Dust settled in the wake of a tall and thin man as he stepped inland from the Jordan River. He wore fringed robes of linen and a complacent expression as he crossed the sun-baked earth. A close friend of his who was called John had just been brutally killed and he had come to the riverside for solitude. “The trials of this earth,” he thought, “are just that: of this earth. I must channel myself toward benevolence, even now.”
Jesus of Nazareth could be seen approaching from the riverside as he emerged from behind the riverbank. The crowd offered an endearing cheer as he drew closer, and their faces grew eager. The crowd did not move to surround Jesus, but allowed him to surround himself by it. Jesus gestured politely as he passed through the mass of his followers, and he seated himself on a stone near the center of the crowd. There he sat undisturbed for many hours, having requested a time for reflection. After the sun had set, a man rose from the crowd and approached Jesus of Nazareth.
“This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late,” He said. “Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves food.” The man spoke directly into Jesus’ ear, but all nearby could hear.
“They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”
“We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” offered a woman from the crowd.
“Bring them here to me,” answered Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus of Nazareth gestured for those around him, who had begun to approach anxiously, to sit and wait. He grasped the basket of bread and the basket of fish and lifted them skyward. He tilted his head back and his lips moved faintly for a few seconds. His unkempt beard betrayed a slight breeze. He replaced the baskets on the ground and motioned for those in the crowd to approach. Women came first, then children. Men waited for their wives to return. Each follower took half a loaf of bread from one basket and a cut a slice of fish from the other. Jesus of Nazareth smiled and focused on the horizon on the river as the entire crowd ate.
“Stop.”
The screen froze bearing the image of a contented Jesus Christ standing beside two baskets full of bread and fish.
“And we’re sure this is that old?”
“Yes, we’re sure. The tape itself required weeks of blind-reconstructive work in order to be digitized and replayed. As I mentioned, it was found by my team in a cave in southwestern Lebanon. The Lebanese government had just green-lighted the cave for international excavation.”
The professor stood bewildered, transfixed by the image burning itself on the screen and into his mind. “These guys are the best,” he thought, “and the tape withstood their tests.”
“We don’t expect you to mandate what we do with it, professor, but we needed to consult you.” The excavation crew’s leader seemed emotionally separated from the situation.
The professor gathered himself slowly, then managed: “This will cause more trouble than it will resolve, but we don’t have a choice.”
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