Mark 6:52

Mar_6:52

For they considered not the miracle of the loaves.

The miracle of the loaves

The disciples were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered. Had the miracle of the loaves been duly considered, the inference from it must have been that He who had wrought it must be Lord over the whole system of nature, and could, therefore, whenever He pleased, bend the elements to His rule.

I. There was another occasion on which Christ miraculously fed a great multitude. We read of His sustaining four thousand men, besides women and children, with seven loaves and a few little fishes. There were only two occasions on which this was done. He showed Himself ready to heal all manner of sickness; but He showed no readiness to provide food miraculously. The reason is not far to seek. It was altogether one of the consequences of sin that men were afflicted with various maladies and pains, and that disease and death held sway in this creation. But it was not one of those consequences, that men had to labour for subsistence. Labour was Gods earliest ordinance, so that Adam, in innocence, was placed in paradise to keep it. Had He dealt with mens want as He dealt with disease, removing it instantly by the exercise of miraculous power, He would have pronounced it a grievance that labour had been made the heritage of man; whereas, by the course which He actually took, He gave all the weight of His testimony to the advantageousness of the existing appointment. Universal plenty, yielded without toil, would generate universal dissoluteness.

II. When He multiplied the scanty provision, and made it satisfy the wants of a famishing multitude, He designed, we may believe, to fix attention on Himself, as appointed to provide, or rather to be the spiritual sustenance of the whole human race. And how striking, in the first place, the correspondence between Christ, the multiplier of a few loaves and fishes, and Christ the expounder of the commandments of the moral law. It might almost have been excusable, had a man who lived under the legal dispensation, and had nothing before him but the letter of the precepts, imagined the possibility of a perfect obedience to the commandments of the two tables. It was a wonderful amplification. The statute books of a nation are numerous and ponderous volumes; various cases as they arise demand fresh laws, and legislatures are either busy in making new legislations, or modifying old. But the statutes of God, though intended for countless ages, contain only ten short commandments-the whole not so long as the preamble to a single act of human legislation, and these ten commandments, breathed on by Him who spake as never man spake, amplify themselves into innumerable precepts, so that every possible case was provided for, every possible sin, every possible duty enjoined; and who can fail to observe how aptly Christ represented His office as expounder of the law, when He fed a multitude with the slender provision which His disciples had brought into the wilderness? But have not the virtues of the single death, the merits of the one work of expiation, proved ample enough for the innumerable company which have gathered round Christ and applied to Him for deliverance? And are not-if we may use the expression-are not the basketfuls which still remain, sufficient to preclude the necessity for any fresh miracle, though those who should crave spiritual food for ages to come should immeasurably exceed those who have already been satisfied in the wilderness?

III. To the precise effect which a want of consideration produced in the case of the apostles and which it is just as likely to produce in our own. It is evident that the miracle of the loaves is referred to by the sacred historian, as so signal a display of Christs power that none who witnessed it ought to have been surprised at any other. The thing charged against the apostles is that they were amazed and confounded at Christ stilling the winds and the waves, though they had just before seen Him produce food for thousands; and the thing implied is-for otherwise there would be no ground for blame-that the miracle of the loaves should have prepared them for any further demonstration of lordship over nature and her laws. Thus the miracle of the loaves should have sufficed to destroy all remains of unbelief, and should have furnished the apostles with motives to confidence under the most trying circumstances, and a simple dependence on the guardianship of the Saviour, whatever the trials to which they were exposed. And why is it that we ourselves adopt not His reasoning? Why is it that we do not similarly argue from the loaves to the storm-from the mighty works of the atonement to the manifold requirements of a state of warfare and pilgrimage? Ah, if we did, could there be that anxiety, that mistrust, those fears, those tremblings, which we too often manifest when pains and troubles come thickly upon us? No, no; it is because we look not on the cross, because we forget the agony and bloody sweat and passion of the Redeemer, that we shrink from the storm and are terrified by the waxes. We consider not the miracle of the loaves, and then, when the sky is dark, and the winds fierce, we are tempted to give ourselves up for lost. (H. Melvill.)

Forgotten mercies

Hard hearts and painful unbeliefs spring up in the waste places where we bury our forgotten mercies. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Consider the past

Neither earth nor heaven, time nor eternity, yields choicer gems of thought than the achievements of our Lord. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Hast action an index to future help

Since Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, what He did at one time ought to be well top, sidereal, because it is the index of what He is prepared to do again should need arise. His accomplished wonders have not spent His strength, He has the dew of His youth still upon Him. Our Samsons locks are not shorn, our Solomon has not lost His wisdom, our Immanuel has not ceased to be, God with us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The inconsideration of the disciples

They considered not the miracle of the loaves.-At first sight this may seem almost as marvellous as the miracle itself.

I. It is by no means difficult to discover a very satisfactory reason why the disciples should be much less affected by the feeding of the five thousand, than by the walking upon the water and the sudden stilling of the tempest.

1. The former was a miracle wrought in the open day, when there was nothing to disturb the imagination, or to awaken fear. It was, moreover, not a sudden effect, but a gradual operation; not a shock upon the senses, but a gentle and continuous appeal to them; and would thus be far too calm and quiet in its general character to produce anything like that turbulence of emotion which the latter miracles would excite, aided as they were by the presence of danger, the confusion of the storm, the horror of darkness, and all that sublimity of circumstance with which they were accompanied. This, however, though it may afford an explanation of their excessive amazement, is far from explaining their total inadvertency to that great miracle at which they had so recently been present; and which, had it occurred to their memory, as it manifestly ought, would speedily have recalled them from their transport.

2. The evangelist accounts for this, by saying that their heart was hardened. They had become so accustomed to the sight of their Masters mighty works that they had ceased to regard them with any peculiar interest, or to attach to them any peculiar importance. Everyone is aware of the influence of familiarity with the great and astonishing, in abating the impressions they originally produce. How little, for instance, are any of us affected by the sublime spectacle of the universe around us! Even the conclusion which, beyond all others, one would have thought it impossible to escape-the conviction of His omnipotence-they seem far from having practically realized. Some exception from the full weight of this censure may perhaps be made in favour of Peter, who, on various occasions, discovered a certain boldness and force of apprehension, which we look in vain for in his fellow disciples.

3. Our Lord knew all this, and felt the necessity of reviving their early feeling of wonder, in order to rouse them from that mental inactivity, that slumberous inconsideration, into which they had fallen. Hence He sent them away, etc. Astonishment opens the eyes of their understanding to at least some temporary recognition of His greatness, for now, says St. Matthew, they came and worshipped Him, saying, Of a truth, Thou art the Son of God! But they speedily relapsed into their old habit of inconsideration. To this, accordingly, He frequently addressed Himself, and sometimes in a tone of the strongest expostulation and reproof (Mar_8:15-21).

II. The practical import of the subject in application to ourselves.

1. We ought to derive a strong corroboration of our faith in the gospel. How unfit were the disciples for the great work for which, nevertheless, they were set apart. What can we say to the story of their success, etc, but This is the hand of God.

2. Their heedlessness of mind ought to come directly home to our own bosoms, and awaken us to the necessity of earnest and serious reflection. Familiarity has produced the same effects upon many of us. So with respect to the volume of Scripture generally.

3. There are methods in the order of Divine grace by which we are at times roused from that insensibility and heedlessness to which we are prone, and the remedy which the Lord adopted in the case of the disciples is strikingly symbolical of the manner in which He still condescends at times to deal with us. Affliction and fear, under the gracious direction of the Divine Spirit, are at times the most efficient of all interpreters of Scripture.

4. The gospel, when it does not soften the heart, hardens it, etc. (J. H. Smith.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6:52 The account ends with a comment about the disciples’ dullness. It was not from lack of opportunity to believe in Jesus—they had witnessed the miracle of the loaves and many other miracles—but because their hearts were too hard, usually a quality of Jesus’ opponents (e.g., 3:5; see also 8:17, 21; 9:32). Later their hearts would be softened, and they would understand (Luke 24:44-49; John 12:16; 13:7).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mar 6:52. Γὰρ, for) They ought to have inferred from the miracle of the loaves as to [His power also over] the sea. The more exercised that faith is, the more it becomes accustomed to the spectacle of [to seeing and discerning] the marvellous works of God. [Comp. Mat 14:33.]—ἦν γὰρ, for was) Not only is that particular time denoted, but the habitual state of their heart during their then pupillage [early training].

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar 6:52 reflects on the astonishment of the Twelve as blameworthy in view of the recent feeding of the multitude. One might rather have expected a reference to the stilling of the storm in crossing to Decapolis. But that seems to have appeared a small matter compared with walking on the sea. The evangelist seems anxious to show how much the Twelve needed the instruction to which in the sequel Jesus gives Himself more and more.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Either they perceived not, or had not well considered that miracle of the five loaves, insomuch that that virtue of Christ was no less strange to them, than if they had not been present at that miracle which was done but a little before.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 52. Their heart was hardened.] See this explained Mt 14:33.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(52) For they considered not.—This is peculiar to St. Mark, and may fairly be received as representing St. Peter’s recollection of what had been the mental state of the disciples at the time. They had not drawn from the miracle of the Loaves the conclusion which they might have drawn, that all natural forces were subject to their Master’s sovereignty. The personal connection of the Evangelist with the Apostle may, perhaps, also account for his omission of the narrative which St. Matthew gives of his rashness and failing faith.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

52. hardened] See note above, Mar_3:5.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And when they had passed over,.... The lake of Gennesaret, or sea of "Galilee",

they came into the land of Gennesaret; See Gill on Mat 14:34; to Capernaum, as appears from Joh 6:17 for Capernaum was in the land of Gennesaret; to which agrees what Josephus says, that the land of Gennesaret was watered with a very excellent spring, which the inhabitants of that place called Capernaum (h):

and drew to the shore: this is omitted in the Syriac and Persic versions: and the Arabic reads, "and they cast anchors".

(h) De Bello Jud. l. 3. c. 35.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

They understood not concerning the loaves;[3] i.e. they did not reflect how great a miracle that was which Christ had lately wrought, otherwise they would not have been so much surprised at his walking upon the sea. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Non intellexerunt de panibus, Greek: ou gar sunekan epi tois artois.

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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

52. Their heart was hardened — A clear passage in which obtuseness or unimpressibility of intellect is called hardness of heart; or at least the dullness of perception is attributed to the moral insensibility.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Their heart was hardened - And yet they were not reprobates. It means only, they were slow and dull of apprehension.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

52. ἀλλʼ ἦν ([1313][1314][1315][1316]) rather than ἦν γάρ ([1317][1318][1313] Codex Sinaiticus. 4th cent. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the Monastery of St Katharine on Mount Sinai. Now at St Petersburg. The whole Gospel, ending at Mar 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1911.

[1314] Codex Vaticanus. 4th cent., but perhaps a little later than א. In the Vatican Library almost since its foundation by Pope Nicolas V., and one of its greatest treasures. The whole Gospel, ending at Mar 16:8. Photographic facsimile, 1889.

[1315] Codex Regius. 8th cent. An important witness. At Paris. Contains Mar 1:1 to Mar 10:15; Mar 10:30 to Mar 15:1; Mar 15:20 to Mar 16:20, but the shorter ending is inserted between Mar 16:8 and Mar 16:9, showing that the scribe preferred it to the longer one.

[1316] Codex Sangallensis. 9th or 10th cent. Contains the Gospels nearly complete, with an interlinear Latin translation. The text of Mark is specially good, agreeing often with CL. At St Gall.

[1317] Codex Alexandrinus. 5th cent. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to King Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. The whole Gospel. Photographic facsimile, 1879.

[1318] odex Bezae. 6th cent. Has a Latin translation (d) side by side with the Greek text, and the two do not quite always agree. Presented by Beza to the University Library of Cambridge in 1581. Remarkable for its frequent divergences from other texts. Contains Mark, except Mar 16:15-20, which has been added by a later hand. Photographic facsimile, 1899.

52. οὐ γὰρ συνῆκαν ἐπὶ τοῖς ἄρτοις. “For the miracle of the loaves afforded them no basis for comprehending.” See crit. note. Neither A.V. nor R.V. seems to be right here. As often, Mt. and Lk. omit what is discreditable to the Twelve, and Mt. substitutes what does honour both to them and to Christ. It was natural that His walking on the waves and the sudden cessation of the gale should amaze them more than the feeding of the multitudes (Mar 8:17 f.); as fishermen they could appreciate the former, but they were still very defective in insight. See on Mar 3:5. This miracle is part of their education.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

52.] Peculiar to Mark.

οὐ γὰρ συν.] They did not, from the miracle which they had seen, infer the power of the Lord over nature.

ἐπί, hardly as Kuinoel, al., post, but rather denoting, as usual, close superposition of the preceding on the following: there was no intelligent comprehension founded on the miracle of the loaves.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

52. ἐπὶ τοῖς ἄρτοις—this does not denote, as in RV., the object of the verb, concerning the loaves, but the ground of understanding, on the ground of the (miracle of the) loaves. The miracle of the loaves and fishes should have led to an understanding of the present miracles, but it did not have this effect.2 ἀλλʼ ἦν αὐτῶν ἡ καρδία πεπωρωμένη—but their heart was hardened. This hardness of heart is something quite different from our use of the same words, denoting blunted feelings and moral sensibilities. The Biblical καρδία denotes the general inner man, and here especially the mind, which is represented as so calloused as to be incapable of receiving mental impressions.

ἀλλʼ ἦν, instead of ἦν γὰρ, Tisch. Treg. WH. RV. א BLM2 S Δ 33, Memph. Harcl. marg.

JESUS CROSSES THE LAKE AGAIN TO GENNESARET, AND MEETS AN IMPORTUNATE AND ENTHUSIASTIC MULTITUDE WHEREVER HE GOES

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Peculiar to Mark.

The miracle of the loaves [επι τοις αρτοις] . Rev., concerning the loaves. Lit., upon; in the matter of. They did not reason from the multiplying of the loaves to the stilling of the sea.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.