Mark 8:8

So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) Broken meat.—Better, fragments.

Seven baskets.—See Note on Matthew 15:37.

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

5. And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven—It was important in this case, as in the former, that the precise number of the loaves should be brought out. Thus also does the distinctness of the two miracles appear.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Mark 8:1"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

So they did eat, and were filled,.... Christ and his disciples, and the whole multitude: they not only had some, but they had all enough, a full meal. It was surprising that it could be divided so, is that every one should have a bit; but that they should all be satisfied to the full, is amazing:

and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets; as many as there were loaves; See Gill on Matthew 15:37.

Geneva Study Bible

So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Mark 8:8. περισσεύματα κλασμάτων, the remainders of the broken pieces. Matthew uses the singular neuter, τὸ περισσεῦον, in both feedings.—σπυρίδας: in both accounts of second feeding, κοφίνους in both accounts of first (κόφινοι in Luke). On the difference in meaning, vide notes on Matthew 15:37.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. seven baskets] Not the small wicker cophinoi of the former miracle, but large baskets of rope, such as that in which St Paul was lowered from the wall of Damascus (Acts 9:25). We notice at once the difference between this and the Miracle of the Five Thousand:

(a) The people had been with the Lord upwards of three days, a point not noted on the other occasion;

(b) Seven loaves are now distributed and a few fishes, then five loaves and two fishes;

(c) Five thousand were fed then, four thousand are fed now;

(d) On this occasion seven large rope-baskets are filled with fragments, on the other twelve small wicker baskets.

(e) The more excitable inhabitants of the coast-villages of the North would have taken and made Him a king (John 6:15); the men of Decapolis and the Eastern shores permit Him to leave them without any demonstration.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - And they did eat, and were filled (ἐχορτάσθησαν). Wycliffe renders it, "were fulfilled;" according to the original meaning of "to fulfill," namely, "to fill full." And they took up, of broken pieces that remained over, seven baskets - as many as there were loaves. In the record of the other similar miracle, the number of baskets corresponded to the number of the disciples. Here, as in the former miracle, far more food remained after all were fed than the original supply on which our Lord exercised his miraculous power; for each basket would contain much more than one loaf. The Greek word here rendered "basket" (σπυρίς) is a different word from that used for "basket" in the record of the other miracle (Mark 6:43). There it is κόφινος. The κόφινος was a hand-basket of stout wicker-work. The was a much larger basket, made of a more flexible material, perhaps "rushes," like our "frail." It was by means of such a basket, called in Acts 9:25 σπυρίς, but σαργάνη in 2 Corinthians 11:33, that St. Paul was let down through a window at Damascus. This supplies another evidence, if it were needed, that these two recorded miracles took place on different occasions. Cornelius a Lapido mentions an opinion that the σπυρίς was double the size of the κόφινος, a large basket carried by two. Mark 8:8

Vincent's Word Studies

Were filled

See on Matthew 5:6. Wyc., fulfilled. Tynd., sufficed.