The Bible Says
Mark 6:53-56 Meaning

The parallel gospel accounts for Mark 6:53-56 are found in Matthew 14:34-36 and John 6:22-71.

In Mark 6:53-56, when Jesus and His disciples arrive at Gennesaret, the people immediately recognize Him and bring the sick on mats to wherever they hear He is, and wherever He enters-villages, cities, or countryside-people lay the sick in the marketplaces, begging to touch even the fringe of His cloak. All who do are healed.

Mark continues his narration by telling us what happened directly after Jesus walked on the water to His disciples’ boat and calmed the storm (Mark 6:45-52).

When they had crossed over they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored to the shore (v 53).

In verse 53, the pronoun they refers to Jesus and His disciples.

The expression they had crossed over meant two things.

It meant that Jesus and His disciples had crossed over the sea of Galilee. It also meant that Jesus and His disciples had crossed over a political boundary and had left the Roman district of Gaulanitis and entered the Roman district Galilee.

Mark and Matthew report that they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored to the shore (v 53), while John states they arrived at the city of Capernaum (John 6:24).

Gennesaret is the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name “Chinnereth,” the term used by the Israelites for the Sea of Galilee dating back to the time of Joshua and the conquest. Gennesaret also refers to the geographical plain along the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.

The city of Capernaum was the largest city in the land of Gennesaret.

John also wrote that as soon as Jesus got into the boat when it was in the middle of the stormy lake, that the boat immediately arrived “at the land to which they were going” (John 6:21). This instant transportation was a miracle.

Mark writes that as soon as they arrived in the land of Gennesaret, they moored their boat to the shore.

When they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognized Him, (v 54).

The land of Gennesaret, and specifically the city of Capernaum, served as the starting point and hub of Jesus’s public ministry (Matthew 4:12). It was here that He taught about the kingdom of God, called several of His disciples, and performed many miracles. This area functioned as the informal headquarters of His ministry. Additionally, many of the people who made the journey-over a dozen miles round trip-to see Jesus and who were among the five thousand men He miraculously fed the previous evening (Mark 6:33-44) likely came from this region.

As soon as Jesus got out of the boat and came ashore, the people immediately recognized Him as the teacher and miracle worker. Mark tells us what these people did when they recognized Him:

And they ran about that whole country and began to carry here and there on their pallets those who were sick, to the place they heard He was (v 55).

When they recognized Him, they quickly ran about that whole country and, according to Matthew, sent “word” of Jesus’s whereabouts (Matthew 14:35).

News of Jesus’s miracle-feeding the multitudes with just a few loaves and fish-had already spread throughout the region. Boats from Tiberias, located on the southwestern shore of the lake, had departed for Gaulanitis, where Jesus had last been seen and where the miracle had taken place (John 6:23). But Jesus, having walked across the sea during the night, was no longer there. While people were still searching for Him in that area, word reached them that He was now in Capernaum.

The people were actively seeking Jesus out. They were carrying friends, neighbors, and/or relatives who were sick, lame, or otherwise too unwell to bring themselves on pallets to Jesus, in the hope that He would heal them.

Mark concludes this portion of his narrative by making a general statement about how Jesus was highly sought after by people from all over the place at this time.

Wherever He entered villages, or cities, or countryside, they were laying the sick in the market places,  and imploring Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were being cured (v 56).

This remark indicates that wherever Jesus went when He entered a small village or a city, or even the countryside, people were clamoring to see Him.

Mark’s description suggests that as Jesus approached villages and towns, people would lay the sick in the market places, in anticipation that He would pass by. And when He came by them, they were imploring Jesus to let them touch the fringe of His cloak in the belief that they might be cured. Mark describes how as many as touched the fringe of his cloak were being cured.

Matthew also factually reports that “as many as touched it were cured” (Matthew 14:36).

The fringe of His cloak refers to the tassels of His rabbinic shawl.

At the time, people believed that a rabbi’s tassels symbolized his righteousness and could somehow hold and transmit any spiritual power he possessed. (This same belief motivated the woman with the 12-year hemorrhage in Mark 5:25-34.) Religious leaders exploited this assumption by lengthening their tassels to publicly showcase their supposed righteousness (Matthew 23:5).

According to the Gospel of John, Jesus did more than heal the sick that day He crossed over the Sea of Galilee and came to land at Gennesaret (v 53).

John records that He also taught in the synagogue at Capernaum (John 6:26-71), connecting His recent miracle of feeding the five thousand to God’s provision of manna during Moses’s time. In conversation with the Jews, Jesus declared Himself to be the true bread from heaven, saying that His body was real food and His blood true drink, which must be consumed to gain eternal life. These profound statements were misunderstood, and as a result, many Jews-including some of His disciples-turned away from Him.