Then, we are told, “all the people ate and were filled; whereupon they praised God” (cf. 3 Nephi 20:9 [3 Ne. 9:6]: “Now, when the multitude had all eaten . . . they were filled with the Spirit; and they did cry out with one voice, and gave glory to Jesus”).
The next section tells how Jesus went about making his disciples and his followers perfectly one with each other, with him, and with the Father: “Have ye not heard, O my beloved, the love of Jesus for his apostles; which was so great that he withheld nothing from them in all the works of his godhead?” This blessing was imparted in three steps, “the first time in blessing the five barley loaves, the second time when he prayed and glorified the Father, the third time when he blessed the seven loaves.” In 3 Nephi 19 the Lord also imparts his glory to the disciples in three steps as they prayed three times “to the Father in the name of Jesus” (3 Nephi 19:8 [3 Ne. 9:2]).
The main theme of both accounts is how the Lord made the disciples one with each other by making them one with himself and his Father. In founding the church, it was this oneness which, according to both texts, he desired of the Father more than anything else. Accordingly, in two short prayers in the Book of Mormon, one four verses long (3 Nephi 19:20 [3 Ne. 9:3]—23) and the other only two verses (3 Nephi 19:28 [3 Ne. 9:4]—29), we find no less than sixty-nine personal pronouns! Thus the second prayer ends: “that they may be purified in me, and I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one, that I may be glorified in them” (3 Nephi 19:29 [3 Ne. 9:4]). These utterances, astonishing as they seem, are actually matched and even surpassed in the Gospel of 17, where the mingling of identities becomes positively overpowering. Plainly we are in the same thought-world as John, treating matters concerning which the most persistent repetition fails to convince the Christian world. John and Nephi tell us that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one in exactly the same way that they want the apostles and all the other members of the church to be one with them and with each other.
The Syrophoenician Woman; Feeding the Four Thousand
Withdrawing to the borders of Tyre and Sidon, Jesus meets a Gentile woman (a Canaanite, a Syrophoenician) who will not be put off: though the children’s bread is not for dogs, even the dogs eat the crumbs. “O woman, great is thy faith.” Then, back by the Sea of Galilee, he opens the ears of a deaf man (“Ephphatha, Be opened”) and feeds four thousand from seven loaves, with seven baskets left.
Tap a Gospel to show or hide its column. Narrow to any two to read them side by side.
Note. Joseph Smith’s translation revises both accounts. In Mark, Jesus “could not deny them, for he had compassion upon all men,” and the children who are to be filled first are “the children of the kingdom.”
? How to read this edition
The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.
21Then Jesus went from there and departed into the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same region and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, you son of David! My daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. 23But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and implored him, saying, Send her away, for she cries after us. 24He answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 25Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. 26But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread and to cast it to dogs. 27And she said, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their master’s table. 28Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is your faith; be it unto you even as you desire. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
29And Jesus departed from there, and came near to the Sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain and sat down there. 30And great multitudes came unto him, having with them some lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet. And he healed them, 31insomuch that the multitude wondered when they saw the dumb to speak and the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk and the blind to see. And they glorified the God of Israel.
32Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat, and I will not send them away fasting lest they faint in the way. 33And his disciples say unto him, From where should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude? 34And Jesus said unto them, How many loaves do you have? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes. 35And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. 36And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and broke them the bread, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. 37And they did all eat and were filled. And they took up of the broken food seven baskets full. 38And they that did eat were four thousand men, besides women and children.
39And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala.
24And from there he arose and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into a house, and desired have no man know it: but he could not be hid that no man should come unto him. But he could not deny them, for he had compassion upon all men. 25For a woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet. 26The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by nation. And she implored him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. 27But Jesus said unto her, Let the children of the kingdom first be filled, for it is not meet to take the children’s bread and to cast it unto the dogs. 28And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord, you say truly; yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs. 29And he said unto her, For this saying, go your way; the devil is gone out of your daughter. 30And when she had come to her house, she found that the devil had gone out and her daughter was laid upon the bed.
31And again departing from the regions of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the region of Decapolis. 32And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech. And they implored him to put his hand upon him. 33And he took him aside from the multitude and put his finger into his ears, and he spit and touched his tongue. 34And, looking up to Heaven, he sighed and said unto him, Ephphatha (that is, Be opened). 35And immediately his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was untied and he spoke plain. 36And he charged them that they should tell no man. But the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published him, 37and were beyond measure astonished, saying, He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak.
1In those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said unto them, 2I have compassion on the multitude because they have now been with me three days and have nothing to eat. 3And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way, for some of them came from afar. 4And his disciples answered him, From where can a man satisfy these, so great a multitude, with bread here in the wilderness? 5And he asked them, How many loaves do you have? And they said, Seven.
6And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves and gave thanks, and broke and gave to his disciples to set before them the people. And they did set them before the people. 7And they had a few small fishes, and he blessed them and commanded to set them also before them the people, that they should eat. 8So they did eat and were filled. And they took up of the broken bread that was left seven baskets. 9And they that had eaten were about four thousand. And he sent them away.
10And directly he entered into a ship with his disciples, and came into the ports of Dalmanutha.
The Seven Loaves: The Third Blessing
Nibley noticed an early Christian text that read the Lord’s feedings as three steps of an outpouring of glory, and the blessing of the seven loaves of the four thousand was the third.
Nibley is quoting an early apocryphal sacrament text and setting it beside 3 Nephi.
The Lost Sheep: A Spiritual Israel
Jesus tells the Canaanite woman he is sent “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and then heals her daughter. Barker shows how the early readers heard “Israel” here not as a bloodline but as those who see God: a spiritual Israel into which the believing Gentile is gathered.
Origen argued that there was an Israel according to the flesh but also a spiritual Israel, and it was to those lost sheep that Jesus had been sent (Matt. 15.24 [Matt. 8:11]), to those who saw God and who were citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem: “Israel is interpreted to mean ‘a mind,’ or ‘man seeing God.’”
Ellipses mark omissions within Barker’s own text.