5 Loaves, 2 Fish, and a Big Lesson

One of the next stories we run across in Matthew is the famous story of the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus moves from these long, cerebral conversations that surround parables and hidden teachings and, like a typical rabbi, changes pace and keeps the scenery fresh. His teaching now becomes more theatrical and “in action” than a spoken parable; he now puts his teaching into a real life picture.

But don’t be mistaken, the depth of the parable is still present in the depth of this teaching. This action by Jesus is far wider than simply a tug at his heart strings because of a bunch of hungry people. Which brings us to a point: Jesus is a typical rabbi in that everything he does is done with an incredible level of rabbinical intentionality; every move he makes he makes on purpose. He does not heal an invalid flippantly — he buries a teaching in the encounter. He does not rebuke the wind and the waves without tying it to Text.

And he doesn’t feed thousands of people just because they are hungry. No, there is much more going on here. Consider this portion of the story from the gospel of John:

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

Jesus already knew what he wanted to do and he brings his students into the situation for their next lesson. Of course, we are familiar with the story. He tells the disciples to feed the crowd and they balk at the request, reporting that they have a measly five loaves and two fish from a boy’s lunch. Jesus responds to their counter with a counter of his own. He tells the people to sit down, blesses God for the provision and begins to distribute the food to his disciples, who in turn distribute it to the people. Now, the reader is not told how the food grows or multiplies or expands, but we are told that by the time this gigantic meal is over, there are twelve baskets of leftovers.

Now, what stands out to a Jewish reader is all the numbers present in this story. Again, every Jewish teaching from a rabbi is going to be loaded with depth; the student is looking for clues and insight into the rabbi’s deeper lesson. As we’ve discussed before, numbers to an easterner are far more than just quantitative values. Numbers are a picture — they have qualitative meaning to the student. A story loaded with numbers is going to grab the attention of a Jewish reader. Five loaves, two fish, five thousand people, groups of fifty, twelve baskets of leftovers. These all have to mean something for the larger teaching.

There are numbers that mean certain things in the world of the Jew. Let me give you a non-comprehensive list of examples that will help us with this story. NOTE: This list is not comprehensive and many of these “qualitative meanings” change according to their setting and the point in Jewish history under consideration.

One: God

Two: Tablets of the Law of Moses

Three: Community (patriarchs or priest/Levites/Israelites)

Four: Four Corners of the Earth (Gentiles)

Five: Books of Moses

Six: Number of Sinful Man

Seven: Completeness (either of God’s goodness [creation] or pagan evil [seven nations of Canaan])

Ten: 3 + 7 — Complete Community

Twelve: Tribes of Israel

Now, let’s take a look at those numbers in the story again. This is a story full of “Jewish” numbers. (five, two, one thousand [10 x 10 x 10], and twelve). If we apply this understanding to the story, look at what happens to the teaching of Jesus.

Jesus takes the Law (five loaves [Books of Moses] and two fish [tablets]; this makes the complete law [5 + 2 = 7]) and he gives it to his disciples. His disciples feed the people of God (the Jewish people; five [Books of Moses] times ten [complete community] times ten times ten). When the people take and eat the Law that they received from the disciples as they received it from Jesus there is more than enough for all of God’s people (twelve [tribes of Israel] baskets of leftovers).

Jesus’s larger teaching point seems to be: “I am the second Moses (remember Jesus putting the people in groups of fifty? Think about the story of Jethro. What comes next? Moses gives them the Law). When you let me interpret the Law and completely trust me with it, there is more than enough to go around for all of you.”

Now, you don’t have to buy all of this number business if you just aren’t ready to go there yet, but I have a feeling in a few chapters that you will. And please do not turn this into a Bible Code. This is not a cryptic code “hidden” in the pages of Scripture; this is an objective discussion about rabbinic teaching points within an eastern worldview. And please understand how easy it is to try and force this “rule” on every number you find in the Bible. It doesn’t always work like this.

But again, we run into the fact that Jesus is doing things under the surface we never realized. It’s an eye-opener to see some of the things that have been “hidden” in plain sight just because we lack the cultural understanding of the Scriptures.