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Mark 6:40 Commentaries: They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;"/><title>Mark 6:40 Commentaries: They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties.</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/newcom.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head><!-- Google tag (gtag.js) --> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../vmenus/mark/6-40.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="/bmcom/mark/6-40.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="http://biblehub.com/commentaries/">Commentaries</a> > Mark 6:40</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../mark/6-39.htm" title="Mark 6:39">◄</a> Mark 6:40 <a href="../mark/6-41.htm" title="Mark 6:41">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="topverse">And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.</div><div id="jump">Jump to: <a href="/commentaries/alford/mark/6.htm" title="Henry Alford - Greek Testament Critical Exegetical Commentary">Alford</a> • <a href="/commentaries/barnes/mark/6.htm" title="Barnes' Notes">Barnes</a> • <a href="/commentaries/bengel/mark/6.htm" title="Bengel's Gnomen">Bengel</a> • <a href="/commentaries/benson/mark/6.htm" title="Benson Commentary">Benson</a> • <a href="/commentaries/illustrator/mark/6.htm" title="Biblical Illustrator">BI</a> • <a href="/commentaries/calvin/mark/6.htm" title="Calvin's Commentaries">Calvin</a> • <a href="/commentaries/cambridge/mark/6.htm" title="Cambridge Bible">Cambridge</a> • <a href="/commentaries/clarke/mark/6.htm" title="Clarke's Commentary">Clarke</a> • <a href="/commentaries/darby/mark/6.htm" title="Darby's Bible Synopsis">Darby</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ellicott/mark/6.htm" title="Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers">Ellicott</a> • <a href="/commentaries/expositors/mark/6.htm" title="Expositor's Bible">Expositor's</a> • <a href="/commentaries/edt/mark/6.htm" title="Expositor's Dictionary">Exp Dct</a> • <a href="/commentaries/egt/mark/6.htm" title="Expositor's Greek">Exp Grk</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gaebelein/mark/6.htm" title="Gaebelein's Annotated Bible">Gaebelein</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gsb/mark/6.htm" title="Geneva Study Bible">GSB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gill/mark/6.htm" title="Gill's Bible Exposition">Gill</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gray/mark/6.htm" title="Gray's Concise">Gray</a> • <a href="/commentaries/guzik/mark/6.htm" title="Guzik Bible Commentary">Guzik</a> • <a href="/commentaries/haydock/mark/6.htm" title="Haydock Catholic Bible Commentary">Haydock</a> • <a href="/commentaries/hastings/mark/6-31.htm" title="Hastings Great Texts">Hastings</a> • <a href="/commentaries/homiletics/mark/6.htm" title="Pulpit Homiletics">Homiletics</a> • <a href="/commentaries/icc/mark/6.htm" title="ICC NT Commentary">ICC</a> • <a href="/commentaries/jfb/mark/6.htm" title="Jamieson-Fausset-Brown">JFB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/kelly/mark/6.htm" title="Kelly Commentary">Kelly</a> • <a href="/commentaries/king-en/mark/6.htm" title="Kingcomments Bible Studies">King</a> • <a href="/commentaries/lange/mark/6.htm" title="Lange Commentary">Lange</a> • <a href="/commentaries/maclaren/mark/6.htm" title="MacLaren Expositions">MacLaren</a> • <a href="/commentaries/mhc/mark/6.htm" title="Matthew Henry Concise">MHC</a> • <a href="/commentaries/mhcw/mark/6.htm" title="Matthew Henry Full">MHCW</a> • <a href="/commentaries/meyer/mark/6.htm" title="Meyer Commentary">Meyer</a> • <a href="/commentaries/parker/mark/6.htm" title="The People's Bible by Joseph Parker">Parker</a> • <a href="/commentaries/pnt/mark/6.htm" title="People's New Testament">PNT</a> • <a href="/commentaries/poole/mark/6.htm" title="Matthew Poole">Poole</a> • <a href="/commentaries/pulpit/mark/6.htm" title="Pulpit Commentary">Pulpit</a> • <a href="/commentaries/sermon/mark/6.htm" title="Sermon Bible">Sermon</a> • <a href="/commentaries/sco/mark/6.htm" title="Scofield Reference Notes">SCO</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ttb/mark/6.htm" title="Through The Bible">TTB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/vws/mark/6.htm" title="Vincent's Word Studies">VWS</a> • <a href="/commentaries/wes/mark/6.htm" title="Wesley's Notes">WES</a> • <a href="#tsk" title="Treasury of Scripture Knowledge">TSK</a></div><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="comtype">EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/ellicott/mark/6.htm">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</a></div>(40) <span class= "bld">In ranks.</span>—The primary meaning of the Greek word is “a bed of flowers or herbs,” and it comes in here effectively, with the same distributive reduplication as in the last verse, to paint the whole scene to the mind’s eye.<p><a name="mhc" id="mhc"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/mhc/mark/6.htm">Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary</a></div>6:30-44 Let not ministers do any thing or teach any thing, but what they are willing should be told to their Lord. Christ notices the frights of some, and the toils of others of his disciples, and provides rest for those that are tired, and refuge for those that are terrified. The people sought the spiritual food of Christ's word, and then he took care that they should not want bodily food. If Christ and his disciples put up with mean things, surely we may. And this miracle shows that Christ came into the world, not only to restore, but to preserve and nourish spiritual life; in him there is enough for all that come. None are sent empty away from Christ but those who come to him full of themselves. Though Christ had bread enough at command, he teaches us not to waste any of God's bounties, remembering how many are in want. We may, some time, need the fragments that we now throw away.<a name="bar" id="bar"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/barnes/mark/6.htm">Barnes' Notes on the Bible</a></div>In ranks - Literally, in the form of square beds in a garden. By regularly formed companies.<p>By hundreds and by fifties - Some companies had a hundred in them, and some groupings had fifty in them. We do not need to suppose that these were "exactly" formed or arranged, but that this was approximately the number. The expression indicates a "multitude." There were so many that they sat down, by "hundreds" and by "fifties," in separate companies, upon the green grass.<a name="jfb" id="jfb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/jfb/mark/6.htm">Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary</a></div>40. And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties—Doubtless this was to show at a glance the number fed, and to enable all to witness in an orderly manner this glorious miracle.<div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/poole/mark/6.htm">Matthew Poole's Commentary</a></div> <span class="bld">See Poole on "<a href="/mark/6-34.htm" title="And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.">Mark 6:34</a>"</span> <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="gil" id="gil"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gill/mark/6.htm">Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible</a></div>And they sat down in ranks,.... Or "beds": in such form as little beds are placed in a garden, or as rows of vines in a vineyard, in which form the scholars of the wise men sat in their schools: it is said (g), <p>"R. Eliezer ben Azariah expounded before the wise men in the vineyard (i.e. the university) of Jabneh: though was there a vineyard there? but these are the disciples of the wise men, who are made, or placed, , "rows, rows", or "in ranks", as a vineyard.'' <p>By hundreds, and by fifties; that is, an hundred in "each" bed, or row, and fifty in "each" bed, or row, as the word signifies: each distinct bed, or row, had either a hundred, or fifty in it. <p>(g) T. Hieros. Beraeot, fol. 7. 4. Vid. Gloss. in T. Bab. Yebamot, fol. 42. 2.<a name="gsb" id="gsb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gsb/mark/6.htm">Geneva Study Bible</a></div><span class="cverse2">And they sat down in <span class="cverse3">{u}</span> ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.</span><p>(u) The word signifies the beds in a garden, and it is literally, by beds and beds, meaning by this that they sat down in rows one by another, as beds in a garden.</div></div><div id="centbox"><div class="padcent"><div class="comtype">EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/egt/mark/6.htm">Expositor's Greek Testament</a></div><a href="/mark/6-40.htm" title="And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.">Mark 6:40</a>. <span class="greekheb">πρασιαὶ πρασιαὶ</span> = <span class="greekheb">ἀνὰ πρασίας</span>, in garden flower plots, or squares, picturesque in fact and in description, bespeaking an eye-witness of an impressionable nature like Peter.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/cambridge/mark/6.htm">Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges</a></div><span class="bld">40</span>. <span class="ital">in ranks</span>] Literally, <span class="bld">they reclined in parterres</span> (<span class="ital">areolatim</span>). “As they sat in these orderly groups upon the grass, the gay red and blue and yellow colours of the clothing, which the poorest Orientals wear, called up in the imagination of St Peter a multitude of flowerbeds in some well-cultivated garden.” Farrar’s <span class="ital">Life of Christ</span>, p. 402. “Our English ‘<span class="ital">in ranks</span>’ does not reproduce the picture to the eye, giving rather the notion of continuous lines. Wyclif was better, ‘by parties;’ perhaps <span class="ital">in groups</span> would be as near as we could get to it in English.” Trench, <span class="ital">Miracles</span>, p. 265. St Mark here, as elsewhere, doubtless reproduces the description of the scene by St Peter.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital">by hundreds, and by fifties</span>] “Two long rows of 100, a shorter one of 50 persons. The fourth side remained, after the manner of the tables of the ancients, empty and open.” Gerlach.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/bengel/mark/6.htm">Bengel's Gnomen</a></div><a href="/mark/6-40.htm" title="And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.">Mark 6:40</a>. <span class="greekheb">Ἀνέπεσον</span>, <span class="ital">they sat down</span>) A proof of faith on the part of the people.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="pul" id="pul"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/pulpit/mark/6.htm">Pulpit Commentary</a></div><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 40.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">And they sat down in ranks</span> (<span class="greek">ἀνέπεσον πρασιαὶ πρασιαὶ</span>); literally, <span class="accented">they reclined.</span> The Greek word <span class="greek">πρασια</span> means "a garden plot" or "bed," literally, a <span class="accented">bed of leeks.</span> They were disposed symmetrically. Probably the English word "ranks" expresses the meaning as clearly as any could do. This arrangement was probably made, partly that the numbers might be better known, partly that all things might be done in an orderly manner, and that each might have his portion. St. Matthew's account (<a href="/matthew/14-21.htm">Matthew 14:21</a>) seems to imply that the "men" were separated from the "women and children." Mark 6:40<a name="vws" id="vws"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/vws/mark/6.htm">Vincent's Word Studies</a></div>In ranks (πρασιαὶ πρασιαὶ)<p>Lit., like beds in a garden. The former adverb, by companies, describes the arrangement; this the color. The red, blue, and yellow clothing of the poorest orientals makes an Eastern crowd full of color; a fact which would appeal to Peter's eye, suggesting the appearance of flower-beds in a garden. <div class="vheading2">Links</div><a href="/interlinear/mark/6-40.htm">Mark 6:40 Interlinear</a><br /><a href="/texts/mark/6-40.htm">Mark 6:40 Parallel Texts</a><br /><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/niv/mark/6-40.htm">Mark 6:40 NIV</a><br /><a href="/nlt/mark/6-40.htm">Mark 6:40 NLT</a><br /><a href="/esv/mark/6-40.htm">Mark 6:40 ESV</a><br /><a href="/nasb/mark/6-40.htm">Mark 6:40 NASB</a><br /><a href="/kjv/mark/6-40.htm">Mark 6:40 KJV</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="http://bibleapps.com/mark/6-40.htm">Mark 6:40 Bible Apps</a><br /><a href="/mark/6-40.htm">Mark 6:40 Parallel</a><br /><a href="http://bibliaparalela.com/mark/6-40.htm">Mark 6:40 Biblia Paralela</a><br /><a href="http://holybible.com.cn/mark/6-40.htm">Mark 6:40 Chinese Bible</a><br /><a href="http://saintebible.com/mark/6-40.htm">Mark 6:40 French Bible</a><br /><a href="http://bibeltext.com/mark/6-40.htm">Mark 6:40 German Bible</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/">Bible Hub</a><br /></div></div></td></tr></table></div><div id="mdd"><div align="center"><div class="bot2"><table align="center" width="100%"><tr><td align="center"><div align="center"> <script id="3d27ed63fc4348d5b062c4527ae09445"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=51ce25d5-1a8c-424a-8695-4bd48c750f35&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script> <script id="b817b7107f1d4a7997da1b3c33457e03"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=cb0edd8b-b416-47eb-8c6d-3cc96561f7e8&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script><br /><br /> <!-- /1078254/BH-728x90-ATF --> <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-2'> </div><br /><br /> <!-- /1078254/BH-300x250-ATF --> <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-0' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br /> <!-- /1078254/BH-728x90-BTF --> <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-3'> </div><br /><br /> <!-- /1078254/BH-300x250-BTF --> <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-1' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br /> <!-- /1078254/BH-728x90-BTF2 --> <div align="center" id='div-gpt-ad-1531425649696-0'> </div><br /><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:200px;height:200px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-3753401421161123" data-ad-slot="3592799687"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /><br /> </div> <div id="left"><a href="../mark/6-39.htm" onmouseover='lft.src="/leftgif.png"' onmouseout='lft.src="/left.png"' title="Mark 6:39"><img src="/left.png" name="lft" border="0" alt="Mark 6:39" /></a></div><div id="right"><a href="../mark/6-41.htm" onmouseover='rght.src="/rightgif.png"' onmouseout='rght.src="/right.png"' title="Mark 6:41"><img src="/right.png" name="rght" border="0" alt="Mark 6:41" /></a></div><div id="botleft"><a href="#" onmouseover='botleft.src="/botleftgif.png"' onmouseout='botleft.src="/botleft.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botleft.png" name="botleft" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="botright"><a href="#" onmouseover='botright.src="/botrightgif.png"' onmouseout='botright.src="/botright.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botright.png" name="botright" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div> <div id="bot"><iframe width="100%" height="1500" scrolling="no" src="/botmenubhnew2.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td></tr></table></div></body></html>