With these things Yeshua came out on the other side of the Sea of the Galil of Tiberias. And a lot of crowd was following Him, because they watched the omens which He was doing upon the sick. And Yeshua came up onto the hill and was sitting there with His disciples. And the Paskha was near, the holy day of the Iudaeans. Yeshua then, lifting up His eyes and having watched that a lot of crowd is coming in His direction says in Filippos’ direction, “Where would we buy loaves of bread from for these people to eat?” And He was saying this thing expecting him to get the wrong answer; because He Himself knew what He intended to do. Filippos answered Him, “Two hundred denarii’s1 worth of loaves of bread wouldn’t be enough for them so that each would get something small.” One of His disciples, Andreas the brother of Shimon Petros, says to Him, “There’s a little boy here who holds five loaves of barley bread and two small jars of fish paste; but what are these things as far as such as these? Yeshua said, “Make the people to recline on the ground.” And there was a lot of grass in the place. The men2, the number close to five thousand, reclined on the ground. Yeshua then took the loaves of bread and having given thanks distributed them to those reclining, likewise also from the jars of fish paste as much as they wished. And as they ate themselves full, He says to His disciples, “Collect the leftover pieces of bread, so that not anything is destroyed. They then collected and filled twelve baskets of pieces from the five loaves of barley bread which overflowed to those devouring them. The people then having seen what omen He did were saying that, “This really is the Prophet coming into the universe.” Yeshua then, knowing that they intended to come and grab Him so that they would make Him king, separated just Himself from them again into the mountain.
And as it became late, his disciples went down upon the sea and embarking into a boat they started for the other side of the sea into K’fer-Nahum. And it was already getting dark and Yeshua hadn’t yet come to them, the sea too had roused up a huge blowing wind. Having come then like twenty five or thirty stadia3 from the shoreline, they watch Yeshua walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they panicked. Yet the Guy says to them, “I Am; don’t panic.” They they wanted to get Him into the boat, and immediately the boat came to be upon the land as far as which place they were going.4
On the morrow, the crowd which stood on the other side of the sea saw that another small boat wasn’t there except one and that Yeshua didn’t go into the boat with His disciples but just His disciples left; but boats came from Tiberias near the place where they ate the bread with the Lord having given thanks. When then the crowd saw that Yeshua wasn’t there nor His disciples, they embarked into the little boats and came into K’fer-Nahum looking for Yeshua. And finding Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when had you come to be here?” Yeshua responded to them and said, “Amen amen I say to you people, You are looking for Me not because you saw omens, but because you fed from the loaves of bread and were gorged. Don’t work for the food being demolished but the food staying as far as the life of the Eternal One, which the Son of Adam will give to you; because the Father God put His seal on this One.” They said then to Him, “What should we do so that we would work for [the food]5 caused by the God?” Yeshua responded and said to them, “This is [the food] caused by the God, so that you would put your trust into the Person whom that One sent.” They said to Him, “What omen then are You doing, so that we would see and would put our trust in You? What [food] are you causing? Our fathers ate the manna in the wasteland, just like it is written, ‘He gave them bread from the sky to eat.’ Yeshua said to them, “Amen amen I say to you people, Moses didn’t give you the bread from the sky but My Father. He is giving you the real bread from the heavenly realm; because the bread of the God is the One descending from the heavenly realm and giving life to the universe.”
They then said to Him, “Owner, always give us this bread.” Yeshua said then to them, “I Am the bread of Life; the person coming to Me will not be hungry at all, and the person putting their trust into Me will not be thirsty at any time, but I told you that you have also seen Me and don’t trust. Every single thing which the Father gives to Me will come here to Me, and I will not throw the person coming to Me out at all, because I had descended from the heavenly realm not for Me to do the will which is Mine but the will of the One having sent Me. And this thing is the will of the One having sent Me, so that every single thing which He had given Me I wouldn’t waste from Him, but would resurrect it on the last day. Because this thing is the will of My Father, so that every single person who watches the Son and puts their trust into Him would have the life of the Eternal One, and I Myself will resurrect him on the last day.”
The Iudaeans then were grumbling about Him because He said, “I am the bread which descended from the heavenly realm,” and they were saying, “Isn’t this Yeshua Bar-Yoseph whose father and mother we already know? How is He now saying that, “I had descended from the heavenly realm?” Yeshua responded and said to them, “Don’t grumble with one another. No one can come to Me if the Father who sent Me shouldn’t drag him, and I will resurrect him on the last day. It is written in the prophets, “and they will all be instructed by Yahweh6;” every single person who heard from the Father and learned comes to Me. Not that anyone had seen the Father except the One who is from the side of the God, this One had seen the Father. Amen amen I tell you, the person putting their trust into Me holds the life of the Eternal One. I am the bread of Life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wasteland and died; this One is the bread which descends from the heavenly realm, so that anyone having eaten from Him would not die as well. I am the living bread which descended from the heavenly realm; if anyone should eat from this bread he will live into the eon, yet also the bread which I will give is My flesh on behalf of the life of the universe.”
The Iudaeans were then fighting with one another saying, “How can this guy give us His flesh to eat?” Yeshua then said to them, “Amen amen I tell you, if you don’t eat the flesh of the Son of Adam and drink His blood, you aren’t holding life within yourselves. The person feeding on My flesh and drinking My blood is holding the life of the Eternal One, and I will resurrect him on the last day. Because my flesh is real food, and My blood is real drink. The person feeding on My flesh and drinking My blood makes his home within Me and I within him. Just like the Living Father sent Me out and I live because of the Father, also that person feeding on Me will live because of Me, too.7 This is the bread which descended from the heavenly realm, not like the fathers ate [the Manna] and died; the person feeding on this bread will live into the eon.” He said these things teaching in a synagogue in K’fer-Nahum.
Many then from His disciples having heard said, “This message is hard; who can listen to it?” And Yeshua knowing within Himself that His disciples were grumbling about this said to them, “Does this offend you? What if you should then see the Son of Adam ascending where He was in the first place? The Spirit is what makes alive, the flesh is of absolutely no profit at all; the words which I spoke to you are Pneuma and are Life. But there are some from you who don’t trust.” Because Yeshua knew from the start who they are who don’t trust, and who it is who will hand Him over. And he was saying, “Because of this I had told you that no one can come to Me if it might not have been given to him from the Father.”
From this, many from His disciples went back into the things they left behind and were no longer walking with Him. Yeshua then said to the twelve, “You don’t also wish to go, do you?” Shimon Petros answered Him, “Owner, to whom would we depart? You hold the words of the life of the Eternal One, and we have put our trust into You and know and You are the Holy One of the God.” Yeshua answered them, “Hadn’t I selected you twelve? And one from among you is a satan8.” Yet he was speaking of Y’hudah Bar-Shimon of Kerioth, one of the twelve, because this guy was about to hand Him over.
1A denarius was given as an average wage for a day laborer, about sixteen assarii by the first century. The amount Filippos was saying was equivalent to 3200 assarii, 6400 lepta (“widow’s mites”), or 12800 quadrantes, and almost 2/3rds of a years worth of wages for a day laborer. Assuming $80/day for the average day laborer today, a rough estimate in current U.S. dollars for this figure might be about $16,000, and $24,000 where the minimum wage is $15/hour. If a loaf of bread is roughly about $4 today, you'd be looking at between 4,000 and 6,000 loaves of bread which is about what Philip appeared to be estimating wouldn’t be enough.
2It’s significant that John here uses the Greek word “ανδρες,” which specifies “men” as opposed to women, rather than the more general word meaning “human beings.” The count of the men alone was around 5,000. Later, these men, a literal army of men, attempt to take Yeshua to force Him to be king. It’s not unreasonable to assume that they were Iudaean terrorists, “Zealots” in rebellion against Roman occupation, and this was the reason why they were there from the start, that is, to investigate Yeshua and see if He was really doing these things, and if so, rally behind Him to restore the kingdom of Iudaea with Him as king. Yeshua however chose to feed them lunch and then leave. His priority was establishing the kingdom of the heavenly realms, not resurrecting the failed political kingdom of Iudaea against the Roman authorities.
3About 1500 to 1800 feet.
4For reference, the distance from their launch point to their destination, K’fer-Nahum, is about 7-8 miles by sea and 10 miles by land. They had only gone at most 1800 feet before encountering Yeshua on the water, and then were suddenly at K’fer-Nahum, over seven miles from their point of origin just north of Tiberias along the coastline.
5The context suggests that they’re still talking about food even if the word isn’t used in the Greek text. As Yeshua pointed out, they were looking for more “Manna from heaven” rather than anything else.
6This quote is from Isaiah 54:13. While both the Greek N.T. and the LXX read “θεου,” that is, “by God,” the original Hebrew reads “YHWH,” and so I have chosen to render it.
7From a certain point of view, Yeshua is saying that He lives because He feeds on the Father, and the person who feeds on Him will live similarly.
8Greek, “διαβολος,” and literally “adversary.” The approximate translation in Syriac, the language He was likely speaking at the time, is “satan.”
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