The scene changes from Jerusalem to Galilee (6: I). The feeding of the five thousand is recorded in all four gospels but John's interpretation of it has distinctive emphases. John alone says that it took place as a Passover approached (6:4), the second Passover referred to so far in the gospel. The crowd followed Jesus because of his miracles of healing (6:2). As Moses had given the Israelites the word of God from a mountain, so Jesus gave this sign from a hill (6:3). Jesus tested Philip by asking him where food could be obtained for the people although Jesus knew what he was going to do (6:5-6). Philip thought of the situation entirely in human terms, not seeing that Jesus could meet the needs of the people. Andrew indicated a small source of food (Mark 6:38) but did not see how it could be sufficient (6:8-9). The account of Mark 6:39-44 is closely followed in John 6:10-13.

John says that because the crowd had been fed by Jesus they tried to seize him in order to make him king by force (6:15). The Messianic significance of what Jesus did was wrongly interpreted by the people who saw the miraculous feeding only as proof that Jesus was the prophet (6:14) who was going to announce the coming of the Messiah (1 :21, Malachi 4:5 Deuteronomy 18: 18). The reaction of the crowd to Jesus is in contrast to the response of the Samaritan woman, the government official and the cripple who was healed.

To understand the distinctive interpretation which John gives -to the feeding of the five thousand, it is necessary to see the account in the whole setting of chapter 6 and of the gospel; the fifth sign and the discourse on the Bread of life follow the account and are essentially connected with it.

To a Jewish Christian reader, references to the Passover, Jesus on a hill and the feeding of the hungry people, could all be associated with the story of Moses. Through Moses, God liberated the Israelites from slavery, taught them his Law and fed them in the desert (Exodus 16). Moses was one of the witnesses to the Son (5:46) in whom the promises of the Scriptures were being fulfilled. One of the ways in which Jesus Christ was described by the early Church was as the Christian Passover lamb (I Corinthian 5:7).

In John's gospel there is no account of the instituting by Jesus of the central act of worship of the Church, the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist, although John attaches great importance to the teaching given by Jesus to his disciples at the last meal that he shared with them, John 13-17. This does not mean, however, that John's gospel lacks reference to the Eucharist because the reference is transferred to chapter 6, as is made clear in the discourse on the Bread of life. The fourth sign, the feeding of the five thousand, was a Messianic sign pointing towards the Lord's Supper and all that it stood for, including the foreshadowing of the great heavenly feast in the Kingdom of God (Luke 14:15).