What Does Mark 6:44 Mean?
And those who ate of the loaves were about five thousand men.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men.THE KEY
The five thousand are the men who ate, not a stated headcount of everyone at the meal.
THE MEANING
This verse makes the meal’s reach visible in the number of people eating from the loaves: about five thousand men. The count names men specifically, so the full gathering’s size remains unstated.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Five thousand is not stated as the total number at the meal. It is the count of men; Matthew explicitly places women and children beside them.
THE ROOT
ἄνδρες
andres
GROWS FROM
ἀνδρ- (andr-), from ἀνήρ (anēr)
Adult male, man; ἀνήρ can also mean husband.
The Greek names males, not human beings generally, so the number counts men who eat. The word can sound generic in English, but the Greek noun, and Matthew’s parallel, makes clear that this figure does not include the whole gathering.
ALSO GROWS
anēr: Adult male; man; husband.
ἀνήρ
The base form shows why the counted group is specifically men.
andrizomai: Act courageously; be manly.
ἀνδρίζομαι
This derivative keeps the same male-coded stem, reflecting the specific sense of ἄνδρες rather than a general word for people.
THE PATTERN
Provision is disclosed in people eating and in whether anything remains unmet or lacking.
And when they measured it with an omer, the one who gathered much had nothing over, and the one who gathered little had no lack. Each one gathered according to his eating.So he placed it before them, and they ate, and some remained, according to the word of the LORD.And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he handed them out to the disciples, and the disciples to those who were reclining, and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.THE THREAD
And those who ate were about five thousand men, apart from the women and children.Matthew uses the same Greek word, ἄνδρες (andres, men), and adds that women and children are beside them. Mark’s five thousand is therefore a count of men, while the full gathering includes more people.
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