to lift up · verb — aorist active indicative, 3rd person plural
twelve
δώδεκαdōdeka
G1427
two and ten · adjective — numeral, indeclinable
baskets
κοφίνωνkophinōn
G2894
a (small) basket · noun — genitive plural masculine
full
πλήρηςplḗrēs
G4134
replete
fragments
κλάσματαklasmata
G2801
a piece (bit) · noun — accusative plural neuter
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
of
ἀπὸapo
G575
"off · preposition
fishes
ἰχθύων.ichthuōn
G2486
a fish · noun — genitive 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
Mark 8:19-20 When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve.
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…
Twelve baskets - These were either the baskets used by the disciples, see Mat 14:20, or baskets belonging to some of the multitude, who might have brought some with them to carry provisions, or other things necessary for the sick, whom they brought to Christ to be healed.
John Gill on Mark 6:43
And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments,.... Of the broken pieces of bread, after all had eaten, and were satisfied:
and of the fishes; what remained of them:, for though there was but one loaf for a thousand persons and more, and two small fishes to be divided among five thousand and more: yet, through the wonderful power of Christ increasing both, as they were distributing and eating, there was enough of both for them all, and such a quantity of each left as filled twelve baskets.
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
Or, in the gathering of the twelve baskets full of fragments, is signified the time, when they shall sit on thrones, judging all who are left of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the twelve tribes of Israel, when the remnant of Israel shall be saved.
And they all ate and were satisfied, and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. What is left over for the crowds is lifted by the disciples; for the holier mysteries that the unskilled cannot grasp are not to be negligently omitted, but are to be sought by the perfected. For the twelve baskets symbolize the apostles, and by the apostles, all the choirs of following teachers are represented, indeed despised outwardly by men, but inwardly filled with the remnants of the saving food to nourish the hearts of the humble. For it is known that servile work is usually carried out with baskets, but He Himself filled the baskets with fragments of bread, Who chose the weak things of this world to confound the strong.
The banquet ended, plates still overflow, And with the crumbs twelve baskets then they fill. The stuffed boy strives with undigested fare, The waiter groans beneath his heavy load. Who can a great feast spread from stores so few? Who but the maker of our frame and all That nurtures it, who shaped the world from nought? Almighty God without the aid of seed Fashioned the earth, not as the sculptor works To lift the block of bronze from metal fused. All that now is was nought: that nothingness Was into being brought and bidden grow. Small was the first creation, but it grew Till it became the mighty universe. Therefore, when I behold that meager fare Thus multiplied within the hands of Christ, Can I doubt that the elemental forms First made by him from nothing, by degrees Have grown to that perfection we now see? Lest fragments should be trodden on and lost, When men had fed, or should become the spoil Of wolves or foxes or of petty mice, Twelve men were charged to heap in baskets full The gifts of Christ to keep and spread afar.
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
Basket — There are five different Hebrew words so rendered in the Authorized Version: (1.) A basket (Heb. sal, a twig or osier) for holding bread (Gen. 40:16; Ex. 29:3, 23; Lev. 8:2, 26, 31; Num. 6:15, 17,…
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).
This miracle makes Elisha’s great miracle of feeding 100 people with twenty loaves (2 Kgs 4:42-44) seem trivial by comparison. Readers of the Gospel must ask themselves, “Who is this man who does such things?” (Mark 4:41). He is the Messiah, the Son of God (1:1).