Did you know that Jesus' miraculous multiplication of bread has an Old Testament counterpart?
I didn't realize this until I started working on a new project for the Vida Nova publishing house: checking and revising cross references for a new study Bible.
[Vida Nova already has a study Bible in its catalog, using a Portuguese translation licensed by the Bra
zilian Bible Society. The new study Bible will be based on a new translation prepared by our own team of Hebrew and Greek scholars here in Brazil, called the Almeida Século 21 (Almeida Century 21).]Although painstaking, the work of cross references is fascinating. The New Testament was not written in a vacuum, of course. The Old Testament background is deep and essential to understanding the message of the Gospels, Acts and Letters. If you have any doubts, check out Jesus' encounter with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: And beginning with Moses and the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. (Luke 24:27, NIV)
So where is bread multiplied in the OT? Take a look at 2 Kings 4:42-44 (NIV):
A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. "Give it to the people to eat," Elisha said."How can I set this before a hundred men?" his servant asked. But Elisha answered, "Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the LORD says: 'They will eat and have some left over.' " Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.
See the similarities to the accounts in Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9 and John 6? Even down to the incredulity of the servant and the leftovers! There is, however, an amazing difference in proportions. Elisha feeds 100 men with 20 loaves (5:1 ratio), but Jesus feeds 5,000 men with only 5 loaves (1,000:1 ratio)! Don't you get the feeling that God wanted to emphasize the fact that, in Jesus' case, You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased?
