The New Testament with Commentary Mark 6

A visit to Natsareth

1 Then He went out from there and came to His hometown,* and His disciples followed Him. 2 And when the Sabbath came He began to teach in the synagogue. And many who heard were astonished, saying: “Where did this man get these things? What wisdom is this that is given to him? Such mighty works are being performed by his hands! 3 Isn't this the carpenter,† the son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas and Simon? And aren't his sisters here with us?”‡ So they took offense at Him. 4 But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown, among his relatives, even in his own house.”§ 5 He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He marveled at their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.

The Twelve commissioned and sent

7 Then He summoned the twelve and began to send them out, two by two, giving them authority over the unclean spirits as He did so. 8 And He commanded them to take nothing for the road, except just a staff—no knapsack, no bread, no coin in the belt— 9 but to wear sandals, and not put on two tunics. 10 And He said to them: “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from that place.* 11 And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, as you depart from there, shake off the dust that is under your feet as a testimony against them.† Assuredly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah on Judgment Day than for that city.”‡ 12 So they went out and started preaching that people should repent, 13 and they were casting out many demons, and anointing with oil and healing many who were sick.

Herod had executed John the Baptizer

14 Now King Herod heard of Him, because His name had become well known, and he said, “John the Baptizer has been raised from the dead, and that is why the powers§ are at work in him.” 15 Others said, “He is Elijah.” Still others said, “He is a prophet like one of the prophets.” 16 But when Herod heard, he said: “This is John, whom I beheaded; he has been raised from the dead!”*

17 You see, Herod himself had ordered John arrested, and bound him in prison, on account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife; because he had married her 18 —John had kept saying to Herod, “It isn't lawful for you to have your brother's wife.”† 19 So Herodias nursed a grudge against him and wanted to kill him;‡ but she couldn't, 20 because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a just and holy man. And consulting him he would do many things;§ indeed, he would hear him with pleasure.

21 Then an opportune day came* when on his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his courtiers, the military commanders, and the chief men of Galilee. 22 When the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, and pleased Herod and those reclining with him, the king said to the girl, “Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you.” 23 He even swore to her, “Whatever you may ask me I will give you, up to half of my kingdom!”†

24 So she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist!” 25 Hurrying in directly to the king she requested, saying, “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter!” 26 Though the king became very sorry, because of his oaths and of his guests he did not want to refuse her. 27 Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded the head to be brought. So he went and beheaded him in the prison, 28 brought the head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother.‡ 29 Upon hearing of it, his disciples came, removed the corpse and placed it in a tomb.§

The Twelve return

30 Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and reported all to Him, both what they had done and what they had taught. 31 Because so many were coming and going that they did not even have leisure to eat, He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile.”

Bread for 5,000 men

32 So they went away in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. 33 But many saw them going and recognized them,* and they ran there on foot from all the towns and arrived before them, and came together to Him.† 34 Well upon disembarking Jesus saw a large crowd‡ and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and He began to teach them many things.

35 When it was late in the day, His disciples came to Him and said: “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. 36 Send them away so they may go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat.”§ 37 But in reply He said to them, “You feed them!”* They say to Him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and feed them?” 38 So He says to them: “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” When they knew they said, “Five, and two fish.”

39 Then He directed them all to recline in groups on the green grass. 40 So they reclined in ‘plots’ of hundreds and of fifties. 41 And taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to His disciples to serve the people;†Let us pause and recall the scene. The Sacred Text affirms that there were about five thousand men, without counting the women and children. Now then, whenever you see a crowd of people, what is there usually the most of—isn't it women and children? In other words, I suppose that crowd was made up of at least 15,000 people. Okay, now try to imagine that you are one of those twelve disciples and you have just heard the Master say: “You feed them!” Now what? Did the disciples have anything? As a matter of fact, no. They had neither money (which would not have helped much since they were a long way from town) nor food. Even the five loaves and two fish belonged to somebody else.
Can it be that Jesus was playing a joke on them, or was He serious? I don't know, but I prefer to think that He would not make a joke out of such a situation. But if He was serious, how could the disciples obey? Only with a miracle. In fact, they could not see a solution and gave the problem back to Jesus to solve; which He did. But did Jesus Himself hand the bread and fish to the crowd? No. Let us think about that scene a little more and we will see that the disciples still had to exercise faith.
The Record affirms that they all ate until they were “full” or “satisfied”. It was not just a little something to tide them over. Have you ever considered how much bread and fish it would take to “fill” 15,000 people (who had gone without lunch)? It seems to me certain that when Jesus blessed and broke those loaves and fish there was not an instant multiplication, such that there was enough for everybody; the tremendous pile would have buried Jesus, the disciples and the closest of the people! Really. Just stop and think about it. It must not have been instantaneous. When Jesus placed some bread and fish in the hands of each disciple that was all there was, up to that moment.
Now then, try to imagine that you are one of those disciples with a handful of bread and fish, and you have to feed at least a thousand people (12 disciples and 15,000 people). Can you picture it? Wouldn't you feel just a little ridiculous taking that first step toward the crowd? Somehow the disciples find the courage and approach the people. The first one helps himself and, wonder of wonders, the supply is undiminished! The second one helps himself and the supply is unchanged. It was never used up—as they went around distributing, the food kept multiplying (to have twelve bushels of leftovers, the people were also involved in passing it on). If they had tired and stopped in the middle, half the people would have stayed hungry. If the disciples had decided to eat first, I rather imagine that the miracle would have been frustrated and the crowd would have gone hungry. The disciples ate last, but they ate very well, thank you very much! (Have you ever tried eating a bushel of bread?) He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 Well they all ate and were filled.‡ 43 And they§ picked up twelve full baskets of broken pieces; also of the fish.* 44 There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.†

Jesus retires to pray

45 Immediately He made His disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida,‡ while He dismissed the crowd. 46 And after taking leave of them He went up the mountain to pray.

A walk on water

47 Now when evening had passed, the boat was in the middle of the sea; and He was alone on the land. 48 And He saw§ them straining at rowing, because the wind was against them. Well about the fourth watch of the night* He comes to them walking on the water, and would have passed by them;† 49 but they saw Him walking on the water, supposed He was a ghost, and yelled! 50 Because they all saw Him and were terrified. Immediately He spoke with them and said: “Have courage! It is I; don't be afraid!” 51 Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were totally astounded within themselves, and kept marveling. 52 Because they had not understood about the loaves—their hearts had been hardened.‡

In Genesaret

53 After they had crossed over,§ they came to the land of Genesaret and anchored there. 54 When they came out of the boat, immediately the people recognized Him, 55 and running about that whole surrounding region they began to carry about on their pallets those who were sick to wherever they heard He was. 56 Wherever He entered—into villages, towns, or countryside—they would place the sick in the marketplaces, and they would beg Him that they might just touch the hem of His garment; and all who touched Him were healed.*

Mark
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*6:1 It had probably been over a year since they tried to kill Him (Luke 4:28-30), and He now had a significant ‘body guard’.

†6:3 They call Jesus ‘the carpenter’, so Joseph had died.

‡6:3 I placed all the statements within a single set of quotes, but they probably came from different people. Four brothers are named, and ‘sisters’ is plural, so there were at least two of them (Matthew 13:56 has “all his sisters”, so there were probably more than two). After Jesus, Joseph and Mary had a full family.

§6:4 In fact, His brothers did not believe in Him until after His resurrection (John 7:3-5).

*6:10 Jesus was obliging the disciples to be dependent on others for food and lodging, since they were not to take money—if no one fed them, they would go hungry; if no one took them in, they would have to sleep under a tree. How many of us would follow such instructions?

†6:11 Note that this is a command. Paul did this at least once (Acts 13:51), and the Lord Jesus Himself gave the example (Matthew 11:23-24), except that He spoke the curse. (I have had occasion to do it, and the consequences were serious.)

‡6:11 Perhaps 2% of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit the last sentence of verse 11, to be followed by NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.

§6:14 Just what he meant by ‘the powers’, we do not know. His view of the supernatural was probably not strictly biblical.

*6:16 Do you suppose Herod had a guilty conscience?

†6:18 A coward John was not.

‡6:19 I suppose that Herodias was ambitious and figured that Herod offered more than did Phillip, so it was probably she who took the initiative; but she hadn't counted on John being a persistent and vocal ‘conscience’.

§6:20 I here follow the best line of transmission, albeit representing only 20% of the Greek manuscripts, that has ‘consulting’ in the present tense; the rest, followed by all versions, have the verb in the past. But the immediately following ‘he would do many things’ is attested by over 99%—a mere handful (0.4%), of objectively inferior quality, have ‘greatly disturbed’ or ‘very perplexed’ (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). But why then did Herod hear John with pleasure, and why was he ‘very sorry’ (verse 26)? But what sorts of things would Herod take to John for his opinion? I suggest that Herod used John as a sounding board for administrative problems, and since he often followed his advice, he had an unusually good administration, there for a while. That is why he was genuinely sorry to lose John.

*6:21 Opportune for Herodias.

†6:23 Herod had doubtless already drunk more than was good for him (he had probably started before the banquet), so his judgment was impaired. The girl's request sobered him up—too late.

‡6:28 What effect do you suppose all that had on the party? The sight of that gory head would be enough to turn anyone's stomach. (And I wonder what she did with the head.)

§6:29 If I were one of those disciples, I probably would have been just a little dissatisfied with God—how could He permit His servant to suffer such a ridiculous and humiliating death? God is under no obligation to explain Himself. All accounts will be settled at the Judgment.

*6:33 There is an even split in the attestation; half the Greek manuscripts have ‘them’ and the other half ‘him’, but the best line of transmission has ‘them’. Consider: if the fishing boat were setting out to fish, there would not be 13 men in it; also, the boat was known and there was only one large group of men like that going around together; the people would not have to single out Jesus to know who they were. So ‘them’ is correct.

†6:33 Perhaps 4% of the Greek manuscripts omit ‘and came together to Him’, to be followed by NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.

‡6:34 Let us try to get the picture. There is a large bay between Capernaum and Tiberias, the ‘mouth’ being some ten miles across. Just from the direction the boat took, many people would have a pretty good idea where they were headed. Unless there was a good tail wind, and especially if they had to row, people on the shore could easily outrun the boat, even covering a greater distance. Much like a modern marathon, the people would be scattered out along the shore for several miles, and any stragglers could follow the action. The front runners got ahead of the boat, and the followers were strung out, so wherever the boat put in, there would be people waiting; any who had gone too far would just double back. But people kept arriving and the crowd kept getting bigger (by the end of the day there were 5,000 men, plus women and children). The crowd frustrated the plan, but instead of being angry, Jesus felt compassion. [I'm afraid I often do just the opposite.]

§6:36 This was an obvious cop-out; the surrounding area would not have enough extra bread to feed 10,000 people (or more).

*6:37 They had no way of expecting such a response, since humanly speaking it was ridiculously impossible. In the end, the solution did pass through their hands, but unless Jesus was joking (which I doubt), He was telling them to perform the miracle, before they had seen it done. Wow!

†6:41 Let us pause and recall the scene. The Sacred Text affirms that there were about five thousand men, without counting the women and children. Now then, whenever you see a crowd of people, what is there usually the most of—isn't it women and children? In other words, I suppose that crowd was made up of at least 15,000 people. Okay, now try to imagine that you are one of those twelve disciples and you have just heard the Master say: “You feed them!” Now what? Did the disciples have anything? As a matter of fact, no. They had neither money (which would not have helped much since they were a long way from town) nor food. Even the five loaves and two fish belonged to somebody else. Can it be that Jesus was playing a joke on them, or was He serious? I don't know, but I prefer to think that He would not make a joke out of such a situation. But if He was serious, how could the disciples obey? Only with a miracle. In fact, they could not see a solution and gave the problem back to Jesus to solve; which He did. But did Jesus Himself hand the bread and fish to the crowd? No. Let us think about that scene a little more and we will see that the disciples still had to exercise faith. The Record affirms that they all ate until they were “full” or “satisfied”. It was not just a little something to tide them over. Have you ever considered how much bread and fish it would take to “fill” 15,000 people (who had gone without lunch)? It seems to me certain that when Jesus blessed and broke those loaves and fish there was not an instant multiplication, such that there was enough for everybody; the tremendous pile would have buried Jesus, the disciples and the closest of the people! Really. Just stop and think about it. It must not have been instantaneous. When Jesus placed some bread and fish in the hands of each disciple that was all there was, up to that moment. Now then, try to imagine that you are one of those disciples with a handful of bread and fish, and you have to feed at least a thousand people (12 disciples and 15,000 people). Can you picture it? Wouldn't you feel just a little ridiculous taking that first step toward the crowd? Somehow the disciples find the courage and approach the people. The first one helps himself and, wonder of wonders, the supply is undiminished! The second one helps himself and the supply is unchanged. It was never used up—as they went around distributing, the food kept multiplying (to have twelve bushels of leftovers, the people were also involved in passing it on). If they had tired and stopped in the middle, half the people would have stayed hungry. If the disciples had decided to eat first, I rather imagine that the miracle would have been frustrated and the crowd would have gone hungry. The disciples ate last, but they ate very well, thank you very much! (Have you ever tried eating a bushel of bread?)

‡6:42 The Text is clear—they ate until they were full.

§6:43 It probably was not the disciples who did the picking up, at least not by themselves. Also, those twelve baskets of pieces did not go with the disciples when they left.

*6:43 The large baskets were probably borrowed from fishing boats near by (see the parallel accounts). Maybe the owners got their baskets back with interest!

†6:44 The term here refers exclusively to males, so with the women and children the crowd was doubtless over 10,000.

‡6:45 For a detailed discussion about the location, please see the Appendix: Bethsaida or Tiberias?

§6:48 It was night, and they were about eight miles away, so this was supernatural vision.

*6:48 That was 3 a.m.!

†6:48 They had been rowing for about nine hours, and when Jesus sent them off He presumably knew what was going to happen. (We should not be surprised if God does similar things with us.) He obviously intended for them to see Him, otherwise He would not have come near enough. But He did not go straight at the boat, but was walking off to one side. Just why He did it that way, the Text does not say, but from the parallel accounts we know that it gave Peter a chance to try a walk. As soon as He got in the boat it was transported several miles to the shore, immediately (John 6:21).

‡6:52 By whom?

§6:53 For a fuller explanation of what went on here, see the footnotes with the parallel account in John 6:16-25.

*6:56 Wow!