Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 6:41
And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke the loaves, and gave [them] to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all.
41. and blessed ] The words, though not given, were probably those of the ordinary grace before meat in use in Israel. “He gives thanks to God, as the father surrounded by his household was on the occasion of the Passover wont to do, for His natural gifts and covenant blessings. This action is made almost equally prominent in each of the four Narratives, and after the thanksgiving, He distributed the food, as the father was accustomed to do at the Paschal meal.” See note on Mar 14:16.
and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples ] The first of these words denotes an instantaneous, the second a continuous act. The multiplication of the loaves and fishes had a beginning and went on in the hands of Christ between the acts of breaking and distributing the bread. Comp. 2Ki 4:42-44.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 41. And blessed] I think the word God should be inserted here, as in Mt 14:19. See the note there. The food we receive from God is already blessed, and does not stand in need of being blessed by man; but God, who gives it, deserves our warmest thanksgivings, as frequently as we are called to partake of his bounty.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
41. And when he had taken the fiveloaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heavenThus wouldthe most distant of them see distinctly what He was doing.
and blessedJohn (Joh6:11) says, “And when he had given thanks.” The senseis the same. This thanksgiving for the meal, and benediction of it asthe food of thousands, was the crisis of the miracle.
and brake the loaves, andgave them to his disciples to set before themthus virtuallyholding forth these men as His future ministers.
and the two fishes divided heamong them all.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And when he had taken the five loaves and two fishes,…. Out of the hands of those that brought them into his own:
he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves:
[See comments on Mt 14:19],
and gave them to his disciples to set before them; the multitude, in order to eat of them:
and the two fishes divided he among them all; that every one might have a part. The Syriac and Persic versions read, they divided; that is, the apostles.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Brake the loaves; and he gave to the disciples ( ). Apparently the fishes were in excess of the twelve baskets full of broken pieces of bread. See on Mt 14:20 for discussion of and , the two kinds of baskets.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Brake and gave [, ] . The verbs are in different tenses; the former in the aorist, the latter in the imperfect. The aorist implies the instantaneous, the imperfect the continuous act. He brake, and kept giving out. Farrar remarks that the multiplication evidently took place in Christ ‘s hands, between the acts of breaking and distributing.
All. Peculiar to Mark.
Were filled. See on Mt 5:6.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fishes,” (kai labon tous pente artous kai tous duo ichthuas) ”And taking the five loaves and the two fishes,” of the little lad, Joh 6:7-9. After having seated the throngs of hungry people, having taken only what He had at hand.
Such is all that anyone need use for or give to the Lord.
2) “He looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves,” (anablepsas eis ton ouranon eulogesen kat kateklasen tous artous) ”While looking up into heaven throne of power and. grace, He blessed and then broke the loaves,” looking to His Father in prayer, who always heard Him, and always hears prayers and needs of His children, Joh 11:41-42; Joh 15:7; 1Jn 3:22; Psa 16:1.
3) ”And gave them to His disciples to set before them;” (kai edidou tois mathetais hina paratithosin autos) ”And gave or doled out to the disciples, in order that they might set the bread before the ranks and companies sitting upon the green grass,” as they were to do good works for Him, as well as we, Jas 1:22.
4) ”And the two fishes divided He among them all.” (kai tous duo ichthuas emerisen pasin) “And He divided and distributed. the two fishes to all the people,” among all the people. Sharing in giving is the spirit of wisdom and spirit of Christ in true believers, Ecc 11:1-4; Joh 20:21; Act 1:8.
Blessing or giving thanks should always precede a regular meal, 1Sa 9:13; Mat 26:26; Luk 24:30; 1Ti 4:4-5. One has well said “Thanksgiving is good and Godly, but Thanks ”giving” is even better.”
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
41. Gave his disciples to set before them Here, according to the beautiful thought of Stier, we have the image of a true and holy tradition. God gives to his Son, his Son to his apostles, his apostles to the people, the heavenly bread.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven he blessed, and broke the loaves, and he gave to the disciples to set before them, and he divided the two fish among them all. And they all ate and were filled.’
There is no avoiding the miraculous supply. (It would even have taken a miracle to take two fish and give but a few hundred even a little). Jesus looked up to the Giver and then distributed to the crowd through the disciples. And all were filled. In His hands five loaves and two fish were sufficient and to spare.
‘Looking up to heaven He blessed.’ For the idea of looking up to heaven see Mar 7:34; Joh 11:41; compare Job 22:26. In each case He was looking for the miraculous power of God to work. It was symbolic of calling on God.
‘He blessed’. He blessed God, as a Jewish father would give a blessing over the bread of the household. The blessing may have been the regular one, ‘”Blessed are you, Oh Lord our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread on the earth”. Note that it is not the bread which is blessed but God Himself. It is gratitude for provision.
‘And broke the loaves’. An action preparatory to eating. Here it was for the purposes of distribution. It indicated sharing and the oneness of the company. A Jewish father would himself eat a piece and then pass the remainder round.
‘And He gave to the disciples to set before them.’ The verb in the imperfect may indicate ‘went on giving to the disciples’.
‘And they all ate and were filled.’ It is stressed that there was sufficient for everyone.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
41 And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all.
Ver. 41. See Trapp on “ Mat 14:20 “ See Trapp on “ Joh 6:12 “ See Trapp on “ Joh 6:13 “ See Trapp on “ Joh 6:14 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
41. ] and , aorists, each express the one act by which He broke up the bread, and divided the fishes: , imperf., that He gave the bread, bit by bit , to His disciples to distribute: with the fish there was no need of this bit by bit giving one assignment sufficed. See Bp. Wordsw.’s note. The dividing of the fishes , and ( Mar 6:43 ) the taking up fragments from the fishes , are both peculiar to and characteristic of Mark: but it would have been most inconsistent with his precision to have omitted . . . in Mar 6:44 , had he had it before him.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
looked up. App-133.
to = unto. Greek. eis. App-104. .
heaven = the heaven. Singular. See Mat 6:9, Mat 6:10.
brake . . . gave. The former is the Aorist tense, recording the instantaneous act; the latter is the Imperfect tense, describing the continuous giving. This shows that the miraculous power was in the hands of Christ, between the breaking and the giving.
all. This is Divine supplement, only in Mark.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
41.] and , aorists, each express the one act by which He broke up the bread, and divided the fishes: , imperf., that He gave the bread, bit by bit, to His disciples to distribute: with the fish there was no need of this bit by bit giving-one assignment sufficed. See Bp. Wordsw.s note. The dividing of the fishes, and (Mar 6:43) the taking up fragments from the fishes, are both peculiar to and characteristic of Mark: but it would have been most inconsistent with his precision to have omitted . . . in Mar 6:44, had he had it before him.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mar 6:41. , all) All partook even of the accompaniment, the fish: even of it also remnants were left, Mar 6:43; [which, as a fish consists of very different parts, is therefore less intelligible to mere reason, than the multiplication of the bread.-V. g.]
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
looked: Mar 7:34, Mat 14:19, Luk 9:16, Joh 11:41, Joh 17:1
blessed: Mar 8:6, Mar 8:7, Mar 14:22, Deu 8:10, 1Sa 9:13, Mat 15:36, Mat 26:26, Luk 24:30, Joh 6:11, Joh 6:23, Act 27:35, Rom 14:6, 1Co 10:31, Col 3:17, 1Ti 4:4, 1Ti 4:5
Reciprocal: Dan 1:15 – their
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1
Jesus blessed the bread by giving thanks to God for it. The reason for breaking the bread was the same for breaking it in the Lord’s Supper, and that was only because more than one person was to partake of it. Jesus handed the pieces of bread to the disciples so they could serve the multitude.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mar 6:41. Mark here agrees most closely with Matthew and Luke, while John is less full. The emendations correspond with those in Mat 14:19.
And the two fishes divided he among them all. In the case of the fish there is no mention made of a distribution through the disciples. The greater detail in regard to the bread was probably due to its higher symbolical meaning. Moreover all did not partake of the fishes; comp. Joh 6:11. Marks mention of the division of the fishes is another evidence of the exactness so characteristic of this Gospel.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
41 And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. 42 And they did all eat, and were filled. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. 44 And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men. 45 And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, while he sent away the people. 46 And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray.
Christ blessed the meal and the disciples passed it out and there was excess after feeding the 5000 men plus the women and children that might have been present. If the men/women/children ratio was as today there might have been 10000 women and a ton of kids.
(Most churches have more women than men these days.)
Of the many things that stand out to me from my childhood Sunday school days it was sitting in Mrs. Wickencamp’s class listening to this miracle recounted. I do not remember too many lessons from those days but the feeding of the 5000 has always beenstuck in my mind.
I would suspect that this might well be why I have found it so easy to trust in the Lord for our supply when in the ministry. I have found that He always supplies the need. Now this does not mean He supplies according to the schedule I give Him, but in His time He has always supplied. More to the point than “when in ministry” He has always supplied the needs no matter where or when they come along, in or out of the ministry.
I remember vividly a few years after I was saved but not yet living for the Lord I was in some tight financial circumstances. I recall often starting to worry about the money that was needed and calling myself up short by reminding myself that God will supply – and He did even with me walking in my own way yet to find any commitment in my life toward Him. Note that from this end of my life that was presumptuous on my part and that He on His part had no obligation to comply with my “trust” in Him; but He did and that was part of the drawing of the Spirit of this self centered individual to His ministry/life.
Sitting here an illustration was needed in my mind, but just one does not come to mind, but a flood of times when God supplied the needs. So many times He asked us to make moves from one home to another or one state to another. The quickness or slowness of the supply was always of interest to us. When moving from the mid-west to the West coast we needed to sell many items to finance the trip, knowing that God would see to the selling and well He did, except the refrigerator. We could make the trip without selling the frig but it was almost new and we did not want to just give it away though we were ready to do just that.
The night before we were to load the trailer someone we did not know called and asked if it were still available. They bought it and picked it up that evening. Now if I had been thinking about it anyone knows we needed the unit until the night before we loaded so why would God sell it before then. He supplies and knows the when of the need. Now as to the excess bread and fish He also often does that just to show us His love. Indeed that move went quite well except that I could not find work when we arrived in Oregon. We had the funds to make ends meet so we would go out looking for work in the morning and then do family things in the afternoon and evening.
This went on for some time and we soon realized that we were having a nice family vacation on the side. Again, I make this sound smooth and happy in hindsight, knowing that all worked out well, but the worry wart that raged within – do not assume this calmness of heart was present in that moment. I share this to those that might be in a time of need and be fretting over the situation. God knows the need better than you do, just know that you are doing His will and allow Him to abide by His own timetable – your timetable probably would not work well. Worry is the natural thing to do but it is oh so unnecessary.
No selling a refrigerator and giving us some good family time was not the feeding of thousands but if He can feed the thousands He most certainly feed the need that you might have.
What a miracle! He sent the people away and then told the disciples to go to Bethsaida while He went into the mountain to pray. There might be application for pastors in there somewhere. A terribly hard day of ministering and the next thing they do is take a day off. Christ went to pray.
Time off is not wrong, but maybe the prayer would be a good activity for some of it. Often after a day’s ministry and seeing the need of people prayer is the only thing that comes to mind to do. There is little else you can do after presenting truth to people. Pray that the Spirit will be able to use it in their life. I trust this is an integrated part of every pastor’s life. No matter how great you are in the pulpit, it will be worthless unless the Spirit is involved in the listener’s life.
Can you hear the grumbling in the boat? Ya, last time we did this at least He was with us to calm the waters, but now we are out here alone and not making much headway and He is back there where it is quiet and … oh woe is we!
47 And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. 48 And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them.
Yep, we are working like slaves and He is out for a walk! Can you not hear it? At least today’s Christians would be having a huge pity party.
When in the Navy we were at sea when we ran into a Typhoon. We had to head right into it to stay afloat; as we battled the headwinds we lost ground. We were in the storm for about 24 hours and when we exited the storm we were actually eighteen miles behind where we started. Headwinds were not fun to row against for the disciples. Kind of like asking kids to walk to camp rather than ride the bus.
Christ could have made it simpler and asked them to stay where they were on land that night but no He had to send them off to a long night of rowing against the wind.
Not bad enough that they are struggling against the wind and waves, but He is going to walk on over to Bethsaida and let them struggle. (“he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them.”)
Well the natural question is why was He going to pass them by? Since we are not told we cannot say for sure. The application might run along the line of when you are in deep trouble, He is only an arm stretch away, we need not worry for He is there and He is going to help if there is need over and above our own abilities.
It might be assumed that the Lord had some other business that needed caring for and He was on His way to do it. We might also remember that when we are in trouble that He might be helping someone in more trouble than we. Can you imagine the troubles that God is taking care of in any given moment of the day or night? You may not be the only fish in the tank you know – we often think that we are the only one that needs His loving care.Several translations show the same thought as the King James – He was going to pass them by.
Why did He intend to pass them by? Easy as why did the chicken cross the road. They both wanted to get to the other side. Why stop and row with the mumblesome apostles when you can have a nice quiet walk.
Mark is the only one that mentions this. Over and above what I mentioned, it may well have been Mark’s impression that is mentioned not Christ’s motive, though I think both concur. It is of interest that John mentions that the boat was immediately at the other side and Matthew and Mark do not.
Mark adds the comment about them not considering the miracle of the loaves, indicating that this may have been a miracle to get their attention.
Why was He going to pass by. I suspect He wanted to arrive in a short time. Even when He went with them they were there instantly. I hate to bring up His humanity, but He had had a long day and may just have wanted to get some rest, but took the opportunity to teach along the way. Matthew mentions the forth watch which would indicate very far into the night. Day was from sunup to sunset while the night was divided into four sections. The fourth watch would have been the hours before sunup.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
By praying Jesus gave God thanks for the food and reminded the people that it came from Him. Giving thanks before meals was a common Jewish and early Christian practice. Jesus blessed God for giving the food. He did not bless the food itself. Looking up to heaven further clarified that it was God to whom He was praying, though looking down while praying was customary. The bread was probably "finger-thick, plate-shaped ’loaves.’" [Note: Guelich, p. 342.]
Mark did not record how Jesus performed the miracle, though evidently the multiplication happened in Jesus’ hands. He stressed that it was Jesus who did it. This was the most important point to him. Jesus met the needs of people in innumerable creative ways. It is important for disciples to focus on the source of the provision, God, rather than the means and methods He uses to provide. By thanking God for the food and then providing it miraculously for the people, Jesus was presenting evidence that He was God. Thoughtful individuals in the crowd remembered God’s miraculous provision of manna in the wilderness (Joh 6:14) and realized that Jesus was God’s servant who delivered what God provided, namely, a second Moses.
Jesus served the people through the disciples who presented what He had provided to the multitudes. The disciples served as waiters. This is the work of servant disciples. This was another lesson in discipleship.