Mark 6:30–52

Jesus Feeds Five Thousand Men

³⁰The apostles returned and met with Jesus, and told him all they had done and taught. ³¹There were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his disciples didn’t even have time to eat. So he said to them, “Let us go off by ourselves to some place where we will be alone and you can rest for a while.” ³²So they started out in a boat by themselves for a lonely place.

³³Many people, however, saw them leave and knew at once who they were; so they went from all the towns and ran ahead by land and arrived at the place ahead of Jesus and his disciples. ^34*When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw this large crowd, and his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things. ³⁵When it was getting late, his disciples came to him and said, “It is already very late, and this is a lonely place. ³⁶Send the people away, and let them go to the nearby farms and villages in order to buy themselves something to eat.”

³⁷“You yourselves give them something to eat,” Jesus answered.

They asked, “Do you want us to go and spend two hundred silver coins^j on bread in order to feed them?”

³⁸So Jesus asked them, “How much bread have you got? Go and see.”

When they found out, they told him, “Five loaves and also two fish.”

³⁹Jesus then told his disciples to make all the people divide into groups and sit down on the green grass. ⁴⁰So the people sat down in rows, in groups of a hundred and groups of fifty. ⁴¹Then Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and gave thanks to God. He broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. ⁴²Everyone ate and had enough. ⁴³Then the disciples took up twelve baskets full of what was left of the bread and the fish. ⁴⁴The number of men who were fed was 5,000.

Jesus Walks on the Water

⁴⁵At once Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to Bethsaida, on the other side of the lake, while he sent the crowd away. ⁴⁶After saying goodbye to the people he went away to a hill to pray. ⁴⁷When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, while Jesus was alone on land. ⁴⁸He saw that his disciples were straining at the oars, because they were rowing against the wind; so some time between three and six o’clock in the morning he came to them, walking on the water. He was going to pass them by,^{k 49}but they saw him walking on the water. “It’s a ghost!” they thought, and screamed. ⁵⁰They were all terrified when they saw him.

Jesus spoke to them at once, “Courage!” he said. “It is I. Don’t be afraid!” ⁵¹Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind died down. The disciples were completely amazed, ⁵²because they had not understood the real meaning of the feeding of the 5,000; their minds could not grasp it.