John 6:10 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Now there was much grass— This circumstance of the grass shews, that the miracle of the loaves happened in the month of February or March, when the grass is in its perfection in Syria; and to this agrees what we are told John 6:4. It is observable, that in computing the number of persons fed at this meal, the evangelists mention none but the men, and of them only such as were of age; and they all agree that there were about 5000. In this they do not speak by guess; for the disposition of the multitude in ranks of a determinate number, (see on Mark 6:39.) enabled them to make the computation with certainty. If they were not five thousand precisely, one of the ranks incomplete would make them less; and an additional rank, or part of a rank, would make them more: but besides the men, there were women also, and children, who, we may suppose, were not inferior in number to the men; and who, if they were not fed with the men, as seems probable from this verse, must have been set down by themselves to a separate meal; some of the disciples beingappointed to wait on them and serve them. St. John gives us the reason why so great a crowd was now with Jesus, the passover was at hand, John 6:4 consequently numbers from every quarter being on the road to Jerusalem, they might have been drawn round Christ by the fame of his miracles, of which they desired to be eye-witnesses.