Mark 6:39,40 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

He commanded them, &c.— When the loaves and the fishes were brought, our Lord commanded his apostles to make the whole multitude sit down by companies, each consisting of two rows, with their faces opposite, and their backs turned to the backs of the next companies. This disposition appears from the words before us. St. Luke, Luke 9:14 represents it thus: Make them sit down by fifties in a company. Συμποσιον, the word used by St. Mark, signifies "a company of guests at a table;" but κλισια, the word in St. Luke, denotes properly "as many of them as lie on one bed," according to the Eastern manner of eating. By Christ's order, therefore, the people were to sit down to this meal in companies, consisting some of fifty persons,some of a hundred, according as the ground would admit. The members of each company were to be placed in two rows, the one row with their faces towards those of the other, as if a long table had been between them. The first company being thus set down, the second was to be placed beside the first in a like form, and the third by the second, till all were set down; the direction of the ranks being up the hill, and the two ranks of every division formed into one company, by being placed with their faces towards each other; so that they were distinguished from the neighbouring companies by lying with their backs turned to their backs: and the whole body of the multitude thus ranged would resemble a garden-plot, divided into seed-beds, which is the proper signification of πρασιον, the name given by St. Mark to the several companies, after they were formed. The difference of numbers found in the companies arose probably from the situation of the ground; they were ranged on the declivity of a hill, where it happened that on one side ranks of twenty-five persons only could be admitted, and consequently the companies there consisted of no more than fifties each, and the ranks of twenty-five. St. Luke describes their disposition from that which was most prevalent, the greatest part of the people lying together by fifties in a company. By this regulation the number was more easily ascertained, and the people better and more regularly fed. We may observe further, that as the people were fed on a mountain, and lay as we have remarked, with their heads pointing up the hill, reclining on their elbows, they were almost in a sitting posture, and had their eyes fixed on Jesus, who stood below them in a place which was more plain, at a little distance from the ends of the ranks. Without doubt, therefore, they all heard his thanksgiving and prayer for the miracle, saw him give the disciples the food, and were astonished above measure, when they perceived, that instead of diminishing, it increased under his creating hands. Moreover, being set down in companies, consisting some of fifty, some of a hundred persons, according as the ground would admit, and every company being divided into two ranks, which lay fronting each other, the ranks of all the companies were parallel, and pointed towards Jesus; and so were situated in such a manner, that the disciples could readily bring the bread and fish to them who sat at the extremities of the ranks. By this disposition too, there must have been such a space between the two ranks of each company, that every individual in it could easily survey the whole of his own company, as well those above as those below him; and therefore when the viands were brought from one to another, they would all follow them with their eyes, and see them swelling not only in their own hands, but in the hands of their companions likewise, to the amazement and joy of every person present. The evangelists indeed give very short accounts of our Lord's miracles; nevertheless, the nature of those miracles, and the few circumstances which they have mentioned, often suggest many astonishing ideas, which inattentive readers altogether overlook. See Pierce's 5th Dissertation on the Epistle to the Hebrews.