8
Others said that Elijah had appeared, and still others said that one of the prophets from long ago had come back to life.
9
Herod said, "I had John's head cut off. Who is this person I'm hearing so much about?" So Herod wanted to see Jesus.
10
The apostles came back and told Jesus everything they had done. He took them with him to a city called Bethsaida so that they could be alone.
11
But the crowds found out about this and followed him. He welcomed them, talked to them about the kingdom of God, and cured those who were sick.
12
Toward the end of the day, the twelve apostles came to him. They said to him, "Send the crowd to the closest villages and farms so that they can find some food and a place to stay. No one lives around here."
13
Jesus replied, "You give them something to eat." They said to him, "We have five loaves of bread and two fish. Unless we go to buy food for all these people, that's all we have."
14
(There were about five thousand men.) Then he told his disciples, "Have them sit in groups of about fifty."
16
Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and blessed the food. He broke the loaves apart and kept giving them to the disciples to give to the crowd.
17
All of them ate as much as they wanted. When they picked up the leftover pieces, they filled twelve baskets.
18
Once when Jesus was praying privately and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do people say I am?"