Feeding the 5000 (John's signs)

Question 1

What I am saying does this sign link to?

Answer 1

‘I am the Bread of Life’

Question 2

What makes this sign unique?

Answer 2

The exact same story and details also appear in the Synoptics

Question 3

How is this an example of JC proving that he is God through a nature miracle?

Answer 3

The multiplying of fish and loaves happens in nature anyway due to the natural fertility created by God when he blessed nature and commanded it to ‘be fruitful and increase in number’ (Genesis 1:22). JC does the same thing here, establishing that he is God

Question 4

What does the bread represent?

Answer 4

JC’s body, which is shared by Christians at the Eucharist

Question 5

What do commentators believe the 5 loaves represent?

Answer 5

• The five wounds that JC suffered (4 nails and a spear in his side)
• Or perhaps the five senses through which believers come to know God’s creation

Question 6

What do the fish link to?

Answer 6

Jesus’ disciples being fishermen. When JC recruits his first disciples he tells them ‘I will send you out to fish for people’ (Matthew 4:19)

Question 7

What do the fish represent and why?

Answer 7

The souls of those who believe in JC. Early Christians used the fish as their symbol to avoid persecution because the Greek letters for fish can stand for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour

Question 8

Why are the disciples wrong to think that the crowd suffers from spiritual hunger?

Answer 8

Jesus diagnoses them as suffering from spiritual hunger. The loaves and fishes symbolise the eternal life that will truly satisfy them

Question 9

How is it significant that JC gets his disciples to hand out the bread?

Answer 9

This symbolises the way they will spread the Gospel to try and convert people to Christianity. The bread symbolises the Christian message being taken across the world

Question 10

What is the significance of the fact that the bread created is more than enough?

Answer 10

It symbolises the generosity and grace of God

Question 11

What is the significance of the fact that there are 12 baskets?

Answer 11

• In the Hebrew numbering system, 12 means perfection and completion.
• There were 12 tribes of Israel. (Only two survived - which is perhaps represented by the fish)
• Jesus appoints 12 disciples
• The baskets therefore symbolise the entire world being fed on JC’s message and believing in him

Question 12

What is the significance of JC escaping when the crowd wish to crown JC a King?

Answer 12

Because they see him as a Kingly Messiah, but JC is actually a Spiritual Messiah and the SoG

Question 13

What does A.N Wilson argue about this sign?

Answer 13

That the crowd was actually an army of zealots rather than a crowd of civilians expecting a sermon. Argues that JC’s message to ‘make the men sit down’ is actually a coded message that the zealots should put down their violent rebellion; the sharing of the loaves symbolises the messianic banquet and the peaceful unity of all Jewish people, as the zealots killed their fellow Jews

Question 14

What are signs like this meant to explain in a coded way?

Answer 14

The Eucharist, since there is no last supper in John, and John’s gospel celebrated the Eucharist

Question 15

Explain the two different theories behind why John did not describe the Last Supper

Answer 15

• John has Jesus dying the day before the pass over lamb so that JC can be crucified at the same time as the paschal lamb is sacrificed in the temple, reinforcing the idea that JC is ‘the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world’ (John 1:29)
• The Johannine Community perhaps saw the Eucharist as a sacred mystery that could not be known by outsiders, meaning it can only be described in a coded way

Question 16

Give three examples of the Eucharist being described in a coded way in John

Answer 16

Jesus turning water into wine and the bread of life and true vine discourses

Question 17

What did Bultmann argue needs to be done to the NT?

Answer 17

It needs to be de-mythologised to get at its original teaching

Question 18

Explain Bultmann’s idea that the sign should be understood as a miracle of sharing rather than multiplication

Answer 18

He thinks that the sign records something non-supernatural; JC shared his own food, shaming those in the crowd into doing the same. When everyone shared with everyone else, there was more than enough to go around. Once its been de-mythologised like this, the sign contains a valuable moral lesson, rather than just supernatural wonder

Question 19

What would John think of Bultmann’s interpretation of the sign?

Answer 19

He also wants huis readers to focus on symbolism rather than just the sign itself, but he wouldn’t agree with the idea that the sign amounts to nothing more than JC urging his followers to pay it forward

Question 20

Make the case that this sign is essential for understanding JC’s identity

Answer 20

• JC reveals himself as the answer to our physical and spiritual needs; as God he created the world and its fertility, and as Christ he feeds our spiritual hunger. This spiritual nourishment binds believers into a community
• Reveals the meaning behind the Eucharist