The Feeding Of The 5000

Nah nah nah nah nah nah...

Eyes were bloodshot
Lips were red hot
At the greatest show on earth
At the feeding of five thousand
Well I don't know what you heard
Eyes were bloodshot
Lips were red hot
Sweet bliss fragrance fills the air
Resuscitating all the breathless
Reviving everybody there

Two fishes as the spirit
Five loaves of bread the soul
At the feeding of five thousand
Where the baskets overflowed

Nah nah nah nah nah nah...

Love it reaches through the darkness
Love's the king of golden rules
Bombs are falling as we're dancing
To this man-made sonic boom
Love it reaches through the darkness
Love's the king of golden rules
Golden rules, golden rules

Nah nah nah nah nah nah...

Eyes were bloodshot
Lips were red hot
At the greatest show on earth
At the feeding of five thousand
Well I don't know what you heard
Eyes were bloodshot
Lips were red hot
Sweet bliss fragrance fills the air
Resuscitating all the breathless
Reviving everybody there

Two fishes as the spirit
Five loaves of bread the soul
At the feeding of five thousand
Where the baskets overflowed

Nah nah nah nah nah nah...

Lyrics by:
Brown

Available on:
The World Is Yours (3.58)

Details:

Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat ?" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

Philip answered him, "It would take more than half a year's wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite !"

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many ?"

Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world." Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
(John 6: 1 - 15)

Ian Brown and the magician, Dynamo are close friends, and Ian wrote a song about him entitled The Magic Man. Ian debuted the song at a showcase for Dynamo's Concrete Playground DVD, just before Christmas 2006. The chorus of The Magic Man is: 'Magical offerings, the suspension of time / Some like bending spoons / Dynamo'll bend ya mind.' Another line reads: 'At the greatest show on earth / Folks are slack-jawed by The Magic Man.' Lyrics from this as-yet-unreleased track have morphed into The Feeding Of The 5000, a woeful effort from The World Is Yours LP. The Feeding of the Five Thousand was not some sort of magic trick or circus show, as Ian would like to debase its meaning to, but rather a miracle by the Son of God. The Glory of God and the good of men - to help our unbelief - are the primary ends of every single miracle that happens. The Feeding of the Five Thousand is the only miracle (apart from the Resurrection) which is present in all four canonical Gospels (Matthew 14: 13 - 21, Mark 6: 30 - 44, Luke 9: 10 - 17 and John 6: 1 - 15). Speaking to The Guardian on 15th September 2007, Ian offers a delusional interpretation of The Feeding of the Five Thousand: "There are some beautiful Bible stories - it's just that in UK schools the teaching bores you stupid. The feeding of the 5000 isn't meant to be taken literally. Jesus spoke to the people and that fed their spirit - that's your two fish. Then he spoke some more - that fed their souls. That was the loaves." If Ian believes that this is the basis upon which an understanding of this miracle should be formed, then it is a blessing that he does not have any involvement in overseeing Religious Education in the National Curriculum (The singer's proposed reforms to Media in the National Curriculum, forcing pupils to watch Get Rich or Die Tryin', are just as perturbing). Ian professes that The Feeding of the Five Thousand should not be taken literally. I would argue quite the opposite. This miracle by Jesus feeds into the Bread Of Life Discourse, the heart of the sixth chapter of John, a passage of the Bible that I would implore people to take literally. After Jesus performed the miracle of the five loaves and two fish, a crowd sought Him out. The immediate response of Jesus to those who did not come with the right disposition is critical to forming an understanding of this miracle: Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill." (John 6: 26) The crowd refused to believe that Jesus is the Bread of Life, and many deserted Him; the Feeding of the Five Thousand should indeed be understood literally, in the context of Eucharistic bread and fish. From a broader perspective, think back to the book of Genesis. Eating, responsible for the fall of man, was also responsible in the New Testament for the salvation of man. The Feeding of the Five Thousand was not just some temporal jolt to the spirit and souls of those in attendance, but rather a move towards overturning the original sin of mankind.

Top two rows: Ian's appearance on Dynamo's TV show contains an utterly cringeworthy attempt to subliminally associate Dynamo's magic tricks with the miracles of Jesus; between magic tricks, there is the most bizarre five-second interlude, in which the singer is seen posturing in front of a painting of Jesus in the studio.
Bottom row: 'Saint Peter and the fall of Simon Magus' (1571) by Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo. Under no circumstances whatsoever should magic be brought into the realm of Christianity, either by association with or in direct competition to. One notable example of this in the New Testament is Simon Magus, whose confrontation with Peter is recorded in Acts (8: 9 - 25). In apocryphal works such as the Acts of Peter, Simon also appears as a formidable sorcerer with the ability to levitate and fly at will. Peter preaches that Simon is performing magic in order to convert followers through deception. In Peter's outrage, he challenges Simon to a contest in order to prove whose works are from a divine source and whose are merely trickery. It is said that Simon Magus takes flight and Peter strikes him down with the power of God and prays that Simon be not killed but that he be badly injured. When the Magus falls from the sky he suffers a broken leg in three places, then the converted believers of Peter stone him from the city. The Acts then continue to say that he was taken to Terracina to one Castor, "And there he was sorely cut (Lat. by two physicians), and so Simon the angel of Satan came to his end." If Ian is placing theological weight on a bloke being supported by a perspex platform on the River Thames, that particular house of cards will inevitably fall. The arms of Jesus were spread out because He was the Son of God; Dynamo's arms are in that position to maintain his balance, lest he fall from his platform. As a footnote, Jesus needed neither two 'Don't mind us, just happened to be passing by' kayaks nor a hammily-staged police rescue to facilitate His movement.

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