What might have happened if Jesus did not feed the 5000?

Answer 1

Another answer from our community:

If he didnt then his name wouldnt have become so widespread and not as many people would continue to follow him. Christianity would have spread much slower.

Answer 2

That the story of feeding the five thousand was important in the spread of Christianity can be seen from Mark's Gospel, where the story first appeared. This account begins a contiguous set of miracle stories and discourses that include a total of ten references or allusions to food (Mark 6:33-8:21 ), with a minor theme of not understanding, including another story of Jesus feeding 4000 people soon afterwards and in remarkably similar circumstances:

• Jesus and the disciples had no leisure so much as to eat, so they went into a desert place
• Feeding the 5000
• When Jesus walked on water the disciples were amazed, for they considered not the miracle of the loaves
• Pharisees complain about the disciples eating with unwashed hands
• Discourse - what goes into a man goes into his belly and does not defile
• Greek woman metaphorically begs for crumbs from the table
• Feeding the 4000
• Disciples are hungry and have only one loaf of bread
• Jesus warns the disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees and they reason, "It is because we have no bread," showing they do not understand
• Summary by Jesus of the two feasts

These in turn form one part of a pair in the framework parallel structure of Mark, with the Last Supper as the matching event (a parallel structure is a literary sequence in which an opening set of events is contrasted with another, parallel set of events that mirrors the first):

The purpose of a parallel structure in ancient literature was to link two events by association and thereby create emphasis or a theme that was not otherwise apparent. By verse 8:21, the reader is asking, "Why don't they understand?" Later, at the Last Supper (chapter 14, the matching event R'), the reader understands, but knows that the disciples do not.

If there had been no story of Jesus feeding the 5000, the story of the Last Supper might have lost some of its impact on the reader and perhaps Christianity would have spread more slowly.