Episode 95: Mark Part 35—The Feeding of the Four Thousand…Gentiles? In a miraculous and frustrating turn of events, the Pharisees from the district of Dalmanutha demand a sign from Heaven shortly after Yeshua/Jesus feeds a mixed multitude, leaving four thousand satisfied. But can the Pharisees be satisfied? If you can’t see podcast player, click here. 8 In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3 And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” 4 And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” 5 And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 6 And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7 And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8 And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. 10 And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha. 11 The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. 12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” 13 And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side. I have to tell you that this is where it stops being fun for me. I love teaching about my King, don’t get me wrong, and I love talking about His mighty deeds and His victories against the kingdom of the enemy, but chapter eight is where things take a decided turn. In a few weeks, we will be coming to what scholars call the “hinge” of the Gospel of Mark, where Yeshua stops ministering around the Galilee and begins His final trek toward Jerusalem to die and to complete the divine plan to destroy the authority of the powers of darkness. This is why He came—not to defeat the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes and Herodians, but to deal with the source of evil plaguing mankind. He did this out of a purity of love and by virtue of His perfect intentions toward us—the likes of which we can only try to imagine. But it’s hard to talk about. I am not ashamed to get emotional and cry when I do. So if you don’t like tears, fair warning. This isn’t a storybook for me. This is history and more than history. It’s like looking at a newspaper story about the tragic death of someone I love. And yes, we can never forget that He is victorious now and seated at the right hand of glory but as I read through it, I am reminded that He really faced all of this for us. This is the history of His life on earth. And it is impossible for me to read it in a detached way. So let’s get to this. Hi, I am Tyler Dawn Rosenquist, and welcome to Character in Context, where I teach the historical and ancient sociological context of Scripture with an eye to developing the character of the Messiah. If you prefer written material, I have five years’ worth of blog at theancientbridge.com as well as my six books available on amazon—including a four-volume curriculum series dedicated to teaching Scriptural context in a way that even kids can understand it, called Context for Kids—and I have two video channels on YouTube with free Bible teachings for both adults and kids. You can find the link for those on my website. Past broadcasts of this program can be found at characterincontext.podbean.com and transcripts can be had for most broadcasts at theancientbridge.com. If you have kids, I also have a weekly broadcast called Context for Kids where I teach Bible context in a way that teaches kids why they can trust God and how He wants to have a relationship with them through the Messiah. All Scripture this week comes courtesy of the ESV, the English Standard Version but you can follow along with whatever Bible you want. A list of my resources can be found attached to the transcript forPart two of this series at theancientbridge.com. I always feel enormously depressed and defeated after reading this section. The irony is just over the top. To review from the last two weeks, Yeshua/Jesus is in Gentile territory. First, He travelled to the region of Tyre, a wealthy coastal city north of Galilee, where He delivered a stinging reality check to a Gentile woman before delivering her daughter from demonic oppression. Then He, for unknown reasons, travelled like 25 miles north to Sidon and then southeast to the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, to the Decapolis region, where He healed a man who was deaf and who suffered with a speech impediment. The Gentile population is reacting to Him the exact same way that the normal, everyday Jews reacted to Him—flocking to Him and proclaiming He does all things well. But those who knew the Scriptures best—not so much. Let’s start out in the first verse of Mark chapter eight: In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them… Okay, “in those days” so we know this isn’t somewhere else or a long time later. Mark likes to group incidents by theme—incidents that didn’t necessarily happen back-to-back like the controversy dialogues—in order to teach us things but by indicating the time, we know this isn’t one of those cases. Yeshua is still in the region of the Decapolis and so He will be more than likely teaching a mixed audience here, using the same terminology as usual, polys ochlos, great crowd. Of course, the Jews always came to hear Him teach but because of the specific wording in this account and the lack of wording that we find elsewhere, scholars generally agree that the crowd was either mostly Gentile or at least a mixed crowd. And we have our first mention of the disciples since the handwashing controversy when Yeshua prepared His disciples for the future option of having dealings with Gentiles and laid the foundations for Peter to later understand his vision in Acts 10 that Gentiles are not automatically defiled and that they can share table fellowship with them. Who you ate with in the ancient world signaled acceptance and we can’t have a body of believers at separate tables and call it okay with God. So, we have our general location—the Decapolis, which we discussed last week—and the time, which is after He performed the deliverance and healing of two Gentiles. A great crowd gathered, and no wonder when He has healed a deaf and speech- impaired man and the man’s friends are blabbing about it everywhere, and they had nothing to eat. As usual, Mark doesn’t tell us the specifics of what Yeshua is saying to them. If we didn’t have Matthew and, to a lesser extent, Luke—we would be flying blind for sure. But Mark is concerned with Yeshua as the “arm of the Lord”—the promised Yahweh Warrior of the prophets and especially Isaiah—vanquishing the kingdom of Satan. Oh, let me stop here and cover the theory that there was only one miraculous feeding and the story is repeated twice. Well, to accept that you have to ignore verses 18-21 of this same chapter where He’s going to flat out mention both events as separate incidents. Sometimes, people do this when they object to the second feeding being in clearly Gentile territory, although there are also a couple of other reasons. But if we go with one feeding then we have to practically eliminate 46% of chapter eight and it’s way too important to allow that to happen. Peter’s confession directly hinges on it as does the irony of the Pharisees demanding a sign from heaven. And the two-stage healing of the blind man is virtually robbed of all its meaning, as we will see. Nope, this is a second historical event. Backtracking a bit… …he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. So, as I mentioned, the disciples are being mentioned for the first time in a while and He calls them to Him and tells them that he has compassion on this mixed multitude. The word is actually very urgent and gives the impression of Him being very moved and worried for their welfare.