One of the missions of the New Testament writers was to show
that Jesus fulfilled various prophecies of the Old Testament.
The New Testament story of Jesus feeding 5000 people which had
followed him to a mountainside with five small barley loaves and
two small fish is supposed to illustrate that Jesus could perform
miracles based on his divine nature.
Jesus, by virtue of his powers and faith, manifested so much
bread and fish from the original small samples he was given that
he not only fed 5000 people but there was enough bread left over
to fill 12 baskets.
Jesus fed the people when they had no food.
This story is found in all 4 gospels. It is not however found in
any of Paul's writings which are supposed to predate the gospels.
Paul is silent about the miracles that Jesus was supposed to have
accomplished.
What purpose does this story have in the minds of the Gospel
writers other than to simply report a miraculous event? Was there
another motive to writing this story?
Looking at the five loaves and two fish story from the Gospel of
John perspective may shed some light on what the purpose of this
story is. Once the people had seen the miracle that Jesus
produced to feed them, they assumed that he was a prophet.
John 6:14
After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they
began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come
into the world."
In the above verse the Gospel writer establishes that the miracle
signs caused people to believe that Jesus was a legitimate
prophet of God.
Moses predicted that a prophet would arise who was like him:
Deut 18:15
The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me(Moses)
from among your own brothers.
You must listen to him.
Continuing with: John 6:26-27
Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for
me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the
loaves and had your fill.
Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to
eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the
Father has placed his seal of approval."
Here the writer establishes that Jesus, also known as the Son of
Man, will provide eternal life and God "the Father" has
approved of Jesus as his official representative. However, God
repeatedly declared in the Old Testament(OT) that he was the only
savior, his name was not Jesus, and he would not give his glory
to another.
Isa 42:8
I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to
another or my praise to idols.
Isa 43:11
I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior.
Isa 45:21-22
Declare what is to be, present it-- let them take counsel
together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the
distant past? Was it not I, the LORD?
And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and
a Savior; there is none but me.
"Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I
am God, and there is no other."
God in the Old Testament never promised that a "Son of
Man" will give people eternal life.
There is NO other redeemer but God. There are NONE
but God. There is NO other Savior.
In fact, God instructs people to beware of putting their faith in
men claiming to represent God's authority.
Psa 146:3-4
Put not your trust in princes, in
a son of man, in whom there is no help.
When his breath departs he returns to his earth; on that very day
his plans perish.
The claim that Jesus makes about himself being approved by God to
give eternal life is a brash bit of advertising that borders on a
usurping of powers that only God himself has.
There are no claims in the Old Testament that believing in an
expected king Messiah or Christ would give people eternal life.
It should also be noted that the plans of Jesus, who called
himself the Son of Man, were never fulfilled as Jesus himself
promised. Jesus promised a quick return within the
lifetimes of some of his followers(Matt 16:27-28).
The great coming in the kingdom with angels and rewards that
Jesus promised never happened and his plans came to nothing after
his death.
Christians who are fond of preaching salvation to the world
would do well to read Psa 146:3-4 and
recognize that they have done exactly what God told them not to
do.
Christians have put their trust in a Son of Man and not in God
himself, who makes it abundantly clear throughout the Old
Testament that only he is the only Savior.
Continuing with: John 6:28-29
Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God
requires?"
Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the
one he has sent."
The works God requires are to fear God and follow his laws.
Believing in a man who claims to have God's approval isn't
involved.
Eccl 12:13
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of
man.
As shown, keeping God's commands and adhering to the instructions
of his laws were the works needed.
Continuing with: John 6:30-31
So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give
that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?
Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written:
'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'
Note that the "it is written" refers to Exo 16:4
which says:
Exo 16:4
Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from
heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather
enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether
they will follow my instructions.
Moses was approved of by God to represent him to the people.
Miracles often accompanied Moses to show the people he was a true
representative of God.
Continuing with: John 6:32-35
Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses
who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who
gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives
life to the world."
"Sir," they said, "from now on give us this
bread."
Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes
to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never
be thirsty.
Here the gospel writer attempts to link Jesus to the Old
Testament. The reason he does this is to add credibility to his
story. The writer is trying to manufacture a prophecy fulfillment
or create a "foreshadowing". The Gospel writers were
all experts at trying to write Jesus into the Old Testament where
his name never once appears.
In short, the writer is trying to say:
"Look!, Jesus has as close a connection to God as Moses had!
Jesus is able to call on God's power just like Moses did!"
Continuing with John 6:38-40
For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the
will of him who sent me.
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none
of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and
believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up
at the last day."
The author then elevates Jesus higher than Moses by saying Jesus
told the people that the bread of God is he who comes down from
heaven to give life to the world. In other words, Jesus came from
heaven and is the bread of life. Moses never came from heaven or
was the bread of life.
The author of the Gospel of John has now set the stage for making
Jesus a "prophet/savior" who the people MUST listen to.
Jesus claimed that he does the "Father's will" and that
will is that mankind should look to a "Son of Man"
prophet/savior for salvation and eternal life.
Jesus is now the savior who will raise people up if they believe
in HIM.
This directly contradicts the Old Testament. As previously cited:
Isa 45:21-22
…And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a
Savior; there is none but me.
"Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I
am God, and there is no other.
And as already noted, there is no instruction from God in the Old
Testament which states that a Messiah or Christ would ever
replace the Lord God as the sole Savior to which people should
turn to and believe in.
Num 23:19
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he
should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he
promise and not fulfill?
According to the OT, God is not a man, does not change his mind,
and does not make promises he won't keep.
However, the author of John ignores all of this and writes his
own story line of what God's word really is. In John's story,
because Jesus fed the people with a miracle, he must be a true
prophet of God that Moses predicted. Jesus is also the bread of
life and a savior who will give people eternal life if they
believe in him.
Remember what Moses had said:
The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like
me(Moses) from among your own brothers.
You must listen to him.
Presto!!! The author of John has, through his writing, made Jesus
not only equal to Moses but even better than him.
The people must now listen to him(Jesus).
The instructions soon follow:
Continuing with: John 6:46-48
No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only
he has seen the Father.
I(Jesus)tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.
I(Jesus)am the bread of life.
And there's the bottom line. Believe in Jesus as being sent from
God(along with being God) and you will be saved and receive your
reward. The writer has now established Jesus as legitimate and
one who has authority to tell people what God wants them to do.
But what Jesus tells people to do is a far cry from what God
"the Father" commanded in the Old Testament.
John 6:53-56 then has Jesus telling people to drink his
blood and eat his flesh.
Continuing with: John 6:53-56
Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat
the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life
in you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I
will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in
him.
The drinking of blood in any form is abomination to God(Lev
17:10) but few Christians bother to think about that. They
are too entranced with Jesus to notice that "minor"
detail.
God's instructions are clear:
Lev 17:10
And I will turn against anyone, whether an Israelite or a
foreigner living among you, who eats or drinks blood in any form.
I will cut off such a person from the community,
Consumption of blood is an abomination to God. No blood is to be
consumed, symbolic or otherwise.
And, if Jesus was supposed to represent a sacrifice which died
for the sins of the community of mankind, then his instructions
to "eat his flesh" also contradicts God's law regarding
a proper sin sacrifice for the community.
Lev 4:13-16, 21
"`If the whole Israelite community sins unintentionally and
does what is forbidden in any of the LORD's commands, even though
the community is unaware of the matter, they are guilty.
When they become aware of the sin they committed, the assembly
must bring a young bull as a sin offering and present it before
the Tent of Meeting.
The elders of the community are to lay their hands on the bull's
head before the LORD, and the bull shall be slaughtered before
the LORD.
Then the anointed priest is to take some of the bull's blood into
the Tent of Meeting.
Then he shall take the bull outside the camp and burn it as he
burned the first bull. This is the sin offering for the
community.
Lev 6:30
But any sin offering whose blood is brought into the Tent of
Meeting to make atonement in the Holy Place must not be eaten; it
must be burned.
While some sin sacrifices can be eaten, any sin offering whose
blood is brought into the Tent of Meeting must not be eaten, it
must be burned.
Christians will claim that the blood is just symbolic and that
wine is the actual drink, but this excuse falls flat. God did not
qualify what he said in Lev 17:10, but rather, said that
man shall not consume any kind of blood whatsoever.
It really doesn't matter if it wasn't real blood but only wine.
Drinking real or symbolic blood amounts to real or symbolic sin.
Jesus urged his followers to commit symbolic sins in the eyes of
God. If Jesus was really the legitimate Son of God, he should
have known enough to follow his Father's laws.
Jesus even preached about symbolic sin:
Matt 5:28
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has
already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Do Christians really think God would approve of someone who
drinks wine pretending that it represents blood of any type? God
had 3,000 Israelites killed for recognizing that a golden calf
was a symbol for a god.
The Bible God certainly wouldn't put up with his instructions
being mocked like that.
God even commented on his attitude toward those who practiced
pagan blood drinking:
Psa 16:4
Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god;
Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, Nor take up
their names on my lips.
The drinking of symbolic blood is no less a sin than drinking the
real thing. Symbolic sin is still sin.
Jesus taught pagan teachings and gave instructions to the Jews
that had never been taught by their fathers or by Moses.
To reiterate what Jesus taught that directly contradicted God's
word in the Old Testament:
Jesus declared:
John 6:54
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I
will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
Many of the Jews knew this teaching was not in line with God's
instructions to Moses:
John 6:60
On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard
teaching. Who can accept it?"
No true Jew could ever accept a teaching so out of line with
God's word to Moses.
Jesus didn't apply his own standards of symbolic sin to his
Father's laws. He ignored them. This isn't surprising as he also
ignored the God's food laws and God's laws regarding the Sabbath.
It's little wonder the Jews rejected Jesus as a legitimate
representative of the God they worshipped.
As a final note, the prophecy(Deut 18:15) which the New
Testament writers were so eager to have Jesus fulfill doesn't
apply to any specific individual.
Deut 18:15
The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me(Moses)
from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.
Deut 18:15 read in fuller context reveals that any prophet
raised by God could fulfill this.
The verse under discussion does not refer not to any specific
individual.
There are many of prophets of God who came after Moses in the Old
Testament.
For example Deut 18:18 confirms that Jeremiah would
qualify to fulfill this prophecy.
Deut 18:18-19
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their
brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them
everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words
that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to
account.
Jer 1:9
Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my(Jeremiah's)
mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your
mouth.
Jeremiah was a prophet who had his words put in his mouth by God
as the prophecy stipulates so there is no single person who
fulfills the prophecy by Moses.
The final irony is that Jesus does closely match the prophet
spoken of in Deut 18:20.
Deut 18:20
But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have
not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of
other gods, must be put to death."
Since Jesus claimed that God's food laws were canceled in Mark
7, he spoke that which was the opposite of what God taught
his prophets.
Jesus taught in Mark 2 that the Sabbath was made for man
and that food could be gathered on it.
This was also the opposite of what God taught his prophets.
God taught his prophets that the Law was to be observed, not
ignored. Jeremiah never claimed that the people could ignore
God's eternal laws which were given to Moses.
Most disturbing of all, Jesus taught that for a person to obtain
salvation and eternal life, they should drink his blood, eat his
flesh and believe HE was the bread of life.
There is NO command from God in the entire Old Testament that
instructs people to drink the blood of a king Messiah or Christ
and believe in him as a divine being in order to have salvation
and eternal life.
God himself is the only savior. There are NO others.
The New Testament writer of the Gospel of John(as well as the
other Gospel writers) attempted to portray Jesus as a valid
prophet who was predicted by Moses. Linking Jesus to miracles was
part of that process.
Then they evolve Jesus further by claiming he is now the NEW
savior which people must believe in.
In doing so, these writers portray Jesus as giving instructions
which contradict God's word in the Old Testament.
Because Jesus presumed to speak things in God's name which God
NEVER commanded any of his prophets to say, Jesus qualifies as a
false prophet.
Jesus was also put to death, fulfilling Deut 18:20.
Christians are always proclaiming that Jesus fulfilled hundreds
of Old Testament "prophecies" but you can be sure that
the fulfillment of Deut 18:20 by Jesus is one example you
won't hear Christians advertise to the world as part of their
aggressive and constant evangelical efforts.
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