6:30–44 From early times the feeding accounts have understandably attracted great attention, and continuing scholarly effort is made to try to understand them more fully. There are two feeding accounts in Mark—here, and at 8:1–10, where four thousand are fed—and also two accounts in Matthew (14:13–21; 15:32–39). Luke (9:10–17) and John (6:1–15) each report only the feeding of the five thousand. Much modern scholarly study has been devoted to the sources of the feeding accounts and other complex historical questions, but our interest here is mainly to try to understand the accounts as Mark intended his readers to understand them. (This will be work enough for us!)

We must begin our examination by noting that there are strong indications that the feeding accounts are very important events f…