one expects or even demands such miracles of gifts from Jesus; rather, it starts with the initiative of the miracle worker Jesus”. As with all gift miracles, the actual miracle act, here the multiplication of bread and fish, takes place inconspicuously. Sometimes the miraculous bread augmentations are, however, the rescue miracles assigned because "the theme of which is to save people from acute external emergency situations [...] where the miracle of substantive items such as [...] food is taking".

Within the miracle stories handed down by Jesus, the “feeding of the 5,000” occupies a special position, since it “is the only miracle that is reported by all four evangelists”.

  • Both in Jesus' time and today, bread is an important foodstuff, but it "cannot permanently satisfy [...] in this world". The Old Testament also states that “man cannot live on material bread alone, but needs the spiritual nourishment of his God ( Deuteronomy 8 : 3)”. Jesus says of himself: “I am the bread of life; Whoever comes to me will never starve again, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty again. ”( Jn 6:35  EU ) This statement makes it clear that“ ultimately only those who believe in Jesus ”receive the above-mentioned spiritual nourishment from God wins and in the otherworldly communion with God will not suffer from physical or mental needs. Feedings and meals, which are celebrated by Jesus, give a glimpse of the future kingdom of God and are "signs of future perfection, anticipation of future salvation" associated with hope.
  • The feeding of the 5000 and that of the 4000 show strong parallels, but differences become apparent in the statement and message of the miracles. While the miracle that occurred first, the feeding of the 5000, "takes place geographically in the vicinity of Jesus' hometown and thus in a Jewish area, the feeding of the 4000 takes place in the area of ​​the so-called Decapolis (" Ten Cities ")". This area was mostly not inhabited by Jews . Especially in the time of Jesus, eating together between Jews and non-Jews was avoided due to the Jewish dietary rules . The fact that Jesus and his disciples did eat with the inhabitants of the Decapolis makes it clear that the work and the message of Jesus apply not only to the Jews, but also to all peoples. The Evangelist Mark sees “the lived rule of God - that is, the God's willed state of human coexistence in which God dwells among people - not limited to the Jewish people [...], but went beyond this exclusivity during their lifetime [...] and the message of God's rulership, the kingdom of peace that God will establish among men, addressed to all men ”.
  • In the Old Testament there is also a narration of a miracle of feeding about the prophet Elisa , in which he feeds 100 people around him with twenty barley breads ( 2 Kings 4.42–44  EU ). The bread miracle of Jesus, at which several thousand people are fed, work in this context "as a tremendous increase". The expectation of the Jewish people that "a new prophet will surpass the miracle of feeding reported by Elisha [...]" is thus fulfilled in Jesus (so-called surpassing christology ). In addition, this interpretation is also confirmed in the fact that "the number of miracles handed down by Jesus in the synoptic Gospels [...] together roughly corresponds to the number of miracles" that the Old Testament prophets Elijah and Elisha perform when added together. At the same time, the miraculous multiplication of bread is a sign for the people that Jesus is actually the announced Messiah .
  • The action of Jesus in the miraculous multiplication of the bread can also be seen as a model for the action of the church . In this sense, the Indian Archbishop Geevarghese Mar Osthathios sees the “story of the feeding of the 5000 not just a miracle story, but an exemplary model for the Church sent to the people who are hungry in the desert of this world”. For him, Jesus' saying “You give them something to eat” is the focus.

effect

Christian initiatives

  • Inspired by the biblical narrative of the “feeding of the 5000”, the campaign “ 5000 Breads - Confectionaries Bake Bread for the World ”, which has existed since 2014, was inspired . All over Germany, bread is baked and sold by confirmands between the First Advent and the harvest festival , the proceeds of which go to children and youth education projects in poorer parts of the world. In the confirmation class, the life stories of young people from the respective countries are addressed in this context; the campaign often ends with a specially designed church service by the congregation. Since the start of the campaign, “over 150,000 loaves of bread have been baked and half a million euros have been collected for youth education projects”. The campaign is organized by Bread for the World , the Evangelical Church in Germany and the Central Association of the German Bakers' Trade , the patron is the EKD Council Chairman Heinrich Bedford-Strohm . In 2017 she was awarded the Hanns Lilje Initiative Prize.
  • The saying handed down by Jesus at the legendary feeding of the 5000 "Collect the remaining chunks so that nothing perishes" ( Jn 6:12) has become the motto for the chunk collection of the von Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel . This Jesus word was transferred from the original context of collecting the leftover pieces of bread to used, "but good and wearable clothing that is collected as" remaining pieces "from the Bethel collection of pieces for needy people".

Church building

In 1982, the Roman Catholic Church of the Multiplication was built in Tabgha on the Sea of ​​Galilee and is looked after by Benedictines .

Visual arts

Relief representation: Jesus and the disciples with bread and two fish on a column capital in the Romanesque church of St-Nectaire (Saint-Nectaire) in France

The topos of the miraculous multiplication of the bread was represented in many ways in Christian iconography . Both the miracle of the multiplication of bread itself and the increased food bread and fish are considered symbols of the Eucharist .

Web links

Commons : Miraculous Multiplication of Bread  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Kirchschläger: Exegetical-theological commentary on the Gospel on the 17th Sunday of the year (reading year B): Joh 6,1-15. (pdf, 240 kB) In: perikopen.de. July 16, 2006, p. 3 , accessed February 11, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b Gerd Theißen, Annette Merz: The historical Jesus. A textbook . 4th edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-647-52198-5 , chap. 10.2.4 "Wonderful gifts", p. 267 .
  3. ↑ Gerhard J. Bellinger: Jesus: Life - Work - Fate . 1st edition. BoD - Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2009, ISBN 978-3-8370-3964-1 , chap. "His Work as a Prophet and Teacher: Jesus' Miraculous Work", p. 362 .
  4. ↑ miracles . In: Taschenlexikon Religion and Theologie . tape 5 (S-Z). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1983, p. 546 .
  5. ↑ Mike Beaumont: Bible Knowledge Compact. History, people, living environment . Catholic Biblical Works, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-460-30218-1 , chap. "Jesus: His miracles - seeing is believing", p. 93 .
  6. ↑ a b Hermann-Josef Frisch: World and Message of the Bible . Patmos Verlag, Mannheim 2012, ISBN 978-3-8436-0232-7 , chap. “The Gospel of John”, p. 369 .
  7. ↑ a b Fritz Rienecker, Gerhard Maier, Alexander Schick, Ulrich Wendel (eds.): Lexicon for the Bible: people, history, archeology, geography and theology of the Bible . SCM R. Brockhaus, Witten 2017, ISBN 978-3-417-26550-7 , entry "Bread", p. 200 .
  8. ^ A b Daniel Rossa: The feeding of the 4000 - and that of the 5000. Necessary theological background knowledge for the interpretation of the text passages: The feeding of the 4000 and the 5000. In: The Wiedmann Bible. September 9, 2015, accessed March 16, 2019 .
  9. ↑ cf. Mk 7.31  EU : "... in the middle of the area of ​​the Decapolis."
  10. ↑ Benjamin Ziemer: Art. "Bread (AT)". Section 4.2 “Bread Miracle”. In: Bibelwissenschaft.de - The scientific portal of the German Bible Society. May 2007, accessed March 16, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Ruth Sauerwein: Elischa: An editorial and religious history study (=  supplements to the journal for Old Testament science . No. 465 ). De Gruyter, 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-037784-2 , chap. 4.5.2 “Jesus miracle”.
  12. ^ Sabine Bieberstein: 17th Sunday of the year, reading year B; First reading: 2 Kings 4:42–44. (pdf) In: bibelwerk.de. Katholisches Bibelwerk, p. 2 , accessed on February 22, 2019 .
  13. ^ Theo Sundermeier: Sermon on John 6: 1–15 in the university church service in St. Peter's Church on July 26, 2009. Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; Faculty of Theology, July 26, 2009, accessed February 24, 2019 .
  14. ↑ 5000 loaves - confectioners bake bread for the world. In: Bread for the World . Retrieved March 19, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Nora Langerock-Siecken: Joint press release on the 2017 Initiative Prize of the Hanns Lilje Foundation. Evangelical Association Church-Business-Working World e. V., accessed on March 19, 2019 .
  16. ↑ About us. In: Brockensammlung Bethel. Retrieved May 16, 2019 .