Mark 6:41 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Mark 6:41
And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all.
while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent · verb — second aorist active participle, nominative singular masculine
five
πέντεpente
G4002
"five" · adjective — numeral, indeclinable
loaves
ἄρτουςartous
G740
bread (as raised) or a loaf · noun — accusative plural masculine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
two
δύοduo
G1417
"two" · adjective — numeral, indeclinable
fishes
ἰχθύας,ichthuas
G2486
a fish · noun — accusative plural masculine
looked
ἀναβλέψαςanablepsas
G308
to look up · verb — aorist active participle, nominative singular masculine
to
εἰςeis
G1519
to or into (indicating the point reached or entered) · preposition
heaven
οὐρανὸνouranon
G3772
the sky · noun — accusative singular masculine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
blessed
εὐλόγησενeulogēsen
G2127
to speak well of · verb — aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
brake
κατέκλασενkateklasen
G2622
to break down · verb — aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
loaves
ἄρτουςartous
G740
bread (as raised) or a loaf · noun — accusative plural masculine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
gave
ἐδίδουedidou
G1325
to give (used in a very wide application · verb — imperfect active indicative, 3rd person singular
his
αὐτοῦautou
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine
disciples
μαθηταῖςmathētais
G3101
a learner · noun — dative plural masculine
to
ἵναina
G2443
compare G3588 (ὁ)) · conjunction
before
παρατιθῶσινparatithōsin
G3908
to place alongside · verb — present active subjunctive, 3rd person plural
them
αὐτοῖς,autois
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — dative plural masculine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
two
δύοduo
G1417
"two" · adjective — numeral, indeclinable
fishes
ἰχθύαςichthuas
G2486
a fish · noun — accusative plural masculine
among
ἐμέρισενemerisen
G3307
to part · verb — aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
all
πᾶσιν.pasin
G3956
all · adjective — dative plural masculine
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
Matthew 14:19 And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed,…
Mark 7:34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
Luke 9:16 Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set befo…
Luke 24:30 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.
Mark 14:22 And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.
John 11:41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou…
1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Timothy 4:4-5 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
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…
And blessed - I think the word God should be inserted here, as in Mat 14:19. See the note there. The food we receive from God is already blessed, and does not stand in need of being blessed by man; but God, who gives it, deserves our warmest thanksgivings, as frequently as we are called to partake of his bounty.
John Gill on Mark 6:41
And when he had taken the five loaves and two fishes,.... Out of the hands of those that brought them into his own:
he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves: See Gill on Matthew 14:19,
and gave them to his disciples to set before them; the multitude, in order to eat of them:
and the two fishes divided he among them all; that every one might have a part. The Syriac and Persic versions read, they divided; that is, the apostles.
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
Thou, our bread, our true refreshment, never failing sweetness art; He can nevermore know hunger, who is at thy banquet fed, Nourishing not our fleshly nature, but imparting lasting life. … Every sickness now surrenders, every listlessness departs, Tongues long bound by chains of silence are unloosed and speak aright, While the joyful paralytic bears his pallet through the streets.
(Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc. v. Chrys. Hom in Matt. 49) Now it was with fitness that He looked up to heaven, for the Jews, when receiving manna in the desert, presumed to say of God, Can he give bread? (Ps. 78:20) To prevent this therefore, before He performed the miracle, He referred to His Father what He was about to do.
And taking the five loaves and the two fishes, looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke and gave to his disciples to set before them; and he divided the two fishes among them all. The Savior, to the hungry crowds, does not create new food, but accepting what the disciples had, blesses it; because coming in the flesh, he did not preach other than what was foretold, but shows how the writings of the Law and the Prophets are laden with the mysteries of grace. He looks to heaven to teach that the gaze of the mind must be directed there and that the light of knowledge is to be sought there. He breaks and distributes to the disciples to set before the crowds because he revealed the sacraments of prophecy to the holy teachers who preach these throughout the world.
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).
The words took, blessed, breaking, and giving echo Jesus’ words at the Last Supper (14:22-25). Both events envision the final messianic banquet in which believers will eat and drink with Jesus in the Kingdom of God (14:25; Matt 5:6; 22:1-10; see Rev 2:7; 19:7-9; 22:1-2, 14, 17-19).
