ohn, Jesus performs the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, the only miracle present in all four Gospels. A large crowd was by then following Jesus because "they saw signs that he was doing for the sick." When Jesus performed this miracle of feeding five thousand with but five loaves and two fish, the faith of the crowd in his divine being grew extraordinarily. This becomes clear in verse 14 when the crowd says "this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world." Yet the crowd still refers to Him as a prophet, and does not accept Him fully as the son of God. Jesus continued to use His power to perform miracles as a way to turn people to God and build the faith of His followers. In Chapter 9, Jesus heals a blind man. The blind man is healed on account of his faith in God and his belief in Jesus Christ. The blind man professes his faith in Jesus when he says "Tell me, so that I may believe in him." John also takes time to give an explanation for the existence of evil: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him." Though this point is not further developed, it does expound upon the concept that God 'works in mysterious ways,' and allows Jesus to be deemed "the light of the world," alluding, perhaps, not just to the blind man's new found ability to see, but also Christ's bringing of the knowledge of the truth about humans and God, who is also often represented by light, likely as a conflation with Apollo, the chief Roman god, associated with the sun, and also, strangely enough, the god of prophecy. As with the miracle of the blind man, faith in Christ and the Word of God are as important in John's Gospel as they were in the Old Testament. John's Gospel, more so than the others, is a return to the traditional them of faith in God, though it is a modification of this theme in that it uses the miracles of Jesus Christ to link God with mankind. The culmin...
