The prophet without honour and the shepherd in the wilderness

The Gospel of Mark is anonymous. The early tradition of Papias, reported by Eusebius, says that Mark, the companion and interpreter of Peter, wrote down Peter's teaching. Most scholars date it to the 60s AD and think it was the first Gospel written, though a minority holds that Matthew came first. Mark probably wrote for Gentile Christians, by tradition in Rome, and his chapter 6 would have spoken to a church facing rejection and martyrdom. Chapter 6 stands in the middle of the Galilean ministry, about AD 29, in the half of the Gospel that asks who Jesus is.

The chapter has three political and geographical settings. Nazareth is a small village in Galilee, Jesus' hometown. The court of Herod Antipas is the setting of the story of John. Antipas was the son of Herod the Great and ruled Galilee and Perea as tetrarch from 4 BC to AD 39. Mark calls him 'king', as the people did, while Matthew (14:1) uses his proper title. He married Herodias, who had been married to another son of Herod the Great. Mark and Matthew call that husband Philip, while Josephus names him Herod. Scholars explain this by the many members of the Herod family with similar names. Josephus also tells of John's death at the fortress of Machaerus and gives a political reason, that Herod feared John's influence. Mark gives the personal reason of Herodias's grudge. The two accounts need not conflict. The wilderness feeding is on the northeast shore, near Bethsaida.

The Gospels overlap here in different ways. Matthew (13:53-58; 14) and Luke (4:16-30; 9:1-17) cover most of the same events, though Luke places the Nazareth rejection at the start of the ministry and omits the walking on the sea and everything from 6:45 to 8:26. The feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle of Jesus' ministry, apart from the resurrection, recorded in all four Gospels (John 6:1-15).

Mark 6 uses the same sandwich method as chapters 3 and 5. The mission of the Twelve begins in verse 7, the story of John's death interrupts in verses 14-29, and the apostles return in verse 30. The interruption comments on the mission. The Twelve are sent in Jesus' name, and John, who went before him, shows what may happen to those who speak for God. At the same time, the death of John is told as a flashback while Herod wonders who Jesus is.

The chapter is arranged in contrasts. Nazareth does not believe, and the Twelve go out. Herod holds a banquet in the palace for the powerful, and Jesus gives a meal in the wilderness for the crowd. The first ends in a head on a platter and the second in baskets of bread. Readers should take these contrasts as part of Mark's design.

The nature miracles raise questions. Some explanations suggest that the crowd shared hidden food, or that Jesus walked on a shoal or the shore. Mark's account does not allow these readings. He says the crowd was fed from five loaves and two fish and that Jesus walked on the sea. The class reads them as miracles reported. Some readers also notice that the verbs in the feeding, took, blessed, broke and gave, are the same as at the Last Supper (14:22). That may be an echo and it is held here only as such.

Verses 1–6

Jesus comes to his hometown and teaches in the synagogue on the Sabbath. The people are astonished at his wisdom and his acts, but they take offence. They know him as the carpenter, a word that means a craftsman who works with wood or stone, and as the son of Mary. It was unusual to name a man by his mother. Some think it implies that Joseph had died. In later centuries some took it as a hint about Jesus' birth. The names of four brothers and the mention of sisters follow, a question taken up in the class on Mark 3. Jesus answers with a proverb that a prophet is without honour in his hometown, among his relatives and in his household. Mark then says Jesus could do no mighty work there, except to lay hands on a few sick people and heal them, and that he marvelled at their unbelief. The sentence does not mean he lacked power. It means that miracles in Mark are met with trust, and refusal to trust leaves the person where he stands.

Verses 7–13

Jesus calls the Twelve and sends them out in pairs. Two witnesses were the Old Testament standard (Deuteronomy 19:15), and pairs also gave companionship. He gives them authority over unclean spirits. They are to take almost nothing: a staff, sandals, no bread, no bag, no money in the belt, and no second tunic. Matthew and Luke do not allow a staff, and the difference is usually explained as a difference of emphasis, since all three insist on dependence on others' hospitality. They are to stay in one house in each town. If a place will not receive them, they shake off the dust from their feet as a testimony against it. They preach repentance, drive out many demons and anoint many sick people with oil and heal them.

Verses 14–29

Herod hears of Jesus, and people say he is John risen, or Elijah, or a prophet. Herod says it is John whom he beheaded. Mark explains why. Herod had arrested John because John told him that it was not lawful to have his brother's wife, a charge based on Leviticus 18:16 and 20:21. Herodias wanted him dead, but Herod feared John, knowing he was righteous and holy, and he was perplexed yet liked to listen to him. At his birthday banquet Herodias's daughter dances, and he swears to give her whatever she asks, up to half his kingdom. The oath echoes the promise of Ahasuerus to Esther (Esther 5:3, 6). The girl asks her mother and returns with the request for John's head on a platter. Herod is grieved, but because of his oath and his guests he sends an executioner. John's disciples take the body and lay it in a tomb.

Verses 30–44

The apostles return and report. Jesus invites them to rest in a desolate place, but the crowds run ahead. He sees them as 'sheep without a shepherd' and teaches them at length. In the evening the disciples ask him to send the people away. He says, 'You give them something to eat.' They point out that two hundred denarii, many months of a labourer's wages, would not be enough. He asks what they have: five loaves and two fish. He has the people sit in groups of hundreds and fifties on the green grass, looks up to heaven, blesses, breaks and gives. All eat and are satisfied, and twelve baskets of pieces are collected. Five thousand men had eaten.

Verses 45–52

Jesus sends the disciples ahead by boat toward Bethsaida and goes up to pray. In the fourth watch, between about three and six in the morning, he sees them straining at the oars against the wind and comes to them walking on the sea. Mark says he intended to pass by them. They think he is a ghost and cry out. He says, 'It is I', literally 'I am', and tells them not to fear. The wind stops. They are completely amazed, because they had not understood about the loaves, and their hearts were hardened.

Verses 53–56

At Gennesaret the people bring the sick on mats and ask only to touch the fringe of his cloak. All who touched it were healed.

The rejection of Jesus in his hometown joins a pattern in the Bible's story: God's messengers are often unwelcome among their own people (Jeremiah 11:21; Matthew 23:37; John 1:11). The cost of faithful witness appears again in John's death. The mission of the Twelve shows how the work of Jesus is extended through those he sends, with his authority and with dependence on God's provision.

The feeding and the walking on the sea teach God's provision and presence. The Old Testament tells how God gave manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16) and how Elisha fed a hundred men with twenty loaves (2 Kings 4:42-44). It also speaks of God as the shepherd of his people (Psalm 23; Ezekiel 34), who would one day come to gather his scattered sheep. The New Testament teaches that the meal anticipates the banquet of the age to come (Isaiah 25:6; Revelation 19:9) and is read by many as related to the Lord's Supper.

The sea passage teaches that God alone treads the waves (Job 9:8) and that he passes before his servants to reveal himself (Exodus 33:19-22; 34:6). The disciples' fear and hardness of heart show that seeing a miracle is not the same as understanding who performs it.

Jesus is the shepherd Israel lacked. The words 'sheep without a shepherd' echo Moses' prayer in Numbers 27:17 for a leader to follow, and God's promise in Ezekiel 34:23 to set one shepherd over his people. The wilderness meal is a type of the manna that God gave Israel, and John 6:31-35 presents it as fulfilled in Jesus, who calls himself the bread of life. Elisha's feeding of a hundred men is a smaller pattern; Jesus feeds thousands.

On the sea, his intent to pass by and his 'It is I' echo God passing before Moses in Exodus 33:19-22, and Job 9:8, which says that God alone treads the waves of the sea. This is an echo and not a quotation, so it is held as one. What is clear in the scene is that Jesus does what the Old Testament says only God does.

John's arrest, execution and burial by his disciples foreshadow Jesus' own. Herod fears John yet kills him for the sake of his guests and an oath, much as Pilate will condemn Jesus against his judgment to please a crowd (15:15). John's disciples lay him in a tomb, as Joseph will do for Jesus (15:46). The forerunner goes ahead in death as in his message.