Mark 6:40

And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.

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Word by word — the Greek

Word	Greek	Strong’s	Meaning
And	καὶ kai	G2532	and · conjunction
down	ἀνέπεσαν anepesan	G377	to fall back · verb — second aorist active indicative, 3rd person plural
ranks	πρασιαὶ prasiai	G4237	a garden plot · noun — nominative plural feminine
by	ἀνά aná	G303	properly
hundreds	ἑκατὸν hekaton	G1540	a hundred · adjective — numeral, indeclinable
and	καὶ kai	G2532	and · conjunction
by	ἀνά aná	G303	properly
fifties	πεντήκοντα. pentēkonta	G4004	fifty · adjective — numeral, indeclinable

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Luke 9:14-15 For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Mark 6:30-44

In there verses, we have, I. The return to Christ of the apostles whom he had sent forth (Mar 6:7), to preach, and work miracles. They had dispersed themselves into several quarters of the country for some time, but when they had made good their several appointments, by consent they gathered themselves together, to compare notes, and came to Jesus, the centre of their unity, to give him an account of what they had done pursuant to their commission: as the servant that was sent to invite to the feast, and had received answers from the guests, came, and showed his Lord all those things, so did the apostles here; they told him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught. Minis…

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Adam Clarke on Mark 6:40

By hundreds, and by fifties - "That is," says Mr. Wesley, "fifty in a rank, and a hundred in file. So, a hundred multiplied by fifty, made just five thousand." But if they sat fifty deep, how could the disciples conveniently serve them with the bread and fish?

John Gill on Mark 6:40

And they sat down in ranks,.... Or "beds": in such form as little beds are placed in a garden, or as rows of vines in a vineyard, in which form the scholars of the wise men sat in their schools: it is said (g), "R. Eliezer ben Azariah expounded before the wise men in the vineyard (i.e. the university) of Jabneh: though was there a vineyard there? but these are the disciples of the wise men, who are made, or placed, , "rows, rows", or "in ranks", as a vineyard.'' By hundreds, and by fifties; that is, an hundred in "each" bed, or row, and fifty in "each" bed, or row, as the word signifies: each distinct bed, or row, had either a hundred, or fifty in it. (g) T. Hieros. Beraeot, fol. 7. 4. V…

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John Calvin on Mark 6:30-44

Mark 6:30-44 Matthew 14:13-21 Mark 6:30-44 Luke 9:10-17 13. When Jesus heard this, he departed thence to a ship to a desert place apart; and when the multitudes heard it, they followed him on foot out of the cities. 14. And Jesus, when leaving (the ship,) saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion towards them, and healed of such of them as were diseased. 15. And when the evening was drawing on, his disciples came to him, saying, It is a desert place, and the time is now past: send the multitudes away, that they may go into the village, and purchase victuals for themselves. 16. And Jesus said to them, It is not necessary that they should go away: give you to them something to e…

The Church Fathers

(Mor. 16, 55) The different ranks in which those who ate lie down, mark out the divers churches which make up the one Catholicx. But the Jubilee rest is contained in the mystery of the number fifty, and fifty must be doubled before it reaches up to a hundred. As then the first step is to rest from doing evil, that afterwards the soul may rest more fully from evil thoughts, some lie down in parties of fifty, others of a hundred.
— Gregory the Dialogist ((as quoted by Aquinas, AD 1274)), Catena Aurea by Aquinas

Since there are different classes of those who need the food which Jesus supplies, for all are not equally nourished by the same words, on this account I think that Mark has written, "And he commanded them that they should all sit down by companies upon the green grass; and they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties." … For it was necessary that those who were to find comfort in the food of Jesus should either be in the order of the hundred—the sacred number which is consecrated to God because of its completeness; or in the order of the fifty—the number which symbolizes the remission of sins in accordance with the mystery of the Jubilee which took place every fifty years, and of the feast at Pentecost.
— Origen of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.3

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Bethsaida — House of fish. (1.) A town in Galilee, on the west side of the sea of Tiberias, in the “land of Gennesaret.” It was the native place of Peter, Andrew, and Philip, and was frequently resorted to by…

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Mark 6:30-44

Adam Clarke on Mark 6:40

John Gill on Mark 6:40

John Calvin on Mark 6:30-44

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Mark 6:30-44

Adam Clarke on Mark 6:40

John Gill on Mark 6:40

John Calvin on Mark 6:30-44

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Mark 6:37