Bible Discussion Thread

Jesus desired solitude, departed on a ship, then went to the desert. Yet the masses followed him? HOW? did they take a ship? There were @ 20,000 of them (5000 men). Also they were in the desert but Jesus told them to sit on the grass?

John 6:1-29 ,

John 6:23-24, they took ships

I like to read each account of a given biblical account especially when deeply searching truth or studying details. The search box on this site is helpful for that.

Hopefully this is helpful

Susan,

Matthew 14:13-21 speaks about the provision of food for the five thousand. You are correct in stating the approximate number of people being 20,000. It tells us that there were also women and children, so it would have been somewhere between 15 to 20 thousand people that were fed.

Here is what I would like to share with you on this section as I am taking it from reading the Greek text. In Matthew 14:13, it says that Jesus departed by ship into a (desert place) apart. We see the word desert in our English bibles, and we think of a desert as some dried-up place full of cactus (No grass). So why did Jesus tell them to sit on the grass? There's no grass in the desert!

This is why I love the Greek. In the Greek text, where it says, "a desert place," it is EREMON TOPON which literally means a secluded place. It is not a desert as we know a desert to be in English. This was a secluded place that would have had grass. So that would explain why Jesus had them sit on the grass.

Wherever this secluded place was, we know that Jesus went by boat. As for the masses that followed, Verse 13 says they walked.

Does this help any?

Thanks Jesse, I was thinking that also, An out of the way place that is not very inhabited. The Jordan valley is very fertile and as steep slopes leading up to the upland. The people may have had a way around the body of water Jesus was crossing in a boat and were able to meet up with Him wen he got out of the boat to the place He wished to perform tis miracle. He must have tarried some for them to catch up with him, or the boat was slow traveling compared to foot. We don't know if it was a long journey or sort.

Thanks for helping on this.

Gigi,

You are welcome. It is true that we don't know how long the journey was or if the Lord waited on those who came by foot. Something I am also seeing is that in Matthew 14:13, it says they followed him on foot out of the cities (Plural). So my guess is that they came from various cities to where Jesus was and some may have gotten there even before Him. This is just a guess on my part. I do not know?

Perhaps so,

But in the end, the important part is the miraculous provision made by Jesus, multiplying the food to feed so many. It wasn't just ""stretching" the morsels out to feed more (as we did when there was someone extra for dinner in our big family). It was obviously abundantly miraculous.

It does and TY!! There's that old adage that scripture defines scripture and good ol'Mark details this departure in a different way. Apparently the masses came from all directions, so many didn't have to cross by sea (I'm thinking HOW did @20,000 people get a vessel to navigate a body of water)? Holy Spirit driven. Your desert description makes total sense!!