The Nugget:

Joh 6:5 When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? (KJV)

Joh 6:5 Jesus therefore lifting up his eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming to him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?” (WEB, World English Bible)

Joh 6:5 Jesus looked up and saw a crowd of people coming toward him. He said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough bread for all these people to eat?” (ERV, Easy-to-Read Version)

Joh 6:5 When Jesus saw the large crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we get enough food to feed all these people?” (CEV, Contemporary English Version)

My Comment:

Most Bible readers read past this account and miss the vital information supplied by John in John 6:5.

Ask yourself the question:

“Why did Jesus ask Philip this question?”

The answer is simple and straightforward.

John does not expand upon this incidental detail found in his account of the feeding of the five thousand.

The answer as to why Jesus directed his question to Philip specifically about where could enough food be bought to feed the large crowd that had gathered can be learned by what John says about Philip elsewhere in his Gospel. The answer is confirmed by what is told about Philip elsewhere in the New Testament. Further confirmation can be found by noticing the details about the feeding of the five thousand recorded in the other Gospels but not repeated by John.

These facts found scattered about throughout the Gospels and elsewhere in the New Testament confirm the historical authenticity of these accounts. This kind of meticulous Bible study is called the study of undesigned coincidences.

Undesigned coincidences are found (1) between the Gospel records of Matthew, Mark, and Luke; (2) between the Gospel records and the Gospel of John; (3) between all four Gospels and the Book of Acts; (4) between the Book of Acts and the Epistles (Letters) of Paul.

This subject was first written about by William Paley in his book, Horae Paulinae, a Latin title which means “Hours with Paul,” in 1790. The subject was expanded by another author in the 1800s:

J. J. Blunt, Undesigned Coincidences in the Writings Both of the Old and New Testament: An Argument of Their Veracity (London: John Murray, 1863)

McGrew, L. (2019). The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospel from Literary Devices. DeWard.

Contemporary scholarship has rediscovered this unanswerable evidence for the truth of the New Testament accounts, according to scholarly books I am currently reading in my Logos library, about 2017, the volume cited above by Lydia McGrew, whose husband, a professor at Western Michigan University, alerted her to these sources.

It is interesting to me that even good scholars have missed the fact that I present Paley’s material on Undesigned Coincidences in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, published in 1992 in my note at Acts 12:12, but known to me from Irwin H. Linton’s book, A Lawyer Examines the Bible, reprinted in 1969 by Baker Book House in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a book I have mentioned many times on this site. Earlier editions of Linton’s book were printed since the late 1920s.

DIG DEEPER INTO JOHN 6:5 BY STUDYING THE CROSS REFERENCES FROM MY RESOURCE, THE ULTIMATE CROSS REFERENCE TREASURY (UCRT) given below:

Joh 6:5 When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?

John 6:5
lifted. FS144A12, +Gen 22:13. Luk 6:20.

saw. Jhn 4:35, Mat 14:14, 15, Mrk 6:34, 35, Luk 9:12.

Philip. +Jhn 1:43; Jhn 12:21; Jhn 14:8, Mat 10:3, Mrk 3:18, Luk 6:14, Act 1:13.

Whence. Num 11:13; Num 11:21, 22, 2Ki 4:2; 2Ki 7:2, Ezk 37:3, +Mat 14:17; Mat 15:33, Mrk 6:37; Mrk 8:2, 3, 4, Luk 9:13.

buy bread. Jhn 4:8, Mat 4:4.