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Texts -- Mark 8:1-15 (NET)

Context
The Feeding of the Four Thousand
8:1 In those days there was another large crowd with nothing to eat . So Jesus called his disciples and said to them , 8:2 “I have compassion on the crowd , because they have already been here with me three days , and they have nothing to eat . 8:3 If I send them home hungry , they will faint on the way , and some of them have come from a great distance .” 8:4 His disciples answered him , “Where can someone get enough bread in this desolate place to satisfy these people ?” 8:5 He asked them , “How many loaves do you have ?” They replied , “Seven .” 8:6 Then he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground . After he took the seven loaves and gave thanks , he broke them and began giving them to the disciples to serve . So they served the crowd . 8:7 They also had a few small fish . After giving thanks for these , he told them to serve these as well. 8:8 Everyone ate and was satisfied , and they picked up the broken pieces left over , seven baskets full. 8:9 There were about four thousand who ate. Then he dismissed them . 8:10 Immediately he got into a boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha .
The Demand for a Sign
8:11 Then the Pharisees came and began to argue with Jesus , asking for a sign from heaven to test him . 8:12 Sighing deeply in his spirit he said , “Why does this generation look for a sign ? I tell you the truth , no sign will be given to this generation .” 8:13 Then he left them , got back into the boat , and went to the other side .
The Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod
8:14 Now they had forgotten to take bread , except for one loaf they had with them in the boat . 8:15 And Jesus ordered them , “Watch out ! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod !”

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Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • It is common today for scholars to hold Markan priority. This is the view that Mark wrote his Gospel first and the other Gospel evangelists wrote after he did. This view has become popular since the nineteenth century. Before...
  • I. Introduction 1:1-13A. The title of the book 1:1B. Jesus' preparation for ministry 1:2-131. The ministry of John the Baptist 1:2-82. The baptism of Jesus 1:9-113. The temptation of Jesus 1:12-13II. The Servant's early Galil...
  • Jesus' temptation by Satan was another event that prepared the divine Servant for His ministry. Mark's account is brief, and it stresses the great spiritual conflict that this temptation posed for Jesus. The writer omitted an...
  • Mark omitted Jesus' year of early Judean ministry (John 1:15-4:42), as did the other Synoptic evangelists. He began his account of Jesus' ministry of service in Galilee, northern Israel (1:14-6:6a). Because of increasing oppo...
  • The following incident demonstrated Jesus' sovereign authority over the Sabbath. This is the last in this series of conflict accounts. It provides the climax in this section of Mark's narrative.3:1-2 This event happened on a ...
  • Even though Jesus gave ample evidence that He was more than a mere man (4:35-5:43) those who knew Him best on the physical plane still refused to believe in Him (6:1-6a). This refusal led Jesus to turn increasingly from the m...
  • The increasing hostility of Israel's religious leaders and the rejection of the multitudes (3:7-6:6a) led Jesus to concentrate on training His disciples increasingly. This section of Mark's Gospel shows how Jesus did that. Wh...
  • This is another of Mark's "sandwich"or chiastic sections. The main event is Jesus' sending the Twelve on a preaching and healing mission that extended His own ministry. Within this story, between their departing and their ret...
  • Jesus continued His response to the critics by focusing on the particular practice that they had objected to (v. 5). The question of what constituted defilement was very important. The Jews had wandered far from God's will in...
  • Mark was the only evangelist to record this miracle. He apparently included it in his Gospel because it is another instance of Jesus healing a Gentile. This particular miracle is also significant because it prefigured Jesus o...
  • The disciples had not yet understood the lessons that Jesus sought to teach them. Mark constructed his Gospel to show that in His discipleship training Jesus repeated lessons to train them. One writer noticed the following re...
  • This miracle repeated the lesson of the feeding of the 5,000 for the disciples who had not learned what they should have from the former miracle (vv. 17-21).1878:1-3 Jesus and His disciples were still in the Decapolis region ...
  • Matthew's account of this incident is fuller than Mark's. Probably Mark just summarized it here to parallel 7:1-23 and so advance his theme of discipleship training.8:11 Matthew noted that the Sadducees accompanied the Pharis...
  • This pericope parallels and recalls Jesus' teaching about bread when He cast the demon out of the Phoenician girl (7:24-30). In both cases leavened bread metaphorically represented teaching. The Gentile woman wanted Jesus' te...
  • Jesus now proceeded to explain to His disciples that suffering would not only be His destiny but theirs too.8:34 Jesus addressed the crowds as well as the disciples because the requirements are the same for anyone who contemp...
  • The simple trust in Jesus that the children in this pericope demonstrated contrasts with the hostility of the Pharisees in the previous paragraph.10:13-14 Mark's account of this incident is very similar to Matthew's. However,...
  • Adams, J. McKee. Biblical Backgrounds. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1965.Alexander, Joseph Addison. The Gospel According to Mark. 1881. Reprint ed. London: Banner of Truth, 1960.Alexander, William M. Demonic Possession in the N...
  • Luke omitted several incidents here that the other evangelists included (Matt. 14:22-16:12; Mark 6:45-8:26; John 6:16-66). By doing so, he tied the questions of Herod and the multitude about Jesus' identity with Peter's answe...
  • Jesus used His condemnation of the Pharisees' hypocrisy as an occasion to warn His disciples against being hypocritical. The context of this teaching in Matthew's Gospel is Jesus' instruction of the Twelve before He sent them...
  • The Synoptics record Jesus' cleansing of the temple after His triumphal entry (Matt. 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-16; Luke 19:45-46). Only John noted this cleansing of the temple at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. The differences b...
  • "This paragraph is crucial not only to the present argument (1:10-4:21) but to the entire letter as well. Indeed, it is one of the truly great moments in the apostle Paul. Here he argues, with OT support, that what God had al...
  • Paul argued for the man's removal from the church with this analogy. It was primarily for the sake of the church that they should remove him, not for the man's sake.5:6 It was not good for the Corinthians to feel proud of the...

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