On Line Bible Study - For the week May 18-24, 2009

Lesson 388

Mark 8: ¹During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, ²"I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. ³If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance."

⁴His disciples answered, "But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?"

⁵"How many loaves do you have?" Jesus asked.
"Seven," they replied.

⁶He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and they did so. ⁷They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. ⁸The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. ⁹About four thousand men were present. And having sent them away, ¹⁰he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the region of Dalmanutha.

There are some obvious similarities between this text and the feeding of the 5000 (Mark 6:30 ff). But there are some interesting characteristics that deserve our attention.

First, Jesus is the one who notices the hunger of the people here. In Mark 6 the disciples point out the fact that the people need to be fed. But in the text we consider today Jesus is the one who has compassion - the crowd had been following him for three days. The emphasis in this story is on the hunger of the people - though we can assume that Jesus has been teaching, we might also assume that the crowd has been following him, witnessing his miracles, walking with him, as it were. There is no reference to their being "without a shepherd" (see Mark 6:14). Here, the emphasis is on the fact that they are hungry, and Jesus responds to this physical need.

"Three days" - an important period of time! (See Genesis 30:36; Exodus 3:18, 5:3, 8:27; Numbers 10:33; Joshua 1:11; I Samuel 30:12; Esther 4:16 for some Hebrew Bible references to "three days".) It refers to times of journeying to offer sacrifices to God, a distance of separation, a time of fasting ... and of course, it will denote the time Jesus is buried. We will come to that a bit later in the chapter.

Then, there is the number "seven" - seven loaves. In the feeding of the 5000, the number of loaves and fish available combined to make the number seven (five loaves and two fish). In Acts 6, seven are chosen to serve; in Revelation 2-3, seven churches are mentioned. And in the story we have before us, there are seven baskets of leftovers collected (as opposed to 12 baskets left over in Mark 6).

Another textual factor that, depending on your translation, could easily be missed is the difference between "giving thanks" for and "blessing" the food. In Mark 6:41, Jesus "blesses" the bread (the Greek word is eulogesas). Notice the more "eucharistic" language in Mark 8:6-7 where Jesus "gives thanks" (the Greek word is eucharistesas). Remember how important "eating" is for the early church - what could be eaten, and what is "clean" and "unclean". Is Mark driving the point home here that Jesus intends to "feed" the Jews (Mark 6) and the Gentiles (Mark 8) ?! Jesus has compassion on us all!

Jesus has broken down the barriers. There is no need for us to build them again!
More on Mark 8 next time ...