Mark 6:38

38 And he said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go look!" And [when they] found out, they said, "Five, and two fish."

Mark 6:38 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 6:38

And he saith unto them, how many loaves have ye?
&c.] This he said, not as ignorant, but as willing to try their faith yet more, and that the after miracle might be more manifest and illustrious:

go and see;
meaning, either that they should examine their own store, if they had any; or rather go and see what was to be had upon the spot, among the company, for money;

and when they knew, they say five loaves and two fishes:
when they had made inquiry what provisions there were, and the most that could be got at any rate, they tell him, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, particularly, that there was a boy among the multitude that had five barley loaves, and two small fishes; and, at the same time, suggests, that they were nothing for so great a company.

Mark 6:38 In-Context

36 Send them away so that they can go into the surrounding farms and villages [and] purchase something to eat for themselves."

37 But he answered [and] said to them, "You give them [something] to eat." And they said to him, "Should we go [and] purchase bread for two hundred denarii and give [it] to them to eat?"

38 And he said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go look!" And [when they] found out, they said, "Five, and two fish."

39 And he ordered them all to recline in groups on the green grass.

40 And they reclined in groups, by hundreds and by fifties.

Footnotes

• [a]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("found out") which is understood as temporal