John 6:10

10 [And] Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place: the men therefore sat down, in number about five thousand.

John 6:10 Meaning and Commentary

John 6:10

Jesus said, make the men sit down
The Syriac version reads, "all the men"; and the Persic version, "all the people"; men, women, and children: Christ, without reproving his disciples for their unbelief, ordered them directly to place the people upon the ground, and seat them in rows by hundreds and by fifties, in a rank and company, as persons about to take a meal:

now there was much grass in the place;
at the bottom of the mountain; and it was green, as one of the evangelists observes, it being the spring of the year, and was very commodious to sit down upon:

so the men sat down, in number about five thousand;
besides women and children, ( Matthew 14:21 ) , so that there was but one loaf for more than a thousand persons.

John 6:10 In-Context

8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, says to him,

9 There is a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fishes; but this, what is it for so many?

10 [And] Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place: the men therefore sat down, in number about five thousand.

11 And Jesus took the loaves, and having given thanks, distributed [them] to those that were set down; and in like manner of the small fishes as much as they would.

12 And when they had been filled, he says to his disciples, Gather together the fragments which are over and above, that nothing may be lost.

Footnotes

• [a]. Aner: 'men' in contrast to women: see Matt. 14.21; 1Cor. 11.3.