Mark 8:1

1 In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and said to them,

Mark 8:1 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 8:1

In those days
The Ethiopic version reads, on that day; as if it was on the same day that the deaf man was healed; and so it might be; and on the third day from Christ's coming into those parts; and so is very properly expressed, "in those days"; see ( Mark 7:31 ) , compared with the following verse:

the multitude being very great:
for the number of men that ate, when the following miracle was wrought, were about four thousand; see ( Mark 8:9 ) . The Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions add, "again"; referring to the former miracle of the five thousand, who were fed with five loaves, and two fishes, ( Mark 6:44 ) .

And having nothing to eat;
what they might have brought with them being expended, and they in a desert, where nothing was to be had, nor bought for money:

Jesus called his disciples to him, and saith unto them;
(See Gill on Matthew 15:32).

Mark 8:1 In-Context

1 In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and said to them,
2 "I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.
3 If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way—and some of them have come from a great distance."
4 His disciples replied, "How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?"
5 He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" They said, "Seven."
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.