“And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.”
So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties — the military-organization language (hundreds and fifties) echoes the wilderness organization of Israel under Moses (Exodus 18:21–25, Numbers 31:14) — another echo of the Exodus/wilderness typology that runs through the feeding narrative. The crowd organized by Jesus mirrors the camp of Israel organized by Moses. The thousands who will be fed by five loaves and two fish recall the manna that fed Israel for forty years. Jesus is doing what God did in the wilderness — providing for his people in the place of need.
Church Fathers on Mark 6:40
The Lord, placing before them, first, what is most profitable, that is, the food of the word of God, afterwards also gave the multitude food for their bodies; in beginning to relate which, the Evangelist say, 'And when the day was now far spent, His disciples came unto Him, and said, This is a desert place.
The time being far spent, points out that it was evening. Wherefore Luke says, 'But the day had begun to decline.'
This in the Gospel of John is the answer to Philip, but Mark gives it as the answer of the disciples, wishing it to be understood that Philip made this answer as a mouthpiece of the others; although he might put the plural number for the singular, as is usual.
Read all 13 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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