Coptic Orthodox Answers

In name of Father and Son, the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.

Welcome to Coptic Orthodox Answers Deep Dive. We studied together the Gospel of John, chapter 5, last time and we saw how the paralytic man was healed on the Sabbath by Christ. And that caused major issues with the Pharisees. Obviously, when Christ healed the paralytic man, He was in the city of Jerusalem, in the province of Judea.

So, here in verse 1, it says:

'' 1 After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.'' (John 6:1)

So Christ went from the province of Judea to the province of Samaria to the province of Galilee in the north, where the Sea of Tiberias is. So, this sea is called the Sea of Galilee, but for the Gentile audience that are about to read the Gospel of John, John also mentions the second name, which is the Sea of Tiberias, because this sea was named after Tiberias Caesar, obviously.

'' 2 [So] Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased.'' (John 6:2)

So, in verse 2, St. John is reminding us of chapter 2 and chapter 4 where he mentioned that some people did not fully believe in Christ and were following Him merely because of the signs or the miracles. Here, St. John is setting the stage for verse 66 in that chapter 6 where people will be rejecting Christ after His discourse on the Eucharist.

Moving on to verse 3, it says:

'' 3 [Then] Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.'' (John 6:3)

When you look at that scene in Gospel... in the Gospel of Mark, in chapter 6, verse 31, we can tell that Christ was going with His disciples on His own for them to rest. But then, when people followed Him, then He had compassion on them and He sat with them and even healed some of the sick. So here, Christ is teaching us: although sometimes we might be very tired, we might be exhausted because of service, because of work, whatever it may be, we have to go beyond ourselves and still, sometimes, go the second mile and serve others. So, this is a very nice spiritual message that ought to take from this verse right here.

Now verse 4 says:

'' 4 Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.'' (John 6:4)

And this verse is key, because in the beginning of chapter 6, it says that Christ was in Jerusalem and now He's moving away from Jerusalem and He went to Galilee. But wait a second: Why is He going to Galilee when the feast of the Passover is near? Because the feast of the Passover, obviously, as you know, all the Jews were required: it was mandatory for them to go to Jerusalem to worship. But Christ is going the other direction.

Potentially, He was going the other direction, because people are about to kill Him. The Jews are about to kill Him, because He just healed the paralytic man, right? So, maybe out of His safety, the time of fulfilment of the cross and resurrection had not yet arrived. But there is a greater significance to that move.

As people from Galilee, although in the North, are going southward, right?, to go worship in Jerusalem, Christ is going in the opposite direction. Christ wanted to shift the focus from the Old Testament Passover to the New Testament one. He wanted to shift the focus from the Old Testament temple to the New Testament temple who is Himself. That's His purpose and that purpose becomes obvious in the next few verses.

First, we go to verse 4 that says:

'' 4 Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.'' (John 6:4)

When we go to Mark 6 or Luke 9 or Matthew 14, like, any of the synoptic Gospels that mention that breaking of the five loaves and two fish, first thing we notice is that they do not mention that it is the Passover. But St. John wants to mention it, because truly St. John has an objective in his mind and he wants to portray who Christ is. Truly, he's dubbed the theologian, so notice this. So, this is the first point: the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.

The second point has to do with what Christ does with the bread. In the synoptic Gospels, it says that Christ blessed and broke, but St. John does not say this; he says something else. Let's see...

Verse 11 says:

'' 11 And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks [ευχαριστιo (euharistio), in Greek] He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.'' (John 6:11)

So, He didn't bless and broke here, but St. John links this miracle with the Eucharist. And then in verse 12, it says:

'' 12 (...) ''Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.'' '' (John 6:12)

And here, I wrote as a note: none of the members of His body will be lost. So here, His apostles or bishops, the leaders of the Church, one of the jobs is to gather these fragments, the body of Christ, the members of the Church, to be one in God, so none of them will be lost. So, we see here a very mystical message that is absent from the synoptics. Truly, John is the theologian. He talks about the Passover in verse 4; in verse 11, he links that with the Eucharist; and then in verse 12, he links that with the Church itself. It is just beautiful!

Something else that I personally find gorgeous in chapter 6 is the breakdown of the chapter and how it compares with the Old Testament. So, the breakdown of the chapter is the five loaves and two fish, the feeding of the five thousand; then Christ walks on water; then the discussion on the Eucharist; and then disciples turning away from the Eucharist.

So obviously, number one here, which is the five loaves and two fish, here, it's a symbolic to the Passover itself in the Old Testament, but at the same time, it links with the Eucharist. So, Christ wants to mention that the fulfilment of the Passover in the Old Testament is the Eucharist itself. But, like, we mentioned earlier on, when we started to study the Gospel of John together, how a lot of the Old Testament is hidden in the Gospel of John and we can find this here.

So, if we go back to the Old Testament, what happened after the Israelites killing the lamb of the Passover? They crossed the Red Sea. So here, in chapter 6 of John, in between the Eucharist and the Passover, the... the symbolic Passover here, which is the breaking of the five loaves and the two fish, the feeding of the five thousand, also St. John puts Christ walking on water, mirroring the Old Testament of Moses crossing the Red Sea. How beautiful is that!

Moving to verse 5, it says:

'' 5 Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, ''Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?'' (John 6:5)

There seems to be a contradiction between John 6 and Matthew 14. Matthew 14 says:

'' 15 When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.” 16 But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” (Matthew 14:15-16)

So, in John 6, Christ is the one that approaches Philip. In Matthew 14, the disciples are the ones that approach Christ. But you will notice that in John 6, it's the beginning of the event and Jesus lifts up His eyes and He sees the multitude coming towards Him. And therefore, He asks Philip, to test him, although He already knew what He was going to do.

In Matthew 14, it was in the evening. So, the disciples reopened that conversation with Christ and then Christ tells them: no, no, don't send them away, but get them something to eat. So, in reality, there's no contradiction between the two.

Now let's read 5 and 6 together:

'' 5 Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, ''Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat? 6 But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.'' (John 6:5-6)

To understand the extent of the issue that we're facing here, Capernaum, which is a place that is adjacent to the Sea of Tiberius, held about 2 500 people. So here, we have 5 000 men following Christ plus women and children, so we're talking about tens of thousands of people that are following Him. He cannot just send them to Capernaum, for example, for Capernaum to feed them, because Capernaum would only be able to feed about 2 500 people, because that's their normal production. So, Christ would have to send them to many different places to eat, so it was a huge problem.

In addition, there are also two points to take from verse 6. The first is that Christ is testing Philip in his foreknowledge, of his lack of faith, in John 14. St. Cyril's very keen to point this, where Philip asks Christ: show us the Father and we will believe. So, that's why Christ was testing specifically Philip. At the same time, St. Cyril's also keen to demonstrate how Christ already foreknew what He was going to do, because, again, His divinity is united with His humanity, and therefore He knows what's He's gonna do.

Moving on to verse 7:

'' 7 Philip answered Him, ''Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.'' (John 6:7)

Maybe 200 dinarii is what they had as money, maybe in the treasure box, who knows? Obviously, know that a denarius was a wage for a day. So, when someone would work all day long, or 8 hours let's say, his entire wage for the day was 1 denarius. So, this is not a small sum of money.

'' 8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, 9 ''There is a lad here who has five barley loaves [barley loaves is the food of the poor] and two small fish, but what are they among so many?''

10 [Now] Jesus said, ''Make the people sit down.'' [Notice how Christ is leading.] Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.'' (John 6:8-10)

There's another correlation here with the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the head of the household would be the one leading the Passover. Similarly, in the New Testament here, Christ, the head of the Church, is the one that is leading this meal.

'' 11 And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.'' (John 6:11)

St. Ephraim the Syrian notices how the miracle is done as per the hunger of the people. So, the people ate as much as they wanted. So, he's saying it's not based on the limit of God's power, but it's based on how much people needed. And then, twelve baskets of leftover fragments were taking up by them.

St. Hilary of Poitiers makes a couple of very nice comments. He says: notice how the food is given to the people through the apostles. And he says: the apostles, here, represented the priesthood of Christ in the Church, and therefore the gift of grace is given to the people through the apostles, which were bishops, right? And generally speaking, it symbolizes the priesthood of Christ.

The second point that he makes is linked to Acts 4:4. The verse says:

'' 4 However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.'' (Acts 4:4)

So this, obviously, is speaking about the New Testament Church and here, five thousand men joined the New Testament Church. So, going back to the five loaves and two fish and that miracle, he realizes how also there are five thousand men that were fed. So here, he equates the word of God in Acts 4 with the bread that is being given in John 6 and he says this bread symbolizes the word of God.

And he says the people at the time that were sitting there were the Old Testament Church, right? So, the Jews are there, they're sitting and they're hungry for the word of God, and therefore God fills them with His word, which is the law and the prophets, or in other words, the Old Testament.

Yet, there, all twelve baskets of leftover fragment are taken up by the apostles. The apostles, here, the teachers of the multitude in the New Testament, are the ones that still have that bread, that word of God, and they give it to the New Testament Church still. And notice how, like the New Testament was hidden in the Old Testament, and therefore the New Testament

comes out of the Old Testament, similarly these fragments of bread were taken from the loaves themselves. So, the fragments, here, symbolizing the New Testament, were taken from the loaves that symbolized the Old Testament and both Old and New Testament Churches, if you will, are being filled by the word of God.

Moving on to verse 12:

'' 12 So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, ''Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.'' (John 6:12)

Truly, Christ does not wanna lose one member of His Church. Every single soul matters. You matter. If you need to repent, then you really need to repent. God is waiting for you. His arms are wide open, nailed to the cross, awaiting for you. He cannot close them. Theologically speaking, God loves unconditionally. Let us all offer proper repentance and go back to God and He will definitely accept us. St. John emphasizes this concept in the remainder of his Gospel. In John 6:39, he says:

'' 39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.'' (John 6:39)

John 10:28:

'' 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.'' (John 10:28)

Moving on to verse 13:

'' 13 Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.'' (John 6:13)

John does not mention when Christ actually chooses the apostles in his own Gospel, but this verse demonstrates that at this point in time, He had already chosen them.

Verse 14:

'' 14 Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, ''This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.'' '' (John 6:14)

So, this sign was very important to them and they recognized that Christ was a prophet, based on this miracle. Why is that? Because in 2 Kings, chapter 4, Elijah made a similar miracle and Elijah, obviously, is a very worthy prophet in the eyes of the Jews. Elijah had twenty loaves of bread and he had a hundred men and he fed them and even some bread was left over, similar to this miracle. But here, Christ only had five loaves versus the twenty of

Elijah and He fed five thousand men plus their family. So obviously, their reaction was: Wow! This must be a prophet.

Verse 15:

'' 15 Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.'' (John 6:15)

Christ has displayed an amazing power, so naturally, the Jews want to make Him king. They're going to Jerusalem anyways. They're fed up of the Romans. They're fed up of Herod and what he has done to John the Baptist. So, why not take Christ, make Him king, and let Him lead a rebellion against the Romans? Makes perfect sense in their understanding.

In Matthew 14, it says that Christ then took His disciples, put them into the boat and sent them away immediately. And then, He Himself sent away the multitude. Why is that? Potentially, the disciples shared in the general enthusiasm of the people and they also wanted to make Christ an earthly king. So, Christ stepped in as a good leader, separated them from the crowd for the sake of their holiness. And only then did Christ actually resume His retreat.

Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith. And glory be to God forever and ever. Amen.

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Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith.