A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.” His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says Yahweh, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’” So he set it before them, and they ate, and left some of it, according to […]
⛓ Read 2 Kings 4 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Allusion6
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
Elisha multiplies twenty barley loaves to feed a hundred with leftovers, dismissing a servant's 'How can I set this before a hundred?' John alone specifies 'barley loaves' and 'what are these among so many?', and adds the leftovers motif. High Volume and verbal Recurrence make this the closest single OT analogue to the miracle's mechanics.
High confidenceElisha feeds a hundred men with twenty barley loaves, with the protest 'how can I set this before a hundred?', the command to give, eating, and food left over. The structural parallel (insufficient loaves, servant objection, feeding, surplus) is the closest single antecedent and high in volume and coherence with Luke's Elijah/Elisha matrix.
High confidenceElisha feeds a hundred men with twenty barley loaves, his servant objects at the inadequacy, all eat and there is food left over, with a word of the LORD that they shall eat and have some left. The structure of Mark's feeding (objection, insufficient bread, all filled, surplus gathered) closely follows this Elisha miracle. The strongest single source-text by structural correspondence.
High confidenceElisha's feeding of a hundred men from limited loaves, with leftovers remaining 'according to the word of the LORD,' is the closest prophetic prototype: insufficient bread, a doubting attendant ('How can I set this before a hundred?'), miraculous satiety, and surplus. Mark frames Jesus as the prophet-greater-than-Elisha, and the surplus motif (seven baskets) recalls the same pattern.
High confidenceElisha feeds a hundred men with twenty barley loaves and there is some left over, against the servant's objection that it is too little. Matthew's feeding shares the structure: a prophet, an inadequate supply of loaves, a disciple's protest, a command to give it to the people, all eating, and a surplus remaining. Jesus is the greater Elisha.
High confidenceElisha feeds a hundred men with a few loaves, who 'ate and had some left over' — the closest prophetic precedent: limited loaves, a doubting servant ('how can I set this before a hundred?'), eating to satisfaction, and leftovers, all mirrored in 15:34-37.
High confidenceEcho1
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
The man who brings provisions to Elisha and 'the servant of the prophet' setting it before the people — a faint analogue to ministering to God's agents and not losing one's reward (10:42), within the same Elisha hospitality cycle.
Low confidence