Mark 6:44 - Clarke's commentary and critical notes on the Bible

And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men. Were about five thousand - ὡσει, about, is omitted by a great majority of the best MSS. and by the principal versions. It is wanting in several editions: Bengel, Wetstein, and Griesbach, leave it out of the text. It is omitted by some in the parallel place, Matthew 14:21, but it stands without any variation in Luke 9:14, and John 6:10. This miracle is mentioned by all the four evangelists. It is one of the most astonishing that Christ has wrought. It is a miracle which could not be counterfeited, and a full proof of the divinity of Christ.