When Jesus heard the news about John, he left there in a boat and went to a lonely place by himself. The people heard about it, and so they left their towns and followed him by land.

That evening his disciples came to him and said, "It is already very late, and this is a lonely place. Send the people away and let them go to the villages to buy food for themselves."

"All we have here are five loaves and two fish," they replied.

He ordered the people to sit down on the grass; then he took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and gave thanks to God. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.

The number of men who ate was about five thousand, not counting the women and children.

There were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his disciples didn't even have time to eat. So he said to them, "Let us go off by ourselves to some place where we will be alone and you can rest a while."

So they started out in a boat by themselves to a lonely place.

When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw this large crowd, and his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things.

When it was getting late, his disciples came to him and said, "It is already very late, and this is a lonely place.

"You yourselves give them something to eat," Jesus answered. They asked, "Do you want us to go and spend two hundred silver coins on bread in order to feed them?"

Jesus then told his disciples to make all the people divide into groups and sit down on the green grass.

Then Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and gave thanks to God. He broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.

Then the disciples took up twelve baskets full of what was left of the bread and the fish.

The apostles came back and told Jesus everything they had done. He took them with him, and they went off by themselves to a town named Bethsaida.

When the sun was beginning to set, the twelve disciples came to him and said, "Send the people away so that they can go to the villages and farms around here and find food and lodging, because this is a lonely place."

But Jesus said to them, "You yourselves give them something to eat." They answered, "All we have are five loaves and two fish. Do you want us to go and buy food for this whole crowd?"

After the disciples had done so,

They all ate and had enough, and the disciples took up twelve baskets of what was left over.

It will then go south to Harbel, east of Ain, and on to the hills on the eastern shore of Lake Galilee,

it included the Jordan Valley from Lake Galilee south to Beth Jeshimoth (east of the Dead Sea) and on toward the foot of Mount Pisgah.

As Jesus walked along the shore of Lake Galilee, he saw two brothers who were fishermen, Simon (called Peter) and his brother Andrew, catching fish in the lake with a net.

Jesus left there and went along by Lake Galilee. He climbed a hill and sat down.

One day Jesus was standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret while the people pushed their way up to him to listen to the word of God.

Other boats, which were from Tiberias, came to shore near the place where the crowd had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

After this, Jesus appeared once more to his disciples at Lake Tiberias. This is how it happened.