Tabgha, which means “spring of the seven” is located right off the north shore of the Sea of Galilee which is fed by seven springs. The church there marks the location of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes; The Feeding of the 5000. Which, fun fact, is Jesus’ only miracle to appear in all four gospels.
Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee, and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. - John 6:1-3
[Jesus] welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God and healed those who needed to be cured. The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said “Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside to lodge and get provisions, for we are here in a deserted place.” - Luke 9:11-12
Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. “Bring them here to me,” he said. And he directed people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the people. - Matthew 14:16-19
He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand. - Mark 6:41b-44
For starters, let’s be clear that the text reads ”5000 men” and we know that the Bible tends to leave out the fact that there were women and children around too. Therefore, it’s been calculated that the “feeding of the 5000″ really would have been the “Feeding of 17,000 - 22,000″ when you include women and children. So yeah, this miracle is even cooler than you thought!
Pictured: The Church of the Multiplication
The church is built on top of the place it’s believed Jesus blessed and multiplied the loaves and fish. The altar in the center of the church covers the only exposed original rock which is understood as the place Jesus would have done his thing. It was really cool to think about what the area looked like in Jesus’ time: near the Sea of Galilee, not far from the Mount of Beatitudes and Capneraum. There might have been lots of grass, certainly no marble churches or asphalt roads. At the same time, I truthfully can’t imagine what 17,000 - 22,000 people looked like. How much space did they need for all those people? How far away were the furthest groups sitting from this exact spot? Could they even see and hear Jesus to know what was going on? It’s a miracle for sure.
Pictured: the altar over top of the rock where Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish.
Needless to say, this place leaves me with more questions and wonderings than answers; but that’s okay! It’s thought provoking and that’s the point of visiting the Holy Land.
