Where did the baskets come from?

The miracle of 5 loaves and 2 fish is the only other event, besides passion and resurrection, recorded by all four canonical gospels, not even the institution of the Holy Eucharist which is not found in John. The major outline of the miracle is identical. After the death of John the Baptist, Jesus retired to the wilderness where he found thousands of people waiting for him. He taught them and healed them of diseases. When it was late, he did not send the crowd away. He told the disciples to feed them. But the disciples could only find 5 loaves and 2 fish. First of all, Jesus told the disciples to seat the crowd in groups of 50 and 100. Making use of the little amount of food the disciples found, Jesus blessed both the bread and the fish, broke them and fed the thousands of people. In the end, they collected 12 baskets of leftovers.
However, the gospels differ in minor details and these differences can be very meaningful. In this case, the differences show the different degree of closeness of the disciples with Jesus. But before I proceed to analyze, I want to make myself clear. In previous blogs, I have explained why I don't buy the idea that the crowd actually had brought along their food. The generosity of the little boy so moved the crowd that they were willing to share what they had brought. Therefore, the feeding of 5000 was not a miracle. This idea is a bad idea. Simply put, the evangelists intended to tell us a miracle. It is up to the readers to decide whether they would accept it as a miracle. I believe it is a miracle because I believe that Jesus is God. Period.

I am not going to lay out the minor differences. It can easily be done. Rather, I would like to explain the differences directly. Among the evangelists, Luke was a disciple of Paul who was not among the Twelve. Therefore, Luke's account of the miracle is only a bare skeleton, like the one I outlined above. Paul was not there when the miracle took place. Mark's information came from Peter. So, the account of Matthew, Mark and John should be on a par. In fact, they are not. We have to realize the fact that among the Twelve, there was an inner circle of Peter, James and John. Even within the inner circle, John seems to be the closest to the Lord. According to the gospel of John, Peter beckoned John to ask Jesus who the traitor was (John 13:23-24). Therefore, among the 4 canonical gospels, John's story seems to be an eye-witness account. It is from the gospel of John that we know the 5 loaves and 2 fish came from a little boy (John 6:9). In John's story, it was Philip who mentioned the size of the problem: they needed at least two hundred denariis to buy enough bread to feed the crowd (John 6:37). Mark also mentioned the two hundred denariis but failed to identify who brought up this idea to buy food for the crowd. In John's story, we find Philip and Andrew. Peter and James were nowhere mentioned. That explains why not only Matthew and Luke, but also Mark do not mention where the 5 loaves and 2 fish came from. They were not in the vicinity. Probably, Peter and Matthew were busy doing crowd controlling over a vast piece of grassland, accommodating perhaps 10,000 people. When they returned, they only saw Jesus took up 5 loaves and 2 fish, blessed them and broke them ...

What was given to the crowd?
Matthew does not mention giving the fish (Matthew 14:19); Mark and John specifically mention both bread and fish (Mark 6:41, John 6:11); Luke is naturally ambiguous (Luke 9:16). We can imagine that not all people had a share of the fish. So, some people were given both bread and fish by the inner circle disciples and some bread only. When people had eaten enough, only John gives the reason why they gathered the left over (John 6:12). Since Matthew did not give out any fish, naturally only bread fragments were collected (Matthew 14:20). Again, Peter distributed both bread and fish. Naturally, both types of leftover were collected (Mark 6:43). Luke must be ambiguous but John was enigmatic. John collects the bread fragments only (John 6:13)! What happened to the fish? Had they eaten all the fish? Or fish was not significant in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and John did not bother to mention it?

I am curious about where the 12 baskets came from. Perhaps the boy carried the 5 loaves and 2 fish in a basket. He could not have carried the food in both hands because he was only a lad and there were 7 items of food. But I cannot imagine a boy carrying two baskets, each containing one type of food only. Then where came the remaining eleven?
Now, why should a boy carry a basket of bread and fish to join the crowd to listen to Jesus? Was he following his kinsmen? Or was he a hawker, doing business among a large crowd? This hawker idea is not far-fetched. Mark and John mentioned about Jesus telling the disciples to buy food to feed the crowd. Of course, the disciples could go into the villages to buy. But I suspect the villagers had seen the crowd and a market potential out there ... If the boy was a hawker, there might be many more hawkers doing business in a crowd of 5000 men. Then, it would be possible to account for the existence of the 12 baskets. Now, if there were hawkers, there might be more food than 5 loaves and 2 fish. Even if there were more food than 5 loaves and 2 fish in the region, only the 5 loaves and 2 fish of this hawker boy were offered, blessed, multiplied and shared. In the end, all the hawkers had earned more than they had brought along. Their previously half-filled baskets were now bursting! When we put our problems before Jesus, he would surely make for us a happy ending!

Dear Lord, may I offer up my meagre worthless effort. Bless it and multiply it so as to bring us salvation and bring you greater glory. Amen.