6:14 the miracle. This is the fourth of the seven great miracles of creation described by John (see John 20:31), to demonstrate the deity of Christ. In this case, Jesus superseded the law of conservation of matter by creating a great amount of bread and meat for the multitude. This law, considered one of the most basic and universal laws of physics, states that matter (or “mass”) can neither be created nor destroyed. The miraculous feeding of the multitude is one of the few events described in all four gospels (see Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:32-44; Luke 9:10-17).

6:14 that prophet. The “prophet” mentioned here was the subject of one of the instances in which, as Jesus said, “Moses…wrote of me” (John 5:46). In Deuteronomy 18:15,18, God had said to Moses: “I will raise them up a Prophet,…and will put my words in His mouth.”