Mark 6 Study Notes

6:35-44 The feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels (Mt 14:13-21; Lk 9:10-17; Jn 6:1-15).

6:35-36 The words this place is deserted mark the third mention of the remoteness of the place (vv. 31-32,35). After pointing out it was late, the disciples commanded Jesus to send them away.

6:37 Jesus responded with a command of his own. You is emphatic. Obviously the disciples did not have two hundred denarii (a denarius was a day’s wage). In fact they had just returned from a mission on which they had taken no bread or money (v. 8). Feeding this many people was a big challenge. (Cp. Moses’s wilderness situation in Ex 16:1-35; Nm 11:13,22; and Elijah’s in 2Kg 4:42-44.)

6:38 The disciples focused on what they lacked, but Jesus focused on what they had—five . . . loaves and two fish. The loaves were probably small, round, flat barley biscuits; the fish were probably dried.

6:39-40 Matthew (14:19) and John (6:10) mention the grass on which the people sat, but only Mark says it was green, indicating springtime.

6:41 Looking up to heaven was a position of prayer (cp. 7:34). The Gospel writers did not record Jesus’s prayer, but the traditional Jewish blessing over bread would have been appropriate: “Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the world, who bringeth forth bread from the earth.”

6:42 The verb was satisfied is used of fattening animals. Thus Jesus provided abundance, not just sustenance.

6:43 The twelve baskets matches the number of apostles and tribes of Israel. The word for “baskets” denotes large, heavy containers.

6:44 A total of five thousand men were fed. Mark’s word (Gk) andres (“males”) is gender specific. Matthew adds “besides women and children” (Mt 14:21) which mean that considerably more than five thousand people were fed.

6:45 The word immediately is characteristic. Made is a strong verb that carries the sense of “compelled.” Mark did not say why Jesus rushed his disciples away, but Jn 6:14-15 indicates that the people wanted to make him king.

6:46 After he said good-bye to them refers to the disciples. For the second time in Mark, Jesus went off by himself to pray.

6:47 Well into the night apparently refers to a time quite late since v. 48 refers to “very early in the morning.”

6:48 The phrases straining at the oars and the wind was against them do not picture the same situation as 4:35-41 when Jesus calmed wind and sea. Very early in the morning (lit “around the fourth watch of the night”) reflects the Roman method of dividing the night into four watches. The fourth was from 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. Walking on the sea is meant literally and is verbally parallel to “on the land” (v. 47).

6:49 The disciples thought Jesus was a ghost (Gk phantasma), which expresses the idea of illusion.

6:50 Jesus reassured the disciples with two commands: Have courage and don’t be afraid. The words it is I are literally “I am” (Gk Ego Eimi), the divine name of God in Ex 3:14 (cp. Is 41:4; 43:10-11; 48:12). Jesus did what God alone could do and used God’s name to identify himself.

6:51 In 4:35-41 the wind ceased when Jesus commanded it to stop; here it stopped when he got into the boat . . . Astounded was the usual reaction to Jesus’s power (cp. 1:22,27; 2:12; 5:15,20,42).

6:52 Mark diagnosed a twofold problem: the disciples had not understood and their hearts were hardened. Hard hearts (spiritual insensitivity) characterized the Pharisees at the synagogue in Capernaum (3:5).

6:53-56 This is Mark’s third summary of Jesus’s ministry (cp. 1:35-39; 3:7-12).

6:53 Gennesaret was a fertile plain on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee between Capernaum and Tiberius.

6:54 The people immediately recognized Jesus. This contrasts with the disciples, who had failed to recognize him (v. 49).

6:55 The mats on which the sick were carried were the same type used by the paralytic (2:2-12).

6:56 Villages, towns, and country sum up the entire region of Galilee. Marketplaces (Gk agora) were the busiest centers of local life. The statement that the sick . . . begged Jesus to heal them recalls the man with skin disease (1:40), the demoniac (5:10,12,17-18), and the synagogue ruler (5:23) where the same word is used. Their desire to touch just the end of his robe recalls the desire of the bleeding woman (5:28).