How Do You Read It? The Feeding of the Five Thousand

A Historical Geographic Reading

Sunset at Bethsaida (el-Araj)

Christian pilgrims to the land of Israel are shown “traditional” site that commemorate events in the life of Jesus. The traditions attached to these sites often date to the Byzantine period (4^th-7^th centuries AD) or the Crusader period (11^th-13^th centuries AD) and were marked by the construction of a church on the site. Local guides reinforce these traditions telling the pilgrims that the commemorated event happened at the location. Pilgrims return home none-the-wiser. In their minds, they visited the site of the biblical event. Traditions, however, often developed for reasons other than historical geographic accuracy (we can never underestimate the impact of pilgrimage upon local economies in the establishment of traditions). One such traditional site is the Church of the Multiplication at Tabgha on the shore of the Lake of Galilee. This site commemorates Jesus’ miracle recorded in all four Gospels of the feeding of the five thousand.

Travel to the lands of the Bible should empower pilgrims to read and understand the Bible within the contexts of its world. Few experiences genuinely deliver on this problem. For one, most itineraries simply take travelers to traditional sites, and while they may read a passage from the Bible at the site, they do not pay attention to the contextual details, for example the spatial details, within the biblical text. They were at the site, and they read the Scripture. They are not shown how being in the land should heighten their attention to the details of the biblical text. To illustrate, let’s look at the account of the feeding of the five thousand and compare the geographic details within the Gospel accounts with the traditional location of the Church of the Multiplication.