Mark 8
1 During that time,a when there was another large crowd that didn’t have anything to eat, after calling the students over to him, Jesus said to them, 2 “I feel compassionb for the crowd because they’ve already stayed with me three days, and they don’t have anything to eat. 3 If I send them away to their homes hungry, they will collapse on the road; some of them have come from far away.”
4 His students responded, “Where would someone be able to get enough bread to satisfy these people in this wilderness?”
5 “How many loaves of bread do you have?” he asked them.
“Seven,” they said.
6 He sent the message among the crowd to sit on the ground. Then, after taking the seven loaves of bread and giving thanks,c he broke them and gave them to his students to pass out, and they passed them out among the crowd.
7 They also had a few small fish. After speaking praised for those, he told them also to pass them out. 8 The people ate and were satisfied, and they picked up seven basketfuls of leftover pieces of food. 9 There were about 4,000 men.e Then he sent them on their way.
10 Straightaway, after getting in the boat with his students, he went to the districts of Dalmanutha.f
11 The Pharisees came and began to debate with him, looking for a sign from the heavens from him, putting him to the test.
12 After drawing a sigh deep in his breath, he said, “Why is this groupg looking for a sign? Honestly, I’m telling you, no sign will be given to this group,” 13 and he left them, getting back in the boat and going to the other side.
14 They forgot to bring bread, and they didn’t have any with them in the boat—except for one loaf. 15 Jesush explicitly expressedi to them, saying, “Watch out! Keep away from the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.”
16 They started debatingj with each other about not having bread, 17 and when Jesus realized it, he said to them, “Why are you debating about not having bread? Don’t you realize it yet, or haven’t you put it together? Do you have heartsk that have become numbl? 18 Since you have eyes, don’t you see, and since you have ears, don’t you hear? Don’t you remember 19 when I broke the five loaves of bread for the five thousand how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?”
“Twelve,” they said to him.
20 “When I broke the seven loaves of bread for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?”
“Seven,” they told him.
21 And he said to them, “Are you still not putting it together?”
22 They went to Bethsaida, and people brought someone who was blind to Jesus,m and they requested for him to hold onto the person. 23 Jesus held the hand of the person who was blind and led him out of the village. After spitting on the person’s eyes and placing his hands on him, Jesus asked him, “What do you see?”
24 Regaining his vision, he said, “I see people that look like trees walking around.”
25 Then, Jesus again placed his hands on the person’s eyes, and the person looked, and he was fully restored and was able to see everything completely clearly. 26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”
27 Jesus and his students went out to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and while they were on the road, he asked his students, “Who do people say that I am?”
28 “John the Submerser,”n they said, “and others say Elijah, and others say one of the prophets.”
29 “But,” he asked them, “who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered. “You are the Messiah,”o he said to him. 30 Jesus emphasized to them that they shouldn’t say that about him to anyone.
31 Jesus began to teach them that it is necessary for the Son of Humanity to endure many things and be rejected by the elders, the lead priests, and the Bible scholars and to be killed and to rise up again after three days. 32 He began to speak this message openly.
Peter took him aside and began to criticize him. 33 However, after turning and looking at his students, he criticized Peter.
“You’re out of line,p Adversary!” he said, “because you are not thinking the way God thinks, but the way humans think instead.”
34 After calling to the crowd along with his students, he said to them, “If anyone wants to follow in line withq me, they should refuse themselves, pick up their cross, and follow me. 35 You see, whoever wants to preserve their very being will lose it, but whoever loses their very being because of me and because of the triumphant messager will preserve it. 36 How does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and injure his very being? 37 What could someone give in exchange for their very being? 38 Whoever is ashamed of me and my discussions among this easily seduceds and deviatingt group—the Son of Humanity will also be ashamed of them when he comes with his Father’s praise accompanied by the sacred messengers.”
FOOTNOTES:
a Literally, ‘in those days’
b Literally related to lower abdominal organs, including the uterus and intestines. It is often said to describe ‘motherly love,’ relating it to the care of the womb.
c This is not the word for ‘spoke praise’ that appears in Mark 6:41. This is a different word for giving thanks. Matthew also follows this same pattern of using those distinct words in those same stories.
d This is the same word as Mark 6:41 but not in 8:6.
e The word here is aner, ‘man,’ not anthropos, ‘person.’ The Matthew 15:38 account of this story specifies that there were 4,000 men, plus an unknown number of women and children.
f The location of Dalmanutha is unknown. The parallel story in Matthew 15:39 reads, ‘Magadan.’ The location of Magadan is also unknown, though it was along the Sea of Galilee.
g Or ‘generation’ or ‘lineage’ or any ‘group of people’ that has a shared characteristic or origin, including gender.
h Literally, ‘he’
i Traditionally, ‘ordered,’ but the word is more about being explicit and detailed whether in explaining a thought or giving instructions.
j Or ‘deliberating’ or ‘speculating’
k Heart representing something more specific than emotion or inner experience. It had to do with desires and motives, and what kinds of things were able to motivate people to pursue actions or direct their attention.
l Or ‘callous’ or ‘unfeeling’
m Literally, ‘him’
n Traditionally, ‘Baptizer’ or ‘Baptist.’ In English, most translations have simply taken the Greek word baptizon and put it in English letters: ‘Baptizer.’ The historical reason for this was that the first translators of the Bible into English practiced infant baptism, which is done by sprinkling water over the infant, and the Greek word literally means ‘dip,’ so it didn’t fit with their doctrine and practice. Other languages don’t do the same thing, so in Dutch, for example, John is known as ‘John the Dipper.’ ‘Dipper’ sounds a little flippant in English, so I chose ‘Submerser’ as a synonym, being defined as ‘someone who submerses.’
o Traditionally, ‘Christ.’ Both the words ‘Christ’ and ‘Messiah’ are not actual translations and serve to take the letters of the Greek word christos and the Hebrew word meshiah and transform them into English words without translating them. Both christos and meshiah mean ‘anointed,’ that is, ‘something or someone that has oil or ointment applied to it.’ In this context, it was referring to someone who was indicated to be chosen by God for a particular calling, most notably a royal calling, but it was also used for priests and prophets. The word ‘Messiah’ was chosen here rather than ‘Christ’ to reflect the Jewish authorship and original audience of this book.
p Literally, ‘Get behind me.’ It could be meant as ‘get out of my sight,’ but the context of correcting one of his own students with whom he was close friends and the same word being used in the next verse in a positive way suggests that being ‘behind’ him was a good thing. Perhaps it was referring to being ‘aligned’ on the path of God that Jesus was living out.
q Literally, ‘follow behind.’ It is the same word traditionally used for ‘behind’ in verse 33.
r Traditionally, ‘gospel’ or ‘good news.’ The word ‘gospel’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon (or "Old English") term god-spell, which means ‘good story.’ The Greek euangelion literally means ‘good message’ and was used specifically of a message announced publicly, which fits the use of the word ‘news.’ The historical context comes from when rulers and military leaders returned to a city after victory in battle, and a herald would be sent ahead to announce the victory and the ruler’s impending arrival. The writers of the Bible took this word and applied it to Jesus’ victory of a different kind. The use of “triumphant message’ here is intended to communicate the full meaning of the word in context and not the narrow dictionary definition.
s Traditionally, ‘adulterous’
t The word in Greek here is hamartolos, traditionally translated ‘sinful.’ The actual meaning is an archery term for missing the target; it’s a metaphor. The idea is not that it is characterized by bad behavior or rule breaking. The word torah is the noun version of the Hebrew verb for ‘shoot’ an arrow and ‘send’ instruction. Hamartia is veering off course, the course traced out by Torah that leads to New Creation/God’s Reign/The Great Jubilee-Shabbat. Much of what is referred to as ‘deviation’ is about actions that don’t align with Torah, but some of it is about states of being that don’t align with Torah’s vision of all things well, including illness and injury, which cannot be treated as moral failing in any way. In this verse’s context, it is a whole community that has left that path traced out by Torah and lived out by Jesus.
u Or ‘generation’ or ‘lineage’ or any ‘group of people’ that has a shared characteristic or origin, including gender.
v The word angelos means ‘messenger,’ possibly used for spirit beings, but also used for human agents of God (or other people) and sometimes even for natural phenomena. It conveys the meaning of someone authorized to speak—or act—on behalf of another. If the reader wants to read these messengers (acting on God’s behalf) as celestial beings, great. If as humans, great. The word angelos, even for spirit-beings, is a job title, not a ‘species’ classification. The work of Michael S. Heiser is a great source of information on this topic.