Loaves and Fishes

Even folks with no religious background know what you mean when you mention the multiplication of loaves and fishes. The story has entered into popular culture, like Noah’s Ark for example.

And why not? It’s miraculous, it’s spectacular, and it’s a perfect expression of Christ as the source of material and spiritual nourishment. All four canonical gospels include a ‘multiplication’ narrative – which is somewhat unusual outside of the Passion. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark, probably the two oldest, each include two ‘multiplication accounts’. Hmm, 6 accounts in 4 Gospels…someone must think this is important!

According to Mark, Jesus fed 5,000 pilgrims on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee and a few weeks later 4,000 pilgrims on the southern shore. Some scholars have suggested that both accounts might refer to a single event, remembered differently in different traditions or told twice for dramatic effect. But our Enlightenment driven desire to minimize the miraculous element in the Jesus’ ministry is especially inappropriate here. The first event, by itself, tells a great story.

But it is the second event that reveals what’s actually going on. It is precisely the juxtaposition of the two events that reveals the real significance of both.  Let’s break it down. Jesus first feeds 5,000 pilgrims with just 5 loaves of bread (and a few fish); his disciples collect 12 baskets of scraps. Next time, he has 7 loaves to work with and only 4,000 pilgrims to satisfy. Easy-peasy. But when the disciples gather in the scraps, they only fill 7 baskets this time. According to the rules of arithmetic, we should have expected 21: ((7/4)/(5/5)) x 12 = 21.

But we only get 7. How come? Is Jesus running out of steam? Are the apostles skimming? Is bread falling off the back of the donkey cart…in Galilee of all places? I mean, we’re all familiar with ‘shrinkage’…but this is ridiculous. Or is something else going on? If you find these details baffling, you’re in the very best of company. The apostles themselves didn’t have a clue…and this exasperated Jesus to no end: “Do you still not understand? Do you not remember the 5 loaves for the 5,000 and how many baskets you took up? Or the 7 loaves for the 4,000 and how many baskets you took up? How do you not comprehend…” (Matthew 16: 9-11) 

Of course, they still didn’t understand…and neither do we. I’m reminded of 1st grade when Sister Martha Mary was trying to teach the class basic addition. When she got to 2+2 = 4, there was one boy in the front row who simply could not get it (like me in 7th grade French). Sister had the patience of a saint but after 20 minutes, even she could contain herself no longer: “How do you not get this?” she shouted. Maybe not the best pedagogical technique but, hey, even the very best of us can get frustrated! A case can be made that the apostles never did figure it out! Mark and Matthew tell of both miracles. But even they fail to elucidate the significance of the numbers.

Now fast forward to the later Gospels of Luke and John; they only mention the first multiplication story. How come? Is it possible that these New Testament Titans drank the ‘one miracle’ KoolAid? In the case of Luke, I think the answer is probably, “Yes.” Luke learned from Paul and Paul learned from the other apostles, especially Peter and James. There is every reason to believe that the details, the significance of which nobody clearly grasped, were lost in transmission. John is a more difficult case. Though a teenager at the time, he was nonetheless an ‘earwitness’ to these events.

Of course, he wrote his Gospel in his ‘senior years’, more half a century after the events themselves…but still, we’re talking about one of the great intellects of Western civ. The only explanation I can come up with, and it’s not a good one, is that he had even more important ideas to convey.   What about Jesus himself? He might have said, “Remember the times I fed multitudes with just a few loaves and fish and we had baskets full of scraps left over?”

But instead, he focuses on the exact numbers (above).  So…can we see now, 2 millennia later? Let’s try! First, the raw numbers themselves are significant. 12 is the # of the tribes of Israel; it is also the # of signs in the Zodiac. It represents the whole, the entirety.  7 is the # of the Sabbath; it represents fulfillment, God’s rest (7th day in Genesis). From it we derive the weekly ‘sabbath’ (7th day) and the ‘sabbatical’ (7th) year. Most importantly, the 7th sabbatical year (7 x 7 = 49) leads directly to a Jubilee year (the 50th) Hot Link, the ultimate expression of harmony and peace. Do all these numbers add up to a coherent narrative?   5 loaves/5,000 → 12 baskets, 7 loaves/4,000 → 7 baskets.

The first ‘miracle’ provides the base case: 5 loaves feed 5,000 pilgrims with 12 baskets left over. That’s some doggie bag, BTW! But it’s the second miracle that explains the first and, potentially at least, lets us know ‘what’s happening’.  Compare the 2nd input (7/4) with the first (5/5). Now compare the 2nd output (7) with the first (12). Notice how carefully these numbers were chosen.

 The numbers 5 and 7 appear twice. Jesus did not want the apostles to need a calculator to understand his message, so he made the math ‘easy’. Well, not easy enough apparently. The ratio of the inputs (7/4 : 5/5) is just 7/4 since 5/5 = 1 (thank you, Jesus). The ratio of the output is 7/12. See where this is headed (7/7 also equals 1, thanks again)? Now just divide the simplified input ratio (7/4) by the simplified output ratio (7/12) et voila… the 7’s cancel and you end up with 3, glorious 3, the number of the Trinity, a number representing the power of God. This cannot possibly be coincidental: the numbers are too peculiar…too precise…and too significant.

Critically, this formula only works for the precise ratios cited by Matthew and Mark: 5/5/12 and 7/4/7. There is nothing accidental or haphazard about it! Critics of Judeo-Christian theology are fond of saying, “Your God is a ‘god of the gaps’!” You better believe he is! But our God is not some Baal, filling the shortfall measure for measure. Not our God! When he fills a gap, he fills it three-fold in accordance with his Trinitarian nature. Another way of saying this, “God is where he most needs to be, doing what he most needs to do.”

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