Mark 6:38

38 So Jesus asked them, "How much bread do you have? Go and see." When they found out, they told him, "Five loaves and also 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 the people away, and let them go to the nearby farms and villages in order to buy themselves something to eat."

37 "You yourselves give them something to eat," Jesus answered. They asked, "Do you want us to go and spend two hundred silver coins on bread in order to feed them?"

38 So Jesus asked them, "How much bread do you have? Go and see." When they found out, they told him, "Five loaves and also two fish."

39 Jesus then told his disciples to make all the people divide into groups and sit down on the green grass.

40 So the people sat down in rows, in groups of a hundred and groups of fifty.