As I mentioned in my last article, we still haven't emptied out the undesigned coincidences in the accounts of the feeding of the 5000. I have already covered a couple, but there's yet another one, just surrounding this event.

So, have you ever wondered, how did they know that there were 5000 people being fed? Well, from Matthews' gospel, it's very explicit that the 5000 refers to the men, not to the total number of people. Matthew 14:21:

"And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children."

From the Gospel of Mark (also mentioned in Luke), we get that they divided themselves into groups. Mark 6:39-40:

"Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties."

This would have made it easier to hand out the food in a structured way, but it also gave the opportunity to count the groups, and thus get a good estimate for how many were there.

But how did they arrive at 5000 men being there, rather than a total of 5000 people?

In John 6:10-11 we find that it was the men specifically that sat down:

"Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted."

So, we need information from three of the Gospels to get an accurate understanding of how many were there and how they were able to count them. None of the Gospels try to explain how they were counted, but they each casually mention details that together make sense. This is a very typical example of an undesigned coincidence that you would not expect to find in a fictional story. The feeding of the 5000 really happened.

Oh and by the way, if you think that was the last undesigned coincidence related to this miracle... Nope! There is even more to come! Stay tuned!