Did Any Evangelist Mess up the Location of Feeding Five Thousand?

There have been various discussions about the location of Jesus feeding five thousand. According to Luke 9:10, Jesus took the disciples for a break from ministry at a city called Bethsaida where the feeding event occurred afterward. However, in Mark 6:45, Jesus asked the disciples to go ahead to the other side namely Bethsaida after the feeding miracle. If Jesus and the disciples were already in Bethsaida, why did He ask the disciples to travel to Bethsaida? How to reconcile these two passages is already intriguing. Matthew was not helpful either, for he only called the place as ἔρημον. John did not name the place except mentioning that the disciples has crossed the sea to Capernaum after Jesus fed many (John 6:17). Archeologists begin to doubt about the description in the gospels. Pixner even suggests that Luke and John may have confused up the two multiplication events. With archeological findings in recent years, scholars try to nail down several locations for the event such as et-Tell, Aradj, or Tabgha though no agreement has achieved. Besides, there are five other textual readings in Luke 9:10 aside from Βηθσαϊδά. Could the confusion regarding the feeding event come from scribal errors? Where could the event of feeding five thousand possibly occur? This paper aims at exegeting the event of feeding five thousand. In the process, contextual background of this event in the four gospels will be investigated. In addition, Josephus’s battle near Jordan River and archeological results will be put into consideration. Apart from that, textual issues on Luke 9:10 and Mark 6:32 will be evaluated. By revisiting various disciplines, current study wants to bring a reasonable understanding of the feeding passages and the meaning behind Jesus’s miracle.