Five loaves and two fish (26)

Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.(Mark 6:41)

John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Here ‘the word’ is a translation of the Greek ‘Logos’ which means language or reason. The philosophical term of the Greek has been accepted as a divine meaning.

In early Christianity era, Neo-Platonism of the Hellenistic philosophy blossomed and Plato took an active part in it. There was dualism in the center of this idea. They thought soul and flesh are of different entities. Soul is sacred while flesh is ugly. Soul is eternal but flesh is temporal. Soul of human is also eternal. So they thought the soul of human that is believed to be the essence of eternal life was not created. On the contrary, according to Christian faith the soul of human was created by God.

In addition, the early Christian fathers were deeply influenced by Greek philosophy, especially the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle and they did not give up the tradition of the Old Testaments. The most glaring example is the concept of incarnation. Augustine said that the Plato’s philosophy is most similar to Christian faith except incarnation. The belief on the theory of incarnation of the theological concept is the point of distinction between Plato’s philosophy and Christian faith.

The concept of incarnation that underscores the transformation of the body from the invisible and eternal God to a visible and temporal human body is not compatible with Plato’s philosophy. Yes. Not even a moment the body in Christian belief was neglected. The body requires “Five loaves and two fish”. Jesus was in humanly body which was broken and gave it to us. This is certainly a clear indication of the gift of salvation that Christians believe and talk about.