Loaves and Fishes

Even folks with no religious background know what you mean when you mention the multiplication of loaves and fishes. The story has entered into popular culture, like Noah’s Ark for example. And why not? It’s miraculous, it’s spectacular, and it’s a perfect expression of Christ as a source of material and spiritual nourishment.

All four canonical gospels include a ‘multiplication’ narrative – which is somewhat unusual outside of the Passion. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark each include two ‘multiplication accounts’; so 6 accounts in 4 Gospels. Hmm, someone must think this is important!

According to Mark, Jesus fed 5,000 pilgrims on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee and a few weeks later 4,000 pilgrims on the southern shore.

 Scholars have suggested that both accounts might refer to a single event, remembered differently in different traditions, told twice for dramatic effect. The Enlightenment hunger to minimize the miraculous element in the Jesus’ story makes no sense here. 

First, the details of the two events differ significantly and, second, in a major teaching directed at the Apostles Jesus emphasizes precisely those differences. The differences are not incidental; the differences are what’s happening!

Let’s cut to the chase. Jesus feeds 5,000 pilgrims from 5 loaves and then 4,000 pilgrims from 7 loaves. In the second incident, Jesus has more to work with but feeds fewer people. From the standpoint of Physics, it doesn’t make sense. But from the perspective of Economics it makes perfect sense. Supply has increased so demand has fallen. Were the supply infinite, the demand would drop to zero…as in the Kingdom of Heaven, for example.

But I don’t think that was Jesus’ point at all. So far, I’ve left out a key element. When Jesus fed 5,000 with 5 loaves, his disciples gathered 12 baskets of scraps, but when he fed 4,000 with 7 loaves, only 7 baskets were collected. 

The apostles do not understand, and neither do we, and this exasperates Jesus to no end: “Do you still not understand? Are your minds closed? You have eyes; can’t you see?”

Ok, let’s try, let’s see if we can see. First, the numbers themselves are important. 12 is the # of the tribes of Israel; it is also the # of signs in the Zodiac. It represents the whole, the entirety. 

7 is the # of the Sabbath; it represents fulfillment, God’s rest (7th day in Genesis). From it we derive the weekly ‘sabbath’ (7th day) and the ‘sabbatical’ year (7th). More importantly, 7 sabbaticals lead to a Jubilee, the ultimate expression of harmony, totality, and peace: (7 x 7 → 50). Do all these numbers  make up a coherent narrative? Consider: 

5 loaves/5,000 → 12 baskets,

7 loaves/4,000 → 7 baskets.

Gobbledygook, right? Not so fast! In each scenario we need to consider ‘the distribution’ (how many people were fed from how many loaves…) and ‘the surplus’ (…leaving how many baskets of scraps). In the 1st instance, 5 (loaves) were distributed among 5 (thousand) – 5/5; in the 2nd instance 7 (loaves) were distributed among 4 (thousand) – 7/4. But in the 1st instance 12 baskets of surplus are created while the 2nd instance creates only 7. Is there a significant relationship among these various quantities or were they chosen more or less haphazardly?

Surprisingly, there is a clear and profound relationship! Instance #1 feeds more people with fewer loaves (5/5) than instance #2 (4/7). Counterintuitively, the more efficient distribution scheme (#1) also generates more surplus (12 vs. 7). #1 accomplishes more with less and leaves more behind. Now let’s get quantitative: How exactly does the creation of surplus relate to the efficiency of distribution?

 2nd in-put (7/4) by its output relative to the 1st in-put (7/12), you are measuring the power of God. And when you do that, something truly miraculous happens; you get the #3:

7/4 x 12/7 = 3

This cannot be coincidental: the numbers are too peculiar…and too precise…and too significant. Critically, this formula only works for the precise values cited by Mark: 5/5/12 and 7/4/7. There is nothing accidental or haphazard about these narratives. Other places? Maybe. But not here. This is iron clad; this is in stone!

But why would we care? Well, in the first multiplication, 5 loaves feed 5,000 with 12 baskets left over; in the second, more loaves feed fewer people and produce, not more baskets of residual scraps as we would have expected, but fewer. 

Neither event would be possible without divine intervention. But Event #1 is clearly more reliant on that power than Event #2. In lay terms, the tighter the squeeze, the stronger the push. Another way of saying this, “God is where he most needs to be, doing what he most needs to do.”

Thanks to Jesus, we have been able to measure the power of God…and it’s exactly 3. Of course, the #3 is yet another representation of the whole, but this time it’s the Divine Whole, the Trinity.

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