All Gospels record the feeding of the 5000; the authors of Matthew and Mark record two feedings. A doublet or two separate events? The context of the narratives, similarities and differences, whether one event or two, historical or myth and the significance for each writer will be discussed. In the Synoptic gospels the event follows the death of John the Baptist and the return of the disciples from preaching and teaching. Mark6:39 writes, ‘the people sat on the green grass,’ suggesting spring-time, possibly April. John does not mention either event; John6:4, ‘the Passover was near.’ Passover, an important C1st Jewish feast, although not a family meal it involved going to the Temple and offering sacrifices. Therefore, the …show more content…
The disciples misunderstand the meaning both times. We might have expected the Disciples to have learnt something after the first miracle; it appears they did not. After the first, Jesus crosses the sea to Bethsaida: after the second, to Dalmanutha, and later goes to Bethsaida.
Mark places the feeding of the 4000 in “the midst of the borders of Decapolis” (Mark7:31). Commentators have hypothesised over the significance of the location suggesting that Jesus went into the predominantly Gentile area of Decapolis to extend His ministry among the Gentiles. Matthew is not so specific. He mentions Magadan, a location now unknown, writing that Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, went up the mountain, followed by crowds. Matthew seems to assimilate the feedings together. He emphasises the similarities, using the miracle as an example of Jesus acting compassionately for Israel whilst in conflict with their leaders. Perhaps Mark recorded the event twice, changing certain details, to emphasise that Jesus’ ministry was to Jews and Gentiles alike; perhaps his sources suggested two separate accounts. Modern scholarship would seem to favour the doublet theory.
The feeding of the 5000 has similarities and differences; all have this basic outline.
A boat is involved; a remote, lonely place; crowds of people; late evening; the disciples told by Jesus to go into the villages
Let’s talk about the world about 2,000 years ago. It was a world where the mass of people were illiterate, taxes were extremely high, and the leaders would cheat and kill to feed their ever growing need for power. We all can relate to having a good storyteller in our lives, most were read to at night by their parents or are parents themselves that read to their children. What is the purpose of storytelling? It’s simple, comfort. A good story can ease your psychological unrest as well as offer a moral purpose. Sometimes you can even relate a story to your own life and offer an explanation to something you may be experiencing. This is exactly what the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were. They told their stories of Jesus to offer comfort to their people in a time when people could not pick up a story and read it themselves. It is part of human nature to have the desire for a good story. This paper will describe several events that were written by great storytellers in the bible.
These two passages rely on the retelling of stories from the Bible – the story of the Fall from Grace in the Garden of Eden in the Old Testament and the story of Jesus’ feeding of the hungry with an endless supply of loaves and fishes in the
Jesus performs many miracles throughout the Gospels. Comparing how he presents these wonders among different books can help display the author’s themes and goals in these Gospels. Jesus’ first miracle, turning water into wine, is only mentioned in the book of John. This story is called “The Wedding at Cana” (John 2:1-12). Jesus and his disciples attend a wedding and Jesus’ mother is concerned that there is no wine left. He asks the servants to fill their jars with water, but when the steward tasted the water it had become wine. Another interesting miracle story is Jesus walking on water (Mark 6:45-52). In this story, Jesus’ disciples leave on a boat, while he stays back to pray. He then walks on water towards their boat, and the disciples were afraid when they saw him. Each of these stories involve water and display Jesus’ great power, but their differences are even more significant.
Jesus’ claims in John 7:37-38 about living water are often deemed important by readers, but the average reader does not see the importance of the cultural backdrop of the Feast of Booths and the historical events of Israel at Meribah coming to a climax at this moment. The water imagery of John 7 is sourced in Old Testament narrative; Israel’s experience at Meribah overflows into Jesus’ encounter, and the story challenges readers with the age-old choice between grumbling and belief. Jesus claiming to be the source of living water and call for all who are thirsty
Immediately after Jesus ate the Passover meal with His apostles and instituted the Lord’s Supper, He walked, in the light of a full moon, out to the Garden of Gethsemane just beyond the Brook Kidron on the Mount of Olives. Jesus had been there numerous times with His disciples. (John 18:1-36)
The teachings of Jesus focused primarily on the "the kingdom of God" and were usually relayed through parables drawing on familiar images from agricultural life. He rebuked the hypocrisy of some Jewish leaders and taught the importance of love and kindness, even to one's enemies. Jesus' popularity grew quickly, but so did opposition from local leaders. Roman rulers were uncomfortable with the common perception that he was the Messiah who would liberate the Jews from Roman rule, while Jewish leaders were disquieted by Jesus' shocking interpretations of Jewish law, his power with the people, and the rumor that he had been alluding to his own divinity. In the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly suggests to his disciples his end is near, but they do not fully understand or accept the idea. The clearest expression of this is at the "Last Supper," which took place on the night before his death. All four Gospels record that Jesus shared bread and wine with his disciples, asking them to "do this in remembrance of me." Christians celebrate this event in the sacrament of the Eucharist, or Communion. On this evening Jesus also predicts that one of them will betray him, which is met with astonishment and denial. But that very night, Jesus' fate was sealed when Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples and possibly the group's treasurer, led Roman soldiers to Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. As they arrested Jesus, the ever-colorful Peter defended his master with a sword, slicing off
They had enjoyed a time of fellowship with Jesus and teaching from Him. But He was now preparing them to understand that he was going to leave them. This was one of the factors that were going to turn these believers world upside down and bring and opportunity to turn the world upside down. Because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is
This is a summary of a No Travel Seminar on a Study of the Gospel of Matthew. The seminar was lead by Dr. John Dunaway who is a professor at NTS and has served as a pastor for over 50 years. After his brief self-introduction, he began his presentation with an overview of the Gospel of Matthew, followed by a more elaborated narrative summarizing the gospel, and he finished with brief closing remarks. Throughout this enthusiastic presentation, Dr. Dunaway made reference to remarks by multiple prominent commentators, which added substance to his narrative, even though none were explicitly stated upfront.
There are many different gospels that tell a similar story. Matthew and Mark are two Gospels written in a similar way but have different audiences. The story is the Last Supper and is about the last meal that Jesus experienced with his Apostles before his Sacrifice. There are many similarities, but not very many differences. Overall, the same story is told, but from two different perspectives.
The Gospels of the New Testament contain 39 different parables told by Jesus (Phillips 2004, 18-19) and no doubt he spoke many more during his ministry. Jesus’ choice to use parables to teach his people is one that has intrigued many people throughout history. The aim of this essay is to get to discover why he chose to use those parables, and also what we can learn from this teaching method when evangelising today.
In both Luke and John, fishing and the image of the net allude to discipleship. In Luke Chapter 5, the disciples have fished all night and returned the next morning with nothing. Jesus tells them to put
In the first comparison that I will look review, the story of Jesus walking on water both in Matthew 14:22-33 and Mark 6:45-52. Starting with the verses in Mark, the story of Jesus walking on water, was rather anti-climactic (Martin, 2012). In both versions Jesus dismissed the disciples, to go to the other side of the sea, while he cleared the crowd out and then goes to the mountain to pray alone. The first difference between the two versions is that Mark has him standing on the shore looking out at the boat that was far out to sea. In Matthew’s version, there is no mention of Jesus watching the boat, just coming to it. The second difference is the type of trouble that the disciples are having. In Mark, there is a heavy wind that they are struggling to row against. In Matthew, there is a bit more danger, his is a heavy wind that is battering the boat while they are far from
After these events took place, Jesus leaves to begin his preaching. In doing so, he also chooses his disciples while walking along the Sea of Galilee. Jesus took his disciples with him through Galilee and began his preaching there. He healed the sick and suffering, and also performed
Feeding of the multitude is the only miracle besides the resurrection that is present in all four of the Gospels; Matthew 14: 13- 21, Mark 6: 31- 44, Luke 9: 10- 17, and John 6: 1- 15. Jesus performed this miracle of feeding the multitude of five-thousand, with only five barley loaves of bread and two fish. The basic meaning of all four gospels is the same with a few slight differences. The amount of five-thousand did not include the women or children. According to John A Broadus, “the number of these (woman and children) was probably small in proportion to the men, for otherwise Mark, Luke, and John would hardly have omitted to mention them.”
It can be argued that the similarities and differences of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke can cause the reader to either see both of these accounts to complement one another with their different perspectives or that they contradict one another by certain events being mentioned in one birth narrative but not the other. Different aspects of both of these birth narratives such as the way Matthew and Luke treat Mary, the extent to which they use the Old Testament and the audience to whom they are writing to reveals the authors’ agenda as they allow their culture and own personal beliefs to influence what they write. These factors could be argued to have an effect on the historical authenticity of these texts as it could be possible that they could have caused the authors to twist the truth to fit in with their own beliefs.