Someone told me today that Jesus did not really multiply five loaves and two fish, as St Matthew relates, but that the people just shared with one another the food they had brought. I have always believed that Jesus did the miracle of the multiplication. Who is right?
You are right. There is a lot at stake in this question, not just whether on this occasion the people might have shared their food with one another. The Gospels have two accounts of the multiplication of loaves. In one, which is related by all four evangelists, Jesus feeds 5,000 men, plus women and children, with five loaves and two fish, and they take up twelve baskets full of scraps (cf. Mt 14:13-21, Mk 6:32-44, Lk 9:10-17, Jn 6:1-13).
In the other, related by Matthew and Mark, he feeds 4,000 men plus women and children with seven loaves and a few fish and they take up seven baskets full of scraps (cf. Mt 15:32-38, Mk 8:1-10). Although this aspect is of less importance, let us say something about the plausibility of the people sharing their food. Jesus, who was God, and the disciples knew that the people had not brought enough food, if they had brought any at all.
None of the Gospel accounts says anything about Jesus asking the people to share with others what they had brought. They all say that Jesus blessed and/or gave thanks for the loaves and fish and then the disciples distributed them among the people. What is more, when Jesus fed the 4,000, the people had been with him for three days, and they most certainly would not have brought enough food for that length of time.
What is most significant is that John tells us that the people themselves were aware that Jesus had worked a miracle in multiplying the loaves and fish: “When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said: ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world’” (Jn 6:14).
What is more, sometime later Jesus himself reminded the disciples of the miracles of the multiplication of the loaves and fish in order to shore up their faith: “O men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?
“Do you not remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?” (Mt 16:8-10)
What is of most importance in this matter is not whether the people might have shared their food with one another, but whether we trust the Gospels or not.
If Jesus didn’t do the miracles of the multiplication of loaves and fish as the Gospels tell us he did, why should we believe anything else they tell us?
If we deny that Jesus did these miracles, we can deny the other miracles too, and then our whole faith in Jesus and the Gospel accounts is shattered. Either the Gospels are the inspired word of God and therefore true, or they are just human accounts and subject to error.
The Gospels are absolutely trustworthy. Matthew and John were apostles of Jesus and eyewitnesses of the events they relate. Mark was a disciple of Peter and he recorded what he heard over the years in Peter’s teaching, and Luke was a disciple of Paul and did the same.
Also, they were writing for people who had witnessed the events they relate, and the church would never have accepted their writings and used them in the liturgy if they contained falsehoods.
The evangelists had everything to lose and nothing to gain by recording the teachings of Christ. All except John died as martyrs for what they believed and wrote. And John suffered for his faith by being banished to the island of Patmos. The church herself is absolutely clear on the trustworthiness of the Gospels.
The Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei verbum, stated categorically: “Holy Mother Church has firmly and with absolute constancy maintained and continues to maintain, that the four Gospels just named, whose historicity she unhesitatingly affirms, faithfully hand on what Jesus, the Son of God, while he lived among men, really did and taught for their eternal salvation, until the day when he was taken up” (n. 19).
Therefore yes, Jesus did multiply the loaves and fish. It is foolish indeed to deny the truth of anything contained in the Gospels.
