Mark 6: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Jesus teaches in his hometown synagogue, where the people who know his family take offense, and he does few miracles there. He sends the twelve out two by two with instructions to travel light, and they preach and heal. Mark then tells how Herod had John the Baptist beheaded at a birthday banquet, after Herodias's daughter asked for his head. When the apostles return, Jesus feeds about five thousand men from five loaves and two fish, walks on the sea to the disciples in the boat, and heals the sick who come to him at Gennesaret.

Claim by Claim

1. 6:1
   • Jesus went out from that place.
   • Jesus came into his own hometown.
   • His disciples followed him.
2. 6:2
   • When the sabbath came, Jesus began to teach in the synagogue.
   • Many who heard him were astonished.
   • They asked where this man got these things.
   • They asked what the wisdom given to him was.
   • They asked how such mighty works were done by his hands.
3. 6:3
   • They asked whether this was not the carpenter.
   • They said he was the son of Mary.
   • They said he was the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon.
   • They asked whether his sisters were not there with them.
   • They were offended at him.
4. 6:4
   • Jesus said to them that a prophet is not without honor except in his own hometown, among his own relatives, and in his own house.
5. 6:5
   • Jesus could do no mighty work there.
   • He laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.
6. 6:6
   • Jesus marveled because of their unbelief.
   • Jesus went around the villages teaching.
7. 6:7
   • Jesus called the twelve to him.
   • He began to send them out two by two.
   • He gave them authority over unclean spirits.
8. 6:8
   • Jesus commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff only.
   • He commanded them to take no bread.
   • He commanded them to take no bag.
   • He commanded them to take no copper money in their belt.
9. 6:9
   • He commanded them to wear sandals.
   • He commanded them not to put on two tunics.
10. 6:10
    • Jesus said to them that wherever they entered a house, they should stay there until they departed from that place.
11. 6:11
    • Jesus said that wherever people would not receive them or hear them, they should shake off the dust under their feet when they departed.
    • Jesus said this shaking off of dust would be a testimony against them.
    • Jesus said truly that it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.
12. 6:12
    • They went out.
    • They preached that people should repent.
13. 6:13
    • They cast out many demons.
    • They anointed many sick people with oil.
    • They healed them.
14. 6:14
    • King Herod heard about him.
    • Jesus' name had become widely known.
    • Herod said that John the Baptist had risen from the dead.
    • Herod said that for this reason mighty works were at work in him.
15. 6:15
    • Others said that he was Elijah.
    • Others said that he was a prophet, or like one of the prophets.
16. 6:16
    • When Herod heard of it, he said it was John, whom he had beheaded.
    • Herod said that John had risen from the dead.
17. 6:17
    • Herod himself had sent and seized John.
    • Herod had bound John in prison.
    • Herod did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife.
    • Herod had married Herodias.
18. 6:18
    • John had said to Herod that it was not lawful for him to have his brother's wife.
19. 6:19
    • Herodias held a grudge against John.
    • Herodias wanted to kill John.
    • Herodias was not able to kill him.
20. 6:20
    • Herod feared John.
    • Herod knew that John was a just and holy man.
    • Herod protected John.
    • When Herod heard John, he did many things.
    • Herod heard John gladly.
21. 6:21
    • A convenient day came.
    • On his birthday Herod made a supper for his nobles, his military commanders, and the chief men of Galilee.
22. 6:22
    • The daughter of Herodias came in and danced.
    • She pleased Herod and those who reclined at table with him.
    • The king said to the girl to ask him for whatever she wanted.
    • The king said he would give it to her.
23. 6:23
    • Herod swore to her that whatever she asked of him he would give her, up to half of his kingdom.
24. 6:24
    • She went out.
    • She asked her mother what she should ask for.
    • Her mother said to ask for the head of John the Baptist.
25. 6:25
    • She came in immediately with haste to the king.
    • She made her request, saying she wanted him to give her at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
26. 6:26
    • The king was exceedingly sorry.
    • Because of his oath and because of those reclining with him, he would not refuse her.
27. 6:27
    • Immediately the king sent an executioner.
    • The king commanded that John's head be brought.
    • The executioner went and beheaded John in the prison.
28. 6:28
    • He brought John's head on a platter.
    • He gave it to the girl.
    • The girl gave it to her mother.
29. 6:29
    • When John's disciples heard of it, they came.
    • They took up his corpse.
    • They laid it in a tomb.
30. 6:30
    • The apostles gathered together to Jesus.
    • They told him all they had done.
    • They told him all they had taught.
31. 6:31
    • Jesus told them to come away by themselves to a deserted place and rest a while.
    • Many people were coming and going.
    • They had no leisure even to eat.
32. 6:32
    • They departed by boat to a deserted place privately.
33. 6:33
    • The people saw them departing.
    • Many recognized him.
    • They ran there on foot out of all the cities.
    • They arrived ahead of them.
    • They came together to him.
34. 6:34
    • When Jesus came out, he saw a large crowd.
    • He was moved with compassion toward them.
    • He had compassion because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
    • He began to teach them many things.
35. 6:35
    • When the day was far spent, his disciples came to him.
    • They said the place was deserted.
    • They said the hour was already late.
36. 6:36
    • The disciples told Jesus to send the people away.
    • They said the people should go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves bread.
    • They said the people had nothing to eat.
37. 6:37
    • Jesus answered them to give the people something to eat.
    • They asked him whether they should go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat.
38. 6:38
    • Jesus asked them how many loaves they had.
    • Jesus told them to go and see.
    • When they found out, they said five loaves and two fish.
39. 6:39
    • Jesus commanded them to make everyone sit down in groups on the green grass.
40. 6:40
    • They sat down in groups.
    • The groups were by hundreds and by fifties.
41. 6:41
    • Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish.
    • He looked up to heaven.
    • He blessed.
    • He broke the loaves.
    • He gave them to his disciples to set before the people.
    • He divided the two fish among them all.
42. 6:42
    • They all ate.
    • They were filled.
43. 6:43
    • They took up twelve baskets full of the fragments and of the fish.
44. 6:44
    • Those who ate of the loaves were about five thousand men.
45. 6:45
    • Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat.
    • He made them go ahead to the other side toward Bethsaida.
    • Meanwhile he sent the crowd away.
46. 6:46
    • After he had sent them away, he departed to the mountain to pray.
47. 6:47
    • When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea.
    • Jesus was alone on the land.
48. 6:48
    • Jesus saw the disciples straining at rowing.
    • The wind was against them.
    • About the fourth watch of the night Jesus came to them.
    • He was walking on the sea.
    • He intended to pass by them.
49. 6:49
    • When they saw him walking on the sea, they supposed he was a ghost.
    • They cried out.
50. 6:50
    • They all saw him.
    • They were troubled.
    • Immediately Jesus spoke with them.
    • He told them to be of good cheer.
    • He said it was he.
    • He told them not to be afraid.
51. 6:51
    • Jesus went up to them into the boat.
    • The wind ceased.
    • They were greatly amazed within themselves beyond measure.
    • They wondered.
52. 6:52
    • They had not understood about the loaves.
    • Their heart was hardened.
53. 6:53
    • They crossed over.
    • They came to the land of Gennesaret.
    • They moored at the shore.
54. 6:54
    • When they came out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him.
55. 6:55
    • They ran through that whole region.
    • They began to carry the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.
56. 6:56
    • Wherever he entered villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces.
    • They begged him that the sick might touch even the fringe of his garment.
    • As many as touched him were made whole.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

6:1

"His own country" in the King James does not mean a nation. The Greek word means a person's home district or home town, which Mark has already named as Nazareth (1:9).

6:2

The sabbath is the seventh day, sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, kept as a day of rest and public assembly. A synagogue was the local meeting house where a community gathered on that day to read and discuss the scriptures; there was no set preacher, and any capable man present could be invited to speak, which is how a visitor came to be teaching. "Mighty works" translates a Greek word meaning acts of power.

6:3

The Greek word behind "carpenter" covers a builder and craftsman who worked in wood, and often in stone as well, doing roofs, doors, yokes, plows and furniture. Joses and Juda are Greek forms of Joseph and Judah. Calling a grown man "the son of Mary" rather than naming his father was unusual and may carry an edge. The verb translated "offended" is stronger than the modern word: it means to be tripped up or made to stumble by him, not merely annoyed.

6:4

A prophet "without honour" is one nobody takes seriously. Jesus is quoting a proverb that already existed, the ancient equivalent of saying no one is a hero to the people who watched him grow up.

6:5

"Mighty work" is the old way of saying miracle. A miracle is something only God's power can do.

6:7

"The twelve" are the twelve disciples Jesus picked out in chapter 3. Sending them in pairs fits Jewish legal practice, where a matter had to be established by two witnesses. "Unclean" in "unclean spirits" is a ritual term, meaning unfit to come near what is holy, not dirty.

6:8

A "scrip" was a traveler's or beggar's bag, used for carrying food and collecting gifts along the road. "Money in their purse" is literally copper in the belt: coins were carried folded into the cloth sash worn at the waist, since clothing had no pockets.

6:9

The "coat" is the tunic worn next to the skin under an outer cloak. Travelers commonly carried a spare, both as a change of clothes and as a blanket at night, so going without one marked the journey as urgent and dependent on the hospitality of others.

6:10

In a village, moving out of the first house that took you in and into a better one would publicly insult your original host and turn hospitality into a competition. Staying put avoided that.

6:11

Shaking dust off the feet was a known gesture. Jews returning from Gentile territory were said to shake its dust from their sandals, and the act, done in public, served as visible evidence, which is what "for a testimony" means: the place has been offered the message and has answered for itself. Sodom and Gomorrah are the two cities destroyed in Genesis 19, and their names had long since become a byword for the worst case imaginable.

6:12

The Greek word translated "repent" means to change one's mind and turn around, a reversal of direction rather than simply feeling sorry.

6:13

Olive oil was the ordinary household medicine of the time, rubbed on wounds and on the sick, and it was also used in religious anointing. The Greek verb here is the everyday one for rubbing oil on someone, not the formal ritual word.

6:14

This is Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great, who ruled Galilee and Perea for Rome with the title tetrarch, meaning ruler of a quarter of his father's former territory. Rome never granted him the title of king; Mark uses "king" as his subjects informally did.

6:15

"Elias" is the Greek spelling of Elijah, a prophet who, according to 2 Kings 2, was carried up to heaven instead of dying, and whose return before the day of the Lord was promised in Malachi 4. People therefore watched for him to reappear.

6:17

Herodias had been married to a half brother of Antipas, and she was also a granddaughter of Herod the Great and so a niece to both men. Mark names the first husband Philip; the Jewish historian Josephus calls him Herod, and the difference has never been fully resolved.

6:18

The law in Leviticus 18:16 and 20:21 forbids a man to take his brother's wife. The one recognized exception was marrying a brother's widow when the brother had died without a son (Deuteronomy 25:5), which did not apply here, since Herodias's first husband was still living.

6:20

"Observed him" in the King James means kept him safe, protected him, not watched him closely. The clause "he did many things" follows one set of Greek manuscripts; another set, followed by most modern translations, reads "he was greatly perplexed." The two Greek words differ by a few letters.

6:21

"A convenient day" in the King James means a suitable opportunity, a day when the thing could be done, not a comfortable one. "High captains" translates a military rank, an officer over roughly a thousand men, and "chief estates" means the leading men of the province, its landowners and notables.

6:22

"Damsel" is simply the word for a girl, used of anyone from a child to a young woman of marriageable age. Some early manuscripts read "his daughter Herodias" rather than "the daughter of the said Herodias." Josephus names the daughter of Herodias as Salome; the gospel itself never gives her a name.

6:23

"Unto the half of my kingdom" was a stock formula for an extravagant royal promise, used by the Persian king to Esther in Esther 5:3. Antipas had no kingdom of his own to divide in any case, since his territory was held at Rome's pleasure.

6:25

"By and by" in 1611 English meant at once, immediately; it did not yet mean eventually. A "charger" was a large flat serving dish, the platter a joint of meat would be carried in on at a banquet.

6:26

An oath sworn aloud in front of guests was a public act, and the guests were its witnesses. Backing out would have cost Antipas his standing with exactly the officers and landowners he had invited to impress, which is the pressure the verse is describing.

6:27

The King James "executioner" translates a Greek word borrowed from Latin, speculator, meaning a soldier of the ruler's personal guard. Such men served as scouts, couriers and, when ordered, as executioners.

6:29

The bodies of executed prisoners were not automatically released to their families or followers, so being allowed to collect John and bury him was a real concession. Burial in that climate happened within a day of death, in a tomb cut into rock rather than a grave dug in earth.

6:30

"Apostles" is not a title here so much as a description: the Greek word means those who have been sent out, and it picks up verse 7, where Jesus sent them. This is the only place Mark uses it of the twelve.

6:31

"Desert place" in the King James means uninhabited open country, empty of people, not sand dunes. The same phrase is used in verses 32 and 35.

6:32

The "ship" is a fishing boat, roughly twenty five feet long, open, worked with oars and a small sail. One like it was pulled out of the mud of the Sea of Galilee in 1986.

6:33

The crowd could beat the boat because walking around the top of the lake was a shorter distance than sailing across the bay, especially against a wind.

6:34

"As sheep not having a shepherd" is a set phrase from the Hebrew scriptures for a people left without leadership. It appears in Numbers 27:17, in 1 Kings 22:17, and at length in Ezekiel 34, where the shepherds are the rulers of Israel.

6:37

The Greek says two hundred denarii. A denarius was the standard day's pay for a hired laborer, so the sum is roughly eight months of a working man's wages. "Pennyworth" was the King James translators' nearest English equivalent, a coin of small value, which now gives the opposite impression of the amount.

6:38

These loaves were flat round cakes of bread, closer to pita than to a modern loaf, small enough that five would be an ordinary lunch for a few people.

6:39

The Greek word behind "by companies" is the one used for the groups of guests who recline together at a dinner party. The detail of green grass fixes the season as spring, after the winter rains.

6:40

"In ranks" translates a word that literally means garden plots or flower beds. The image is of blocks of people laid out in neat rectangles across the hillside, which also made the crowd easy to count and made passing food along the rows possible.

6:41

At a Jewish meal the blessing was spoken over God, thanking him for providing the food, rather than over the food itself. Bread of this kind was torn by hand, not cut, which is why the text says he "brake" the loaves.

6:43

The Greek word here is kophinos, a stiff wicker basket of the sort a traveler carried provisions in. A different word for basket is used at the second feeding in chapter 8, and Jesus keeps the two words distinct when he refers back to both.

6:44

The Greek word translated "men" here means adult males specifically, not people in general, so the number counted may not include the women and children present.

6:45

Bethsaida was a fishing village at the north end of the lake, near where the Jordan flows in. Its name means house of fishing.

6:47

"The sea" is the Sea of Galilee, a freshwater lake about thirteen miles long and eight across, set low among hills that funnel sudden and violent winds down onto the water.

6:48

The Romans divided the night from sunset to sunrise into four watches of about three hours each; the fourth watch ran from roughly three to six in the morning, the last stretch before dawn. "Would have passed by them" renders a Greek phrase that can mean either that he intended to pass them or that he was on the point of passing them; the wording is genuinely open, and readers have argued about it since antiquity.

6:49

The word translated "spirit" is the Greek word for an apparition or phantom. Sailors on that lake, like sailors everywhere, had a stock of stories about figures seen on the water at night.

6:50

"It is I" is literally "I am" in Greek. It is the ordinary way of saying "it's me" when identifying yourself in the dark, but it is also the exact phrase used of God in the Greek version of Exodus 3:14, and the double possibility is present in the words themselves.

6:51

In the King James, "sore amazed" means greatly amazed. "Sore" meant very, and had nothing to do with pain.

6:52

In biblical usage the heart is the seat of thought, understanding and will, closer to what we call the mind than to the emotions. A hardened heart is one that cannot take in what it has just seen.

6:53

Gennesaret is the small fertile plain on the northwest shore of the lake, about three miles long, known for its farmland. The lake itself is sometimes called by the same name.

6:55

The "beds" are light mats or pallets, bedrolls that one or two people could pick up and carry with someone lying on them.

6:56

The word translated "streets" means the open marketplaces, the public squares where a passing traveler could not miss them. "The border of his garment" is the edge or hem of the outer cloak, and commonly refers to the tassel that Numbers 15:38 required to be attached at its corners as a reminder of God's commands.