For they understood not the miracle of the loaves: for their hearts were hardened.
All Commentaries on Mark 6:52 Go To Mark 6
John Chrysostom
AD 407
He dismisses indeed the people with His blessing and with some cures. But He constrained His disciples, because they could not without pain separate themselves from Him, and that, not only on account of the very great affection which they had for Him, but also because they were at a loss how He would join them. It goes on: “And when He had sent them away, He departed into a mountain to pray.” This we must understand of Christ, in that He is man; He does it also to teach us to be constant in prayer. The Holy Scripture reckons four watches in the night, making each division three hours; wherefore by the fourth watch it means that which is after the ninth hour, that is, in the tenth or some following hour. There follows: “And would have passed them.”
As soon then as they knew Him by His voice, their fear left them. Or else, the first watch means the time up to the deluge; the second, up to Moses; the third, up to the coming of the Lord; in the fourth the Lord came and spoke to His disciples.
