This miracle beginning in chapter 8 of Mark is probably of all of the great miracles Jesus did the most neglected of his signs and wonders. Because it is so similar to the feeding of the five thousand that some either skip over it or think its a parallel account. It is not. It is a separate account in a separate place with separate circumstances for a separate set of reasons. For example, in chapter 6 the feeding of the five thousand men, the crowd was with him one day. Here in chapter 8 the crowd is with Jesus for three days, and they are at this point utterly famished. Second, the feeding of the five thousand men, twenty to twenty-five thousand people in Mark, chapter 6, Jesus tells them to sit down on the grass, and Mark even includes the fact that it was green grass. So, we know that the episode took place in the Galilee region, probably late winter, early spring, because thats when the grass is green in Galilee. Here they are told to sit on the ground. There is no mention of grass, probably because now that many months have passed by, this is the summertime, all the grass dies. It is, for the most part, barren ground. The third difference is that in chapter 6, the feeding of the five thousand, there were five loaves and two fish. In this account, the feeding of the four thousand, there are seven loaves of bread and a few fish. Were not told exactly how many. In chapter 6, the feeding of the five thousand, this is now number four, they picked up how many baskets of fragments; do you remember? Twelve, twelve baskets of leftovers. In this account of chapter 8 they pick up seven. And the baskets are different. The Greek words that Mark uses for the two accounts are entirely different words. The twelve baskets in chapter 6 are little, tiny lunch baskets. Kophinos is the Greek word. In this account that we read they take seven large baskets. You might call them hampers, huge wicker baskets filled of leftovers. And, finally, the difference was in location. In chapter 6 the feeding of the five thousand takes place in Galilee, the Jewish occupied area of Galilee where there were hundreds of towns and a huge Jewish population. This takes place outside of Galilee in an area called the Decapolis—something we mentioned last week at our outdoor service, and Ill just brush up on that a little bit in these verses—in a Gentile occupied region, not a Jewish region. So theres enough differences for us now to start. Mark 8
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 22:33:51 +0000