Mark 6:32-44
And they went away in a boat ( κα απηλθον εν τω πλοιω ). They accepted with alacrity and off they went.Outwent them ( προηλθον αυτους ). The crowds were not to be outdone. They recognized ( εγνωσαν ) Jesus and the disciples and ran around the head of the lake on foot ( πεζη ) and got there ahead of Jesus and were waiting for Him when the boat came.
They were as sheep not having a shepherd ( ησαν ως προβατα μη εχοντα ποιμενα ). Matthew has these words in another context (Mt 9:26), but Mark alone has them here. Μη is the usual negative for the participle in the Koine. These excited and exciting people (Bruce) greatly needed teaching. Mt 14:14 mentions healing as does Lu 9:11 (both preaching and healing). But a vigorous crowd of runners would not have many sick. The people had plenty of official leaders but these rabbis were for spiritual matters blind leaders of the blind. Jesus had come over for rest, but his heart was touched by the pathos of this situation. So "he began to teach them many things" ( ηρξατο διδασκειν αυτους πολλα ). Two accusatives with the verb of teaching and the present tense of the infinitive. He kept it up.
When the day was now far spent ( ηδη ωρας πολλης γενομενης ). Genitive absolute. Hωρα used here for day-time (so Mt 14:15) as in Polybius and late Greek.
Much day-time already gone. Lu 9:12 has it began to
incline ( κλινειν ) or wear away. It was after 3 P.M., the first evening. Note second evening or sunset in Mr 6:47; Mt 14:23; Joh 6:16. The turn of the afternoon had come and sunset was approaching. The idiom is repeated at the close of the verse. See on Mt 14:15.
Into the country and villages round about ( εις τους κυκλω αγρους κα κωμας ). The fields ( αγρους ) were the scattered farms (Latin, villae). The villages ( κωμας ) may have included Bethsaida Julias not far away (Lu 9:10). The other Bethsaida was on the Western side of the lake (Mr 6:45).
Somewhat to eat ( τ φαγωσιν ). Literally,
what to eat,
what they were to eat. Deliberative subjunctive retained in the indirect question.
Go and see ( υπαγετε ιδετε ). John says that Jesus asked Philip to find out what food they had (Joh 6:5f.) probably after the disciples had suggested that Jesus send the crowd away as night was coming on (Mr 6:35f.). On this protest to his command that they feed the crowds (Mr 6:37; Mt 14:16; Lu 9:13) Jesus said "Go see" how many loaves you can get hold of. Then Andrew reports the fact of the lad with five barley loaves and two fishes (Joh 6:8f.). They had suggested before that two hundred pennyworth ( δηναριων διακοσιων. See on Mt 18:28) was wholly inadequate and even that (some thirty-five dollars) was probably all that or even more than they had with them. John's Gospel alone tells of the lad with his lunch which his mother had given him.
By companies ( συμποσια συμποσια ). Distribution expressed by repetition as in Mr 6:7 ( δυο δυο ) instead of using ανα or κατα. Literally our word symposium and originally a drinking party, Latin convivium, then the party of guests of any kind without the notion of drinking. So in Plutarch and the LXX (especially I Macca.).
Upon the green grass ( επ τω χλωρω χορτω ). Another Markan touch. It was passover time (Joh 6:4) and the afternoon sun shone upon the orderly groups upon the green spring grass. See on Mt 14:15. They may have been seated like companies at tables, open at one end.
They sat down in ranks ( ανεπεσαν πρασια πρασια ). They half-way reclined ( ανακλιθηνα, verse 39). Fell up here (we have to say fell down), the word ανεπεσαν means. But they were arranged in groups by hundreds and by fifties and they looked like garden beds with their many-coloured clothes which even men wore in the Orient. Then again Mark repeats the word, πρασια πρασια, in the nominative absolute as in verse 39 instead of using ανα or κατα with the accusative for the idea of distribution. Garden beds, garden beds. Peter saw and he never forgot the picture and so Mark caught it. There was colour as well as order in the grouping. There were orderly walks between the rows on rows of men reclining on the green grass. The grass is not green in Palestine much of the year, mainly at the passover time. So here the Synoptic Gospels have an indication of more than a one-year ministry of Jesus (Gould). It is still one year before the last passover when Jesus was crucified.
Brake the loaves; and he gave to the disciples ( κα απο των ιχθυων ). Apparently the fishes were in excess of the twelve baskets full of broken pieces of bread. See on Mt 14:20 for discussion of κοφινος and σφυρις, the two kinds of baskets.
Men ( ανδρες ). Men as different from women as in Mt 14:21. This remarkable miracle is recorded by all Four Gospels, a nature miracle that only God can work. No talk about accelerating natural processes will explain this miracle. And three eyewitnesses report it: the Logia of Matthew, the eyes of Peter in Mark, the witness of John the Beloved Disciple (Gould). The evidence is overwhelming.
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