John 6:1–15

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

6:1–13pp—Mt 14:13–21; Mk 6:32–44; Lk 9:10–17

6Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), ²and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs^y he had performed by healing the sick. ³Then Jesus went up on a mountainside^z and sat down with his disciples. ⁴The Jewish Passover Festival^a was near.

⁵When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip,^b “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” ⁶He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

⁷Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages^a to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

⁸Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother,^c spoke up, ⁹“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”^d

¹⁰Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). ¹¹Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks,^e and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

¹²When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” ¹³So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

¹⁴After the people saw the sign^f Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”^{g 15}Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king^h by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.ⁱ