Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 8:16
And they reasoned among themselves, saying, [It is] because we have no bread.
Mar 8:16-21
And they reasoned among themselves.
Nine sharp and pointed questions, turning the minds of the disciples back upon their own experience
Their reasonings very plainly and painfully proved how very little real benefit they had yet derived from intercourse with Christ. What a display of ignorance, forgetfulness, and unbelief! So it always has been in the history of Gods dealings with men. And so it is now, among ourselves, notwithstanding all the superior advantages we enjoy. How often do all of us misunderstand the meaning of our Masters words! How often do we distrust His Providence! And why is this? The main reason is that we are forgetful of the lessons of experience. Like the first disciples, we do not thoughtfully and prayerfully ponder what He has taught us, and what He has done for us. Consider the days of old. Remember all the way which the Lord thy God hath led thee. Gather up into the basket of memory all the fragments of the past, carry them along with you, and make use of them day by day as occasion may require. (A. Thomson.)
Seeing, hearing, and understanding
The first time I went to a Christian missionary, said a Chinese evangelist, I took my eyes. I stared at his hat, his umbrella, his coat, his shoes, the shape of his nose, and the colour of his skin and hair; but I heard not a word. The next time I took my ears as well as my eyes, and was astonished to hear the foreigner talk Chinese. The third time, with eyes and ears intent, God touched my heart, and I understood the gospel.
How is it that ye do not understand?–
Understanding prevented
With the disciples, as with the rich youth, it was things that prevented the Lord from being understood. Because of possession the young man had not a suspicion of the grandeur of the call with which Jesus honoured him. He thought he was hardly dealt with to be offered a patent of heavens nobility-he was so very rich! Things filled his heart; things blocked up his windows; things barricaded his door; so that the very God could not enter. His soul was not empty, swept, and garnished, but crowded with meanest idols, among which his spirit crept about upon its knees, wasting on them the gazes that belonged to his fellows and his Master. The disciples were a little further on than he; they left all and followed the Lord; but neither had they yet got rid of things. The paltry solitariness of a loaf was enough to hide the Lord from them, to make them unable to understand Him. Why, having forgotten, could they not trust? Surely if He had told them that for His sake they must go all day without food, they would not have minded! but they lost sight of God, and were as if either He did not see, or did not care for them. In the former case it was the possession of wealth, in the latter the not having more than a loaf, that rendered incapable of receiving the Word of the Lord: the evil principle was precisely the same. If it be things that slay you, what matter whether things you have, or things you have not? The youth, not trusting in God, the source of his riches, cannot brook the word of His Son, offering him better riches, more direct from the heart of the Father. The disciples, forgetting who is Lord of the harvests of the earth, cannot understand His Word, because filled with the fear of a days hunger. He did not trust in God as having given; they did not trust in God as ready to give. We are like them when, in any trouble, we do not trust Him. It is hard on God, when His children will not let Him give; when they carry themselves so that He must withhold His hand, lest He harm them. To take no care that they acknowledge whence their help comes, would be to leave them worshippers of idols, trusters in that which is not. (G. Macdonald, LL. D.)
The lessons of trivial loss
Let me suggest some possible parallels between ourselves and the disciples, maundering over their one loaf-with the Bread of Life at their side in the boat. We, too, dull our understandings with trifles, fill the heavenly spaces with phantoms, waste the heavenly time with hurry. To those who possess their souls in patience come the heavenly visions. When I trouble myself over a trifle, even a trifle confessed-the loss of some little article, say-spurring my memory, and hunting the house, not from immediate need, but from dislike of loss; when a book has been borrowed of me and not returned, and I have forgotten the borrower, and fret over the missing volume, while there are thousands on my shelves, from which the moments thus lost might gather treasures, holding relation with neither moth, nor rust, nor thief; am I not like the disciples? Am I not a fool whenever loss troubles me more than recovery would gladden? God would have me wise, and smile at the trifle. Is it not time I lost a few things when I care for them so unreasonably? This losing of things is of the mercy of God; it comes to teach us to let them go. Or have I forgotten a thought that came to me, which seemed of the truth, and a revealment to my heart? I wanted to keep it, to have it, to use it by and by, and it is gone! I keep trying and trying to call it back, feeling a poor man till that thought be recovered-to be far more lost, perhaps in a notebook, into which I shall never look again to find it! I forget that it is live things God cares about-live truths, not things set down in a book, or in a memory, or embalmed in the joy of knowledge, but things lifting up the heart, things active in an active will. True, my lost thought might have so worked; but had I faith in God, the Maker of thought and memory, I should know that, if the thought was a truth, and so alone worth anything, it must come again; for it is in God-so, like the dead, not beyond my reach; kept for me, I shall have it again. (G. Macdonald, LL. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
16. And they reasoned amongthemselves, saying, It is because we have no breadBut a littlewhile ago He was tried with the obduracy of the Pharisees; now He istried with the obtuseness of His own disciples. The ninequestions following each other in rapid succession (Mr8:17-21) show how deeply He was hurt at this want of spiritualapprehension, and worse still, their low thoughts of Him, as if Hewould utter so solemn a warning on so petty a subject. It will beseen, however, from the very form of their conjecture, “It isbecause we have no bread,” and our Lord’s astonishmentthat they should not by that time have known better with what He tookup His attentionthat He ever left the whole care for His owntemporal wants to the Twelve: that He did this so entirely, thatfinding they were reduced to their last loaf they felt as if unworthyof such a trust, and could not think but that the same thought was intheir Lord’s mind which was pressing upon their own; but that in thisthey were so far wrong that it hurt His feelingssharp just inproportion to His lovethat such a thought of Him should haveentered their minds! Who that, like angels, “desire to look intothese things” will not prize such glimpses above gold?
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they reasoned among themselves,…. Upon Christ’s giving this caution, and recollecting with themselves, that they had forgot to buy any provisions, and take with them:
saying, it is because we have no bread; that he says these words; tacitly chiding and reproving us, for our want of thought and care;
[See comments on Mt 16:7].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
They reasoned one with another ( ), implying discussion. Imperfect tense, kept it up. Mt 16:7 has , in themselves or among themselves.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And they reasoned among themselves, saying,” (kai dielogizonto pros allelous) “And they reasoned with one another,” and in themselves, Mat 16:7. Their reasoning showed how painfully little they really learned of what He taught.
2) ”It is because we have no bread.” (hoti artous ouk echousin) ”That He said this because they had no loaves,” except the one. They seem to have failed to connect the “leaven” of the Pharisees with their rejection of Him, all the signs already fulfilled in His coming, while holding on to their system of tradition of the elders, and ceremonialism, Mar 7:1-13.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
‘And they reasoned one with another, saying, “It is because we have no bread.” ’
But once again the obtuseness of the disciples comes out. Their thinking is still on the physical plain so that they miss the point of what He is saying. They are still deaf and blind. They think that all that Jesus is talking about is physical bread.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread.
Ver. 16. See Trapp on “ Mat 16:7 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mar 8:16 . . Mt. has . The mind of Jesus was profoundly preoccupied with the ominous demand of the sign-seekers, and the disciples might talk quietly to each other unnoticed by Him.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
reasoned = were reasoning.
among = one with (Greek. (pros. App-104.) another.
no. Greek ou. App-105.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mat 16:7, Mat 16:8, Luk 9:46, Luk 20:5
Reciprocal: Mat 9:4 – knowing Mat 14:20 – and they took Luk 9:45 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
6
“A guilty conscience needs no reproof” is an old saying, and it about describes the state of mind the disciples were in. There was scarcely any connection between what Jesus said and the fact of their having forgotten to take bread.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mar 8:16. The sense of this verse is clear, but the form varies in the early authorities.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
8:16 {3} And they reasoned among themselves, saying, [It is] because we have no bread.
(3) They that have their minds fixed on earthly things are utterly blinded to heavenly things, even though they are plainly set before them.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The disciples’ interest in the problem of lack of food contrasts with Jesus’ fervent concern over unbelief (cf. Mar 8:12; Mar 8:15). Spiritual truth failed to impress them because they had minds that were not open to it (Mar 8:17).