Mark 8:4

And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) Satisfy.—The verb is the same as the “filled” of Mark 7:27.

Here in the wilderness.—The word here, as in Matthew 15:33, is not the one usually employed, and is abstract, not concrete, in its form, suggesting the idea, i.e., of “loneliness;” and through that, of a lonely place. It is used in a like sense in 2Corinthians 11:26; Hebrews 11:38. Like many other abstract words, it seems to have tended to a concrete meaning; but there is always an appreciable shade of difference.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:1-10 Our Lord Jesus encouraged the meanest to come to him for life and grace. Christ knows and considers our frames. The bounty of Christ is always ready; to show that, he repeated this miracle. His favours are renewed, as our wants and necessities are. And those need not fear want, who have Christ to live upon by faith, and do so with thanksgiving.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I have compassions - I pity their condition. I am disposed to relieve them.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?—Though the question here is the same as when He fed the five thousand, they evidently now meant no more by it than that they had not the means of feeding the multitude; modestly leaving the Lord to decide what was to be done. And this will the more appear from His not now trying them, as before, by saying, "They need not depart, give ye them to eat"; but simply asking what they had, and then giving His directions.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Mark 8:4"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And his disciples answered him,.... The Syriac version renders it, "say unto him"; and the Persic and Ethiopic, "said unto him"; forgetting the late miracle of feeding five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, when they had now a less number, and more provisions:

from whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? from what place, and by what ways and means can it be thought, that such a quantity of bread can be got at any rate in a desert, as to satisfy so large a number of hungry men? See Gill on Matthew 15:33.

Geneva Study Bible

And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Mark 8:4. πόθεν, whence? This adverb was used by the Greeks, in speaking of food, in reference to the source of supply—πόθεν φάγητε = “unde cibum petituri sitis”. Examples in Kypke, Raphel, Palairet.—ἐπʼ ἐρημίας, in a desert. The scene of the first feeding is a desert place also (chap. Mark 6:32). But in that case food was purchasable within a reasonable distance; not so here.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. And his disciples answered him] Though the Apostles are the writers, they do not conceal from us their own shortcomings, or the fact that they had so soon forgotten so great a miracle.

From whence can a man satisfy] It has been suggested that “it is evermore thus in times of difficulty and distress. All former deliverances are in danger of being forgotten; the mighty interpositions of God’s hand in former passages of men’s lives fall out of their memories. Each new difficulty appears insurmountable; as one from which there is no extrication; at each recurring necessity it seems as though the wonders of God’s grace are exhausted and had come to an end.” Comp. (a) Exodus 17:1-7, and (b) Exodus 16:13 with Numbers 11:21; Numbers 11:23. Trench on the Miracles, p. 356. Still it has also been well observed that “many and many a time had the Apostles been with multitudes before, and yet on one occasion only had He fed them. Further, to suggest to Him a repetition of the feeding of the Five Thousand would be a presumption which their ever-deepening reverence forbade, and forbade more than ever as they recalled how persistently He had refused to work a sign, such as this was, at the bidding of others.” Farrar’s Life of Christ, i. p. 480.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - Whence shall one be able to fill these men with bread here in a desert place? St. Matthew (Matthew 15:33) gives the question thus: "Whence should we have so many loaves in a desert place, as to fill so great a multitude?" The disciples, measuring the difficulty by human reason, thought that it was impossible to find so many loaves in the desert. But Christ in this necessity, when human resources fail, supplies Divine; and meanwhile the disciples' estimate of the impossibility illustrates the grandeur of the miracle. Mark 8:4