Mark 6:39-40

Mark alone noted the green grass thus dating this miracle in the late winter or early spring. John dated it more specifically as near Pentecost, which fell in late March or early April (John 6:4). Hoehner dated this Pentecost at April 13-14, A.D. 32. [Note: Harold W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ, p. 143.] In the summer much of the grass turns brown in Palestine.

The orderly division of the people at least facilitated the distribution of food. The Greek phrases symposia symposia (Mark 6:39) and prasiai prasiai (Mark 6:40) picture the people spread out on the hillside like several garden plots. This organization may reflect the student teacher relationship that the rabbis fostered by seating their students in rows. [Note: P. Carrington, According to Mark, p. 136.] This seems farfetched to me. Another suggestion is that Jesus intended this arrangement to recall Israel camping in the wilderness (cf. Exodus 18:21). [Note: Guelich, p. 341.] The reader should then view Jesus as the second Moses and the crowd as the new people of God. [Note: Lane, pp. 229-30.] This view has some attractive elements. However, most of those present were probably unbelievers.