“MONEY MATHEMATICS IN THE BIBLE”
“MONEY MATHEMATICS IN THE BIBLE”
Feeding the 5,000 …
How much would that cost?
“…
a great multitude
followed him … saw a great company come unto him … Two
hundred
pennyworth of bread is not sufficient …five barley
loaves, and
two small fishes ... So the men sat down, in number
about five
thousand.”
(John 6:2-5,6-9,10)
Let’s
suppose that one third of the men brought their wives … and
let’s
suppose half of these couples had two children … or more.
We
then
have 5,000 men + 1660 wives + 3320 children = 9980 = approx. 10,000
people.
Now
a basic
day’s wage in Christ time was one penny per day (Matthew
20:2).
Today
in
Australia, as of February 2024, the basic wage is $883 per
week.
This
means
for a 35 hour week, the hourly rate = $25.22
Therefore
for
an seven hour day, the wage = $177
Therefore
200
pennyworth = $177 x 200 = $35,319
But
Philip
says to Christ “Jesus, even $35,319 won’t be sufficient to feed all
these
people.” (John 6:7)
Let’s
round
this up to $38,000 to feed 10,000 people … that is … $3.80 was
needed to
feed each person … one sausage roll!
So
even $40,000
was not going to be sufficient to feed the 5,000!
But
as the
scripture says Christ “himself knew what he would do” (John
6:6).
I
mean, the
disciples did not have $40,000 in the bag to feed the 5,000!
I
mean instead
of this miracle … let’s suppose the crowd could rustle up some of their
lunches
to share with each other … seeing a young boy was willing to share his
lunch.
And
this is
how the De-Mythologizing of the Bible began in the 1960’s in
the USA …
to explain away Christ’s miracles with human reasoning … you
know …
Christ was not the Son of God or the Son of man, but simply a good
bloke
urging the crowd to do the right thing.
No
Dear
Reader … huge crowd, impossible food bill … unbelievable
miracle … something out of nothings!
Harley
Hitchcock
May 2024
This
website’s front page is:
www.
