|
by
Doug Ward |
The Gospels describe two occasions on which Jesus of
Nazareth, while teaching a large crowd in a remote area, used just a few fish and
loaves of bread to provide a full meal for thousands of people. In one instance
five loaves and two fish were available, and "five thousand men, besides
women and children" were fed, with twelve baskets of broken pieces of
bread left over (Matt 14:15-21). Another time seven loaves and a few fish fed
"four thousand men, besides women and children," and seven baskets
full of bread fragments were collected (Matt 15:32-38).
The
Gospel accounts of these feeding miracles include unusual details that raise questions
for today's readers. For one thing, why were only the adult males in the crowds
counted? It would be even more impressive to know the total number of people
who were fed. In addition, why was so much bread left uneaten, and why did
someone bother to collect the leftover bread pieces?
Some
background information about Jewish dining customs from the time of Jesus will
help us answer these questions. One relevant custom is the "grace after
meals," a prayer of thanksgiving spoken at the end of a meal. This
practice is based on Deut 8, where Moses admonished
the Israelites never to forget the source of the abundance they would enjoy in
the Promised Land. "And you shall eat and be full," Moses said,
"and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given
you" (Deut 8:10).
As a
concrete way of heeding Moses' words, a formal practice of blessing God at the
end of a meal developed. By the time of Jesus a number of guidelines for this
blessing were in place. For a group of people eating together, a man from the
group would lead, and the words with which the prayer began depended on the
number of men in the group. According to later rabbinic tradition, if there
were ten men in the group. the leader would begin, "Let us bless our God."
If there were a hundred, he would begin, "Let us bless the Lord our
God." For a thousand men the opening words were, "Let us bless the
Lord our God, God of Israel."1
Since
the opening words of the prayer were determined by the number of men present,
it would have been natural for the crowds that Jesus fed to split up into
groups with specific numbers of men. Mark's account of the feeding of 5000
suggests such an arrangement. "So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and
by fifties," we read in Mark 6:40. With the people organized in this
manner, it would have been fairly easy to obtain the estimates of 5000 and 4000
men recorded in the Gospels.
|
Breaking
Off Bread |
What about the leftover bread fragments? In Matthew 14:21 and 15:37,
the Greek word for these "broken pieces" of bread is klasmaton, a word that connotes pieces that were
broken off deliberately rather than crumbs that fell accidentally.2
So the existence of these pieces of bread is attributable to something other
than messy eating habits.
As
it turns out, it was common practice in those days for diners to break off a
small piece of bread from a loaf and set it aside for the priests. This
practice stems from two passages from the book of Numbers. One of them is Num
15:17-21, which instructs Israelite bakers to give an offering of a loaf of
bread from the first fruits of a batch of dough. The dough offering was another
way for people to acknowledge and give thanks for God's provision. The other is
Num 18:25-32, which directs the tribe of Levi to set aside a tenth of Israel's
tithes for the priests. Verse 32 underlines the importance of handling these
tithes properly, indicating that a failure to do so could even lead to death.
Based
on these verses, in the first century a certain portion of Israel's bread
(about 4% for the dough offering and 1% from the tithe of the tithe) was
donated to the priesthood. And because of the stern warning in Num 18:32,
people wanted to be sure not to eat this portion, even by mistake. As a result,
if one was not sure that a batch of bread had been properly tithed, one would
break off a small piece from a loaf and set it aside, just in case. In a small
gathering of people, these pieces would be offered to any priests who were
present. But in the crowds of thousands that Jesus fed, there were so many
pieces that they were gathered in baskets. The baskets would have been
delivered afterward to a local representative of the Temple, who presumably was
very surprised to receive such a large donation of small bread pieces.
One
detail of the feeding miracle accounts that requires no explanation is the fact
that Jesus said a blessing before these meals (Matt 14:19; 15:36). Giving
thanks before a meal is a Jewish tradition that Christianity has inherited, and
the New Testament is actually our earliest historical witness to the practice.3
Several centuries after Jesus, there is a discussion in the Talmud about the
proper procedure for this practice.4 Should a
blessing be recited, and then bread broken, or should a blessing be completed
over a piece of broken bread? The New Testament weighs in on this debate, since
apparently the bread is broken after the blessing in every New Testament
example.
Our
study of the Gospel descriptions of the feeding miracles illustrates the fact
that a knowledge of ancient Jewish traditions is valuable background for understanding
the New Testament. It is also the case that the New Testament itself is a
Jewish text and a key source of data about Jewish traditions, as illustrated by
the examples we have discussed. Other details in the Gospels also agree with
information from later sources. For instance, the statement that it would cost
200 denarii to buy bread for the crowd (Mark 6:47) is consistent with data
given in the Mishnah for the cost of providing half a day's rations for a group
of that size.5 The New
Testament is a valid-and valuable-historical resource.
1Mishnah, Berakhot 7:3.
2For this and other
details covered in this article, see David Instone-Brewer,
"Rabbinic etiquette at the feeding of 4000 & 5000 and the move from Sabbath
to Sunday," preprint, 2004.
3This fact was
mentioned by Dr. R. Steven Notley in a Haverim
lecture in Dayton, Ohio, on April 14, 2012.
4b. Berakhot
39b.
5Mishnah,
Peah 8:7, cited by Instone-Brewer.
File
translated from TEX by TTH,
version 3.66.
On 25 May 2018, 12:24.
