Volume 2

Jesus Instructs Children
159
God and the truth.
Many mothers were present with their children, demanding
Jesus' blessing. But the disciples were disquieted
and thought, on account of the presence of the spies, that
He should not give it. Jesus, however, reproved them for
their anxiety, saying that He regarded the intention of the
mothers as good, and that the children would thereby
derive benefit, and so He went down through the rows
that they formed and gave them His benediction.
The instruction lasted from ten in the morning till near
evening, when the people were ranged in order to take
some food. On one side of the mountain there were grated
fires whereon the fish were roasted. The order observed
was beautiful. Not only the inhabitants of each separate
city encamped together, but even the residents of the same
streets were divided into families with their neighbors. To
the guests of each street, one man was appointed to bring
and divide the food. Each person or one person in each
group, had a leather cover which, being spread out,
served for plates. They had with them also such things as
are used at table: bone knives and spoons with jointed
handles. Some had brought gourds, others cups of bark, in
which they received water from the leathern bottles, while
others, there and then, quickly formed for themselves such
cups if they had not done so on the way. The superintendents
received the food from the disciples, and divided
each portion among the four or five sitting together, laying
the fish and bread on the leathern cover before them.
Jesus had blessed the food before it was divided, and by
virtue of that blessing it was multiplied, otherwise it
would have been far from sufficient for the two thousand
for whom it was intended. Each group received a small
portion only, but all were satisfied after eating, and much
remained over to be collected into baskets and carried off
by the poor.
There were some Roman soldiers going around among