Mark 8

Mark 8
← chapter 7 chapter 9 →
Image of page from the 7th century Book of Durrow, from The Gospel of Mark. Trinity College Dublin
Book	Gospel of Mark
Bible part	New Testament
Order in the Bible part	2
Category	Gospel

Mark 8 is the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It contains two miracles of Jesus, Peter's confession that he believes Jesus is the Messiah, and Jesus' first prediction of his own death and resurrection. It is the midchapter and the turning point in Mark between Mark's description of Jesus as teacher and miracle worker to his focus on the role of Jesus' death and the difficult nature of his teachings.

Like Mark 6:30-44 Mark 8 describes Jesus feeding a large crowd with hardly any food at all. He is teaching a large crowd in a remote place, "About four thousand men..." (9) and everyone is hungry but they only have seven loaves of bread and a few fish. Jesus takes the food, gives thanks to God, and the disciples then distribute the food. The text in Greek uses the word eucharistein to describe his actions. After everyone has eaten they find seven baskets of left over food. Matthew also records this in chapter 15:29-39 but neither Luke nor John have this, yet both record the preceding feeding of the 5000. Skeptical scholars have concluded that this is just a doubling of the story in Mark 6 with only a few details, such as the number of loaves and baskets, changed. Luke goes right from the feeding of the 5000 to Peter's confession in Luke 9. However, these skeptics must deal with the (later discussed) passage in Mark 8:17-21 where Jesus actually compares and contrasts the two events as an exercise to teach his disciples.