Food

Abstract

This chapter begins with a section entitled A Proto-Miracle: Manna from the Desert, which is designed to set the scene for the miracle narratives which follow. The production of manna in the desert by Moses is a miracle narrative common to both the Qur’an and the Old Testament. After this initial section, the chapter goes on to examine the feeding of the 5000/4000 in the New Testament and then the Eucharistic miracles which have been claimed by the Christian tradition in both the medieval and modern age. Such miracles may be compared with that outlined in the next Islamic section which draws on the fifth chapter of the Qur’an, in which Jesus is challenged by his disciples to send ask God to send down a table from Heaven laden with food. Other Islamic miracles drawn from the hadith literature are itemised here. At the end of the chapter a number of metathemes and metamotifs are identified including hunger, testing, manna, bread and Eucharist.