^6:37But he answered them,⁵³ “You⁵⁴ give them something to eat.” And they said, “Should we go and buy bread for two hundred silver coins⁵⁵ and give it to them to eat?” ^6:38He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.” ^6:39Then he directed them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. ^6:40So they reclined in groups of hundreds and fifties. ^6:41He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. He⁵⁶ gave them to his⁵⁷ disciples to serve the people, and he divided the two fish among them all. ^6:42They all ate and were satisfied, ^6:43and they picked up the broken pieces and fish that were left over, twelve baskets full. ^6:44Now⁵⁸ there were five thousand men⁵⁹ who ate the bread.⁶⁰

Read in Logos

Footnotes

53 Grk “answering, he said to them.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokritheis) is redundant, but the syntax of the sentence has been changed for clarity.
54 Here the pronoun ὑμεῖς (humeis) is used, making “you” in the translation emphatic.
55 The silver coin referred to here is the denarius. A denarius, inscribed with a picture of Tiberius Caesar, was worth approximately one day’s wage for a laborer. Two hundred denarii was thus approximately equal to eight months’ wages. The disciples did not have the resources in their possession to feed the large crowd, so Jesus’ request is his way of causing them to trust him as part of their growth in discipleship.
56 Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
57 Most (𝔓45 A D W Θ f1, 13 𝔐 lat sy) have αὐτοῦ (autou, “his”) after τοῖς μαθηταῖς (tois mathētais, “the disciples”), but several excellent witnesses (א B L Δ 33 579 892 1241 1424 2427 ) lack the pronoun. This kind of variant is often a predictable expansion of the text; further, that many important lack the pronoun gives support for the shorter reading. For these reasons, the pronoun is considered to be secondary. puts αὐτοῦ in brackets, indicating some doubts as to its authenticity. Grk “the disciples”; the Greek article has been translated here as a possessive pronoun ( ).
58 Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate a somewhat parenthetical remark by the author.
59 The Greek word here is ἀνήρ, meaning “adult male” ( 1). According to Matt 14:21, Jesus fed not only five thousand men, but also an unspecified number of women and children.
60 Many good (𝔓45 א D W Θ f1, 13 28 565 700 2542 lat sa) lack τοὺς ἄρτους (tous artous, lit. “the loaves” [here translated “the bread“]). On the other hand, just as weighty (A B L 33 2427 𝔐) have the words. Although a decision is not easy, the most satisfactory explanation seems to be that scribes were more prone to delete than to add the words here. They may have been puzzled as to why “the bread” should be mentioned without a corresponding mention of “fish.” Since neither Matt 14:21 or Luke 9:17 explicitly mention the bread, a desire for harmonization may have motivated the copyists as well. On the other hand, D and W are prone to longer, explanatory readings. Since they both lack the words here, it is likely that their archetypes also lacked the words. But given Mark’s pleonastic style, the good witnesses with “the bread,” and a reasonable explanation for the omission, “the bread” is most likely part of the original text of Mark.

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”

They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

“How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

“You give them something to eat,” he responded.

They said to him, “Should we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?”

He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”

When they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.” Then he instructed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves. He kept giving them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. Everyone ate and was satisfied. They picked up twelve baskets full of pieces of bread and fish. Now those who had eaten the loaves were five thousand men.

NLTNew Living Translation

But Jesus said, “You feed them.”

“With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!”

“How much bread do you have?” he asked. “Go and find out.”

They came back and reported, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish.”

Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred.

Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. He also divided the fish for everyone to share. They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish. A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

But he answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Should we go and purchase bread for two hundred denarii and give it to them to eat?” And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” And he ordered them all to recline in groups on the green grass. And they reclined in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. And taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples so that they could set them before them. And he distributed the two fish to them all. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up the broken pieces, twelve baskets full, and of the fish. And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

KJV 1900King James Version

He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat, and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men.

Public Domain