1 And hunger and fear made some of the disciples doubt, and they said to Jesus, Can thy Lord send down to us food from heaven?1
2 He said, Fear God if ye have faith.
3 They said, We only wish to eat thereof, and satisfy our hearts, and to know that thou hast indeed told us the truth; and that we ourselves may be witnesses to the miracle.
4 And Jesus prayed, O God our Lord! send us food from heaven that there may be for us—for the first and the last of us—a solemn festival and a sign from Thee. And provide for our sustenance, for Thou art the best Sustainer.
5 God said, I will send it down unto you. But if any of you after that resisteth faith, I will punish him with a penalty such as I have not inflicted on anyone among all the people.
6 Then Jesus said to his disciples, Bring all the food that ye have; and there were two fish and five loaves.
7 And he took the two fish and five loaves, and he looked up to heaven, and brake the five loaves.
8 And he set them before his disciples; and the two fish he likewise divided among them all.
9 And they did eat, all of them, and were filled.2
10 And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the villages of Caesarea Philippi: and he was praying by the way; and he asked some of his disciples, whom do the people say that I am?3
11 And they answered, John the Baptist4 and others say Elias, but some say, Jeremiah or one of the prophets of old.
12 And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answered and said, Thou art the Messiah of Israel.5
13 And he charged them that they should tell no man of who he was.6
14 And his brethren one day said unto him, Depart hence and go into Judea, that the people there also may see the works that thou doest.
15 For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to the people.7
16 And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves.8
17 And there appeared before them the figure of a Man who looked like Moses. His face was full of graciousness, like one of the holy angels.
18 And behind him they saw a great multitude of people from all nations of the world.
19 And Jesus was on his right side, walking in front of him.
20 And next to Jesus they saw walking closely a very dark man, and his one eye was blind.
21 And a great multitude of people was also behind Jesus and the one-eyed man was trying to hide Jesus from the eyes of the multitude.
22 And right in front of Jesus they saw walking a priest who looked like Elias.
23 And there was a cloud that overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, There are three that I have chosen, and there is one that I have condemned.
24 And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man anymore, save Jesus only with themselves.
The Qur’anic text
The passages of the Qur’an that this chapter follows. All the passages are gathered on The Qur’an on Jesus.
Miracle of the Table
5:112 ˹Remember˺ when the disciples asked, “O Jesus, son of Mary! Will your Lord be willing to send down to us a table spread with food from heaven?” Jesus answered, “Fear God if you are ˹truly˺ believers.”
5:113 They said, “We ˹only˺ wish to eat from it to reassure our hearts, to verify you are indeed truthful to us, and to become its witnesses.”
5:114 Jesus, son of Mary, prayed, “O God, our Lord! Send us from heaven a table spread with food as a feast for us—the first and last of us—and as a sign from You. Provide for us! You are indeed the Best Provider.”
5:115 God answered, “I am sending it down to you. But whoever among you denies afterwards will be subjected to a torment I have never inflicted on anyone of My creation.”
← Chapter 15 · Contents · Chapter 17 →
Notes
- The first five verses of this chapter follow mostly Qur’an 5:115-118. The demand for a feeding miracle is also voiced by the disciples in John 6:30-31. ↩
- Mark 6:38-44. ↩
- Verses 10-13, which point to the beginning of a new and very important stage in the ministry of Jesus, are in accordance with Mark 8:27-30, Matt. 16:13-16, 20; Luke 9:18.
After the return of the disciples from their missionary trips, things went from bad to worse for Jesus’ mission. Some of the Pharisees had become annoyed with him and were plotting against him. Herod was suspicious of him (see Note 4, Chapter 15), and above all, he had discovered through his own experience and through reports of the unenthusiastic reception given to the apostles (see Note 3, Chapter 14) that people did not really listen to his message. He performed some miraculous healings, and this won him some fame, but the spiritual renewal he and John wanted in their people did not follow. He delivered some forceful sermons and uttered meaningful sayings, but the Jews were used to such inspired speeches and found them too familiar to see a message in them. They expressed their reaction to his miracles and speeches by saying that he was “one of the prophets of old,” which, no doubt, they meant to be a big complement, but which also meant that they found nothing new in his mission and works. Jesus must have seen that if he continued preaching repentance in preparation for the imminent day of the Lord, nothing would come out of it. John had been doing this and was dead, and when he, too, died, they both would become mere tales to be soon forgotten. People needed something more definite and new. But what could it be?
In the days of Essenism, when messianic hopes were alive, one answer to this question was around: Jesus should speak as the Messiah of Israel. This would offer the people something definite here and now. The thought may have crossed Jesus’ mind before, but during his travels through the villages of Caesarea Philippi, it suddenly assumed a very special significance. In it, he began to see a hope for making his mission more lasting and effective.
Jesus was too mature a leader to get up at this thought and proclaim himself the Messiah. He was perceptive enough to see that people expected a great deal from the Messiah, and if he fell short of these expectations, his coming forward as the promised Saviour, instead of ensuring the life of his mission, would become a guarantee for its death. And in the political situation of the time, to fulfill peoples’ messianic expectations, which included their freedom from the Romans, was next to impossible even for a miracle worker like Jesus. Consequently, Jesus would not openly come forward as the Messiah, in any case, not yet. For the moment, he would explore how his own disciples would react to the idea. He found the response enthusiastic and after some more deliberations decided to assume the identity of the Messiah. (See Notes 5-8 below.) However, he never openly declared that identity but quite wisely used suggestive, ambiguous language and actions (cf. Note 4, Chapter 17, Note 3, Chapter 19, Notes 1, 4, Chapter 20, etc.) to generate belief in his messiahship among sympathetic people in such a way that their belief would not be shattered should he fail to live up to the messianic expectations. The approach worked: even though he died soon after he assumed the Messiah’s identity, he did not appear totally discredited as a false Messiah, and the curiosity and attention that he had managed to excite survived his death to ensure continued interest in him and his mission. In this, he was also helped a great deal by the lucky events that surround his death. (See Note 5, Chapter 27.) ↩ - That people could identify Jesus with John even though the two were contemporaries shows that such identifications were not meant to be absolute but rather to emphasize the affinity of functions. See Note 8, Chapter 1 in the light of this comment. ↩
- In Mark, Peter says only, “Thou art the Christ ( = Messiah).” In Matthew, he says, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” and in Luke the same sentence becomes, “Thou art the Christ of God.” Clearly, Matthew’s addition is secondary, and Luke is attempting a synthesis.
The conversation between Jesus and the disciples in the villages of Caesarea Philippi suggests that the disciples had for some time wanted to see their master as the Messiah. Now they found Jesus himself inclined toward the idea. (See Note 3 above.) Peter sensed this inclination in the question “But whom say ye that I am?” and took the opportunity to encourage the master. ↩ - Jesus was still exploring things, and Peter’s encouragement was not sufficient to prepare him to make a public declaration of his Messiahship, a step which, in any case, he did not see advisable. He, therefore, bid his disciples to keep their belief in his Messiahship to themselves, at least for the time being. ↩
- John 7:3-4. The belief that Jesus was the Messiah grew in a close circle around him. One day his brothers advised him to abandon his silence about the matter. They pointed out to him that unless one declared oneself what he was, people did not recognize him as such. Since, in Galilee, Jesus’ mission had failed, they suggested that he go to Judea and start his career as the Messiah there. ↩
- Cf. Mark 9:2-13; Matt. 17:1-13; Luke 9:28-36. Jesus’ brothers had made their point well (see Note 7 above), and it impressed him. A few days later, he finally resolved that he was the Messiah. This resolution seems to have taken place through a dream in which he appeared to his close disciples in the company of Moses and Elias. These two prophets of the past are prototypes of the two future figures, the messianic prophet and the messianic priest (cf. Note 8, Chapter 1), and their appearance in the company of Jesus meant that he himself was the third figure, the messianic king. He probably came to see the messianic priest in John the Baptist while expecting the messianic prophet as someone who would appear soon after him to complete the work of messianic renewal (cf. John 16:12-13; Note 5, Chapter 23; Note 3, Chapter 24). ↩