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Reading John 6:1-15 in Light of Contemporary Food Production

I read John 8:1-15, the story of the feeding of the five thousand, and John 6:25 through the lens of poverty in light of Jennifer Quigley’s Divine Accounting: Theo-Econonics in Early Christianity and Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. I first read this story in the ancient world through Quigley’s theo-economic system, then I turn to an alternative interpretation in light of inequalities in the contemporary world. In the ancient world, particularly among the majority of the population in Judea and Galilee, food and wealth were relatively scarce. Quigley’s theo-economic system foregrounds the economic deals that people made with their deities in return for bountiful harvests. In many cases, a person or group functioned as intermediaries between the deities and the people, handling the deity’s finances and business dealings. If one understands the feeding story in John (called miracles in the synoptic gospels) through Quigley’s theo-economic system, Jesus becomes the middle-man who provides an over-abundant blessing from the deity in exchange for five loaves and two fish. Later, in John 6:25, Jesus rebukes the people for following him because he healed them and fed them, rather than because they believe in him. The miracles, then, are not acts of greatness, but proof, signs, that Jesus is the theo-economic arbiter between the deity and the Ioudaioi. The implied author uses Jesus to present an economic model that foregrounds their in-group status as arbitrators between the deity and the world, but with an orientation toward creating believers rather than providing aid to people.

When reading in light of contemporary economic and nutritional disparities, the feeding story takes a more ominous form. Contemporary agricultural practices provide enough food that a significant portion is wasted. The economic arbiters have become corporations and the wealthy members of countries who control capital. The wealthiest countries withhold financial and nutritional assistance from struggling peoples throughout the world until the countries-in-need accept capitalist reforms to the detriment of their citizens. Thus, like the Johannine Jesus, boundaries are drawn around who is allowed to receive aid from the “gods” until marginalized groups accept the alternative epistemology. I read against the Johannine Jesus, both in the past and in the contemporary world, in favor of providing resources to people-in-need without any requirements.