One Loaf to Rule Them All ...

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
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robert j
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Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 5:01 pm

One Loaf to Rule Them All ...

Post by robert j »

neilgodfrey made the following observation on another thread (Acharya S and the real Christ Conspiracy, 2-11-14),


"I don't think the evidence supports the idea that the miracle of the loaves and fishes was sourced from a belief in folk magic. There may have been community beliefs in folk magic that made such an account credible, but that's not explaining the origin of the story. Moreover, there is evidence that some Christians did not believe this story was literal at all but figurative. A parable."


Mark was clear about the nature of his tale ---

"Do you not understand this parable? So then how will you understand all the parables?" (Mark 4:13).

Consider this parable in Mark. I believe Mark relied on Paul not only for the baptism of the spirit, the last supper scene, the death for the forgiveness of sins, the burial, and the resurrection after three days --- but also for his "one loaf". The same Greek term was used by both Paul and Mark for "one loaf", sometimes translated as "one bread".

"The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for all of us share that one loaf." (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).

In Marks tale, after sailing across the Sea of Galilee with Jesus, the disciples noticed ---

"And they had forgotten to take bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat." (Mark 8:14).

The disciples were worrying over this. An exasperated Jesus had to remind them of his ability to feed everyone, how everyone can share in Him. In Mark 8:17-20, Jesus reminds them how previously he had made five loaves feed 5,000 and then, perhaps earlier that very day, he made seven loaves feed 4,000.

"Don't you understand yet?" Jesus asks them. (Mark 8:21).


Notes --- acknowledgment to Jiri Severa who made an observation on another forum about this parallel between Paul and Mark about the one loaf.

I certainly recognize the differences of opinion on Mark's dependence on Paul --- there is enough verbiage on the subject to fill a small library. I'm not inclined to participate in a debate on this dependence at this time --- should anyone choose to weigh-in --- I just wanted to lay out an observation.

robert j.
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