Jesus' Life and Times - Ministry to the Gentiles

Arriving at Ein Gev, our faithful guide, Doran, prompts us to open our Bibles to Mark 8, the account of one of Jesus' miracles that took place here on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee:

"During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, 'I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.' His disciples answered, 'But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?' 'How many loaves do you have?' Jesus asked. 'Seven,' they replied. He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and they did so. They had a few small fish as well; he gave

thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. The people ate and were satisfied. Afterwards the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. About four thousand men were present" (Mark 8:1-9).

Right, hills on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee (a pagan region at the time of Jesus).

This feeding miracle, of the 4,000 (also recorded in Matthew), sounds very similar to the feeding of the 5,000 recorded in all four Gospels. But other than the number of people fed, there are two significant differences between the feedings. One is in the number of baskets of "leftovers" the disciples gathered afterward. In the feeding of the 5,000, there are twelve basketfuls; in the feeding of the 4,000, there are seven, an intentionally symbolic number. In Jewish thought the number "12" always represented the twelve tribes of Israel and thus themselves, the people of the Covenant. On the other hand, the number "7" represented the number of pagan nations driven out of Canaan at the time of the Conquest, as listed in Joshua 3:

Furthermore, the type baskets used to collect the leftover food after each feeding is different. In the feeding of the 5,000 the basket is a kophinos, a large basket used for carrying items on the head. In the feeding of the 4,000 the basket, called spuris in Greek, was a plaited reed basket or lunch basket with handles (probably the disciples' personal lunch baskets). Clearly, this is a totally separate multiplication miracle meant to show that Jesus was a Messiah for both Gentiles and Jews, as Jesus himself pointed out to his seemingly perpetually dense disciples: