Bible Study series: Mark 8:1-10. God can work a miracle with a few resources.
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Scripture: Mark 8:1-10
1 In those days, there was again a huge crowd, without having anything to eat. Calling for the disciples, he said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the crowd because they have already stayed with me three days, and they do not have anything to eat. 3 And if I dismiss them hungry to their houses, they may faint on the way, and some of them have come a long distance.” 4 His disciples replied to him: “Where will anyone here be able to feed them with bread in a remote place?” 5 He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 6 He gave orders to the crowd to sit on the ground. After he took the seven loaves of bread and blessed them, he broke and gave them to his disciples, and they placed them before the crowd. 7 They also had a few fish, and when he blessed them, he said to set them out. 8 They ate and were satisfied, and there was an overflow of seven baskets. 9 There were about four thousand. He sent them away. 10 And then he got in the boat with his disciples and went to the region of Dalmanutha. (Mark 8:1-10)
Comments:
Some commentators say that the majority of the crowd was Gentile. Jesus is in Gentile territory to teaching us that the mission has to be expanded to include all peoples. For example, “long distance” in Greek may echo the language of Is. 60:4, 9, which says that foreigners shall see the light (see Matt. 8:1-3). Peter says the promise of the Spirit is for those who are far off (Acts 2:39; cf. 22:21). Paul says that Christ came to preach to those who are afar off (Eph. 2:17). This fact argues against the belief among scholars that this feeding is a “doublet” of the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:30-44), that is, the same event, but with details changed.
Commentator R. T. France cautions against seeing this pericope (pronounced puh-RIH-koh-pea) or section or unit of Scripture merely as a doublet. The passage fits well into Mark’s plan:
Given a Gentile location, however, the second feeding miracle fits well into Mark’s plan, as the third of a set of miracles (an exorcism, a healing, and a nature miracle) which extend the mission of the Messiah of Israel for the benefit also of neighbouring peoples. The narrative thus fills out Jesus’ discussion with the Syrophoenician woman about allowing the dogs a share in the children’s bread, and in this incident the ‘bread’ is quite literally shared. That discussion accepted that the Gentiles’ share might be only ‘scraps’, and perhaps it is for this reason that Mark so carefully records a different set of statistics for this feeding: fewer people (four thousand instead of five thousand) fed with more loaves (seven instead of five) and ‘a few small fish’ but with less food left over (seven baskets instead of twelve). The numbers are meant to be noticed (see vv. 19–21).
1:
Let me expand a bit on what I just wrote. This pericope parallels the feeding of the five thousand in Mark 6:30-44. Here the pericope is briefer, but the essence is the same. However, we should not believe the claim that they are the same story but reworked and placed here for some reason. There are differences.
The opening words of this account says “In those days.” This phrase means that an unknown number of days passed by when this true and historical and miraculous event took place. So the disciples will have forgotten the significance of the feeding of the five thousand.
“the disciples”: this means the twelve.
Let’s explore what this word means more literally. The noun is mathētēs (pronounced mah-they-tayss). and it is used 261 times in the NT, though many of them are duplicates in the three synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. BDAG is considered by many to be the authoritative Greek lexicon of the NT, and it says of the noun (1) “one who engages in learning through instruction from another, pupil, apprentice”; (2) “one who is rather constantly associated with someone who has a pedagogical reputation or a particular set of views, disciple, adherent.”
2-3:
“moved with compassion”: In 6:34, at the feeding of the five thousand (plus women and children), Jesus was also moved with compassion. The verb could be translated as “felt compassion,” but this attribute which God shares with us cannot remain static or unexpressed. It has to be active, or else it cannot be compassion.
Do I Really Know God? He Is Compassionate and Merciful
Three days was quite a teaching session. (I can see why some Christians get together at a “camp meeting” for several days.) Jesus didn’t want them to faint or collapse along the road home, so he had to feed them.
“disciples”: see v. 1 for more comments.
Yes, the disciples should have learned the lesson about provision from the feeding of the five thousand, but they did not. Mark 6:52 says that soon after the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, their hearts were hard, so they did not understand the full significance back then. Now, after many days, their hearts were still so thick with ignorance and an inability to understand, they skeptically asked Jesus where they would get enough bread to feed the huge crowd.
4:
His disciples were once again skeptical. Where would they get so much food to feed such a large crowd? They had forgotten their recent lesson of feeding five thousand (plus women and children). The children of Israel walking through the desert also forgot God’s mighty power of deliverance. He gave them manna and then they wondered later on, going through a tough time, whether God would provide.
Skeptics question whether the disciples would forget such a powerful lesson—never mind that skeptics don’t even believe the multiplication of loaves and fish even happened. But as far as I’m concerned, skeptics don’t have a voice in my head. I have heard too many stories of soup kitchens have food multiply to doubt it, when a surge of homeless people unexpectedly show up. Miracles of the Bible can happen again.
“remote place”: echoes the bread coming down from heaven for the ancient Israelites in the wilderness, because in Greek the term translated here as “remote place” can be translated as “wilderness.”
5:
Jesus asked a simple question. Not everything he did was activated by the gift of the word of knowledge. He did not say, “I know already by my super-powers how many loaves and fish you have!” No. He asked. Remember his divine attribute of omniscience (all-knowing) was imported with him at his birth, but it was surrendered to his Father. His Father and himself, together, activated this attribute. Jesus did not activate this knowledge attribute by himself, but it was also operated by his Father’s will.
4. Do I Really Know Jesus? He Took the Form of a Servant (a discussion of the attributes of Jesus in his ministry)
“loaves”: the bread was flat and about eight inches in diameter.
His disciples answered his straightforward question. Seven loaves and small fishes (plural).
6-7:
Jesus repeats his command when he fed the five thousand-plus. He had them sit down on the ground. This time it does not say green grass, as it did in 6:39. So the season changed. It may have been the end of the summer, when the grass burned brown.
Once again, he followed his previous way. He took the bread and fish and thanked his loving Father for the food and the multiplication of it. Doing this must have appeared outlandish to those watching. “He’s actually giving thanks for this little food? Is he going to eat it front of us? Really? This is crazy!” He divided or broke the bread and divided the fish somehow without making a mess, and he gave them to the disciples who gave them to the crowd. I would have been watching carefully at the logistics. How will this work? But the bread and fish never ran out. “Wow!” I would have said. “This truly is a miracle! God is with that man!”
“bless”: it comes from the Greek verb eulogeō (pronounced eu-loh-geh-oh, and the “g” is hard), and it literally means to “speak well.” BDAG defines the term, depending on the context, as follows: (1) “to say something commendatory, speak well of, praise, extol”; (2) “to ask for bestowal of special favor, especially of calling down God’s gracious power, bless”; (3) “to bestow a favor, provide with benefits.” Here it is the second definition. Some translations have “he gave thanks.” Being grateful even for food shows gratitude and an acknowledgement that God is the source.
Traditional form for blessing bread: “Blessed art thou, Lord our God, King of the world, who bringest forth bread from the earth” (France, comment on 6:41).
8:
This verse reveals the results. Everyone ate and was satisfied. And the leftovers were seven baskets full of fragments.
“overflow”: it comes from the Greek noun that means “abound” or “abundance.”
9:
In Matt. 15:38, there were also women and children who ate the loaves and fish. So the total must have been 8000-12,000 people there. This was quite a miracle!
One last theological point: Jesus indirectly shows himself to be the bread of heaven—indirectly because he does not announce it, as he did in John’s Gospel (6:35), after he fed the five thousand (6:1-14). This refers to the manna from heaven that fed the ancient Israelites going through the wilderness (Exod. 16). Jesus is our bread of heaven. He is our sustenance.
10:
Then he leaves in a boat to another place called Dalmanutha, a vicinity which has not been pinpointed on a map. NET says that the location is mentioned nowhere else in in the NT. Matt. 15:39 says “Magadan,” which is also unknown. “A small anchorage north of Magdala and west of Capernaum investigated in 1970 during a period of law lake levels in the Sea of Galilee has been suggested as the possible location of Dalmanutha” (NET). You may google it.
My focus is on Jesus’s ministry. He keeps going and going. He loves people.
One thing is certain: the will of the Father is the constant factor. No miracle is done without him.
4. Do I Really Know Jesus? He Took the Form of a Servant
And I note that he worked this miracle without the faith of the people or the disciples, but he certainly had faith. It carried all of the four thousand men plus women and men and the twelve disciples. He also had compassion on them. So his faithfulness (connected to faith) and his compassion led to the miracle.
Faith has to be present somewhere, even if it comes directly from the Father to one small child. In this story, Jesus alone had the faith.
It is further interesting that he did not pray for them to receive supernatural strength to walk home without fainting or collapsing along the road. He fed them. God works miracles, true, but he also recognizes the human conditions and limitations. They may not have had faith to sustain their journey back home. They needed to be fed. It was a fitting solution to a long and happy three days of teaching and healing. They ate and were satisfied.
GrowApp for Mark 8:1-10
1. Jesus provided for the large crowds, with seven full baskets left over. How has he provided for you?
RELATED
10. Eyewitness Testimony in Mark’s Gospel
2. Church Fathers and Mark’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
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