Mk 6:30-44: The Feeding of the Five Thousand: Interpretation, Meaning and Message for Today’s Christians

Abstract

Several commentators (e.g. D. Harrington, J. Donahue, R. Guelich, J. Kilgallen, and G. Swift) recognize Mark’s story of the feeding of the five thousand people as a miracle story that points backwards to the Old Testament miraculous feeding in the desert and to Elisha‘s feeding of 100 men, and forward to the messianic banquet in which Christ will preside. Many of Mark’s main themes can be recognized in this story: the fulfilment of OT prophecy by Jesus, the theme of hope in tragic times,1 the failure of the disciples to recognize and
understand Christ’s mission,2 the mission of the Church and reconciliation between the Church and her apostatized members. (Some of these themes are expressed symbolically in this feeding miracle story).