What’s Moses Have to Do with the Feeding of the Five Thousand?

The feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle story to occur in all four Gospels - Matthew14:13-21; Mark 6:32-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-15. Now that alone should tell us something about just how important the miracle is to story as a whole.  And yet, surprisingly, the feeding of the five thousand seems to generate remarkably little interest among readers. It’s “in there,” of course – but it’s frequently relegated to the status of nice Sunday School lesson about Yeshua’s concern for his followers. Historical reconstructions of the life of Yeshua don’t pay all that much attention to the incident. The main point of contention about the story is usually the question of whether or not it was a miracle at all – critical Bible scholars have an obsession with providing non-supernatural explanations as to how Yeshua turned two fish and five loaves of bread into a full-size banquet.

As a consequence of all this under-appreciation, we’ve missed out on just how important this miracle really is to the Gospels. However, if we examine the feeding of the five thousand within its first-century Jewish context, its significance quickly becomes apparent.

The New Moses of the New Exodus

During the Second Temple period Jews believed the Messiah would be a new Moses who would lead the people of Israel in a New Exodus.

 Just before his death Moses declared that God would raise up “a prophet like me” to lead the Jewish nation (Deut. 18:15-18).   This “prophet-like-Moses” motif is picked up by the book of Isaiah which envisions the day when an end-time prophet will arise to rescue the people of Israel from exile and lead them back to the Promised Land. The Suffering Servant of Isaiah is actually modeled after this Moses-like figure. Like Moses, the Servant is God’s Chosen One (Isa 42:1). And like Moses, he gives the people his torah (Isa 42:4) and like Moses, he leads the nation in a new exodus (Isa 52:7-12).

By the time of the Gospels, the prophet-like-Moses was well-established as an end time messianic figure. Two Dead Sea Scrolls – 1QS 9:5-11 and 4QTestimonia (4Q175), lines 1-8 – specifically refer to the arrival of an eschatological prophet in conjunction with an eschatological priest (the Messiah of Aaron) and an eschatological king (the Messiah of Israel). There is a lot of debate among scholars about what role each of these three messianic figures play within the eschatology of Qumran but one thing is clear – the eschatological prophet was central to the community’s messianic hopes. He was the Prophet-like-Moses who would guide them in a new exodus.

Similarly, the Gospels present Yeshua as the New Moses who leads the nation of Israel in a New Exodus back from exile, back to the Promised Land. This is the key that unlocks the meaning of our miracle story!

Yeshua’s act of feeding the five thousand in the wilderness points back to Moses and the exodus from Egypt.  Just as the miraculous provision of manna from heaven fed the hungry multitude that followed Moses into the wilderness so also the multiplication of bread loaves fed the hungry multitude that followed Yeshua into the wilderness (Matt 14:19).

 Both events take place in the wilderness.  The Septuagint uses the Greek word ἔρημος (erēmos) to translate the Hebrew word מדבר (midbar), meaning “wilderness.” The same Greek word is used in the Gospels to describe the location where the feeding of the five thousand takes place but this nuance of the word is often obscured by English translations. The disciples ask Yeshua to send the multitudes away in order to find food elsewhere, insisting, “The place is an ἔρημος (erēmos)” – a wilderness (Matt 14:15).

 The multiplication of the two fish (Matt 14:19) provides yet another parallel to the Exodus story, albeit on a more subtle level.  The miracle recalls the time Moses somewhat incredulously questioned the Lord’s ability to feed the entire multitude and mentions Him providing fish to satisfy their hunger (Num 11:21-23). 

 However, Yeshua’s act of feeding the five thousand doesn’t just point to the Exodus of the past – it also points to the eschatological Exodus of the future.  According to 2 Baruch, a Jewish text dating to the first century AD, the manna from Heaven will be restored when the Messiah appears:

And it will happen that when all that which should come to pass is these parts is accomplished, the Messiah will begin to be revealed …. And those who are hungry will enjoy themselves and they will, moreover, see marvels every day …  And it will happen at that time that the treasury of manna will come down again from on high, and they will eat of it in those years because these are they who will have arrived at the consummation of time. (2 Baruch 29:3, 6-8)

 The feeding of the five thousand isn’t just a heartwarming story about Yeshua’s concern for the physical welfare of his followers.  He was, of course, concerned about their physical needs – but the miracle was about so much more that.  Yeshua fed the five thousand as a prophetic sign confirming his messianic identity as the New Moses who God raised up to lead the people of Israel in a New Exodus.