What Does Mark 8:20 Mean?
And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you lift up? And they said, Seven.
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 when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven.THE KEY
The Greek word for “fragments” grows from “to break”: what has been broken becomes the countable remainder of abundance.
THE MEANING
This question turns your attention to what remains after the four thousand are fed: seven baskets of fragments. The broken pieces are gathered and counted, making the remainder visible. Even in pieces, abundance remains.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that only an intact whole counts as abundance: these broken pieces are gathered and counted.
THE ROOT
κλάσμα
klasma
GROWS FROM
κλα-
kla-
break, break apart
“broken pieces” in this verse is klasma. The word for fragments, κλάσμα (klasma, a broken piece), belongs to the same Greek word family as κλάω (klaō, to break), the verb used for breaking the loaves. The language ties the gathered remainder to the act of breaking: abundance becomes visible in the pieces.
ALSO GROWS
klaō: Break, break apart.
κλάω
This is the verb used when the loaves are broken before distribution, linking the gathered pieces to the action that precedes the meal.
klasis: Breaking, including the breaking of bread.
κλάσις
This related word keeps the shared action present: bread is distributed through being broken into pieces.
THE PATTERN
Provision is shown by the remainder that can still be gathered after everyone has eaten.
So he placed it before them, and they ate, and some remained, according to the word of the LORD.And they lifted up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces, and of the fish.When they were filled, he said to his disciples, Gather up the broken pieces that remain, so that nothing perishes.THE THREAD
When they were filled, he said to his disciples, Gather up the broken pieces that remain, so that nothing perishes.Mark 8:20 recalls a count of fragments; John 6:12 uses the same Greek word, κλάσμα (klasma, a broken piece), and says they are gathered so nothing is lost. The connection makes the remainder more than a number: each piece matters enough to be gathered.
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