The Wilderness as a Place of the New Exodus in Mark's Feeding Miracles (Mark 6:31–44 and 8:1–10)

Abstract

This article investigates the role of the wilderness in Jesus' feeding miracles in Mark 6:31–44 and 8:1–10, which connects God's provision of manna in the original exodus with Jesus' feeding miracles, envisioning the new exodus. In the exodus story, the wilderness was a special place where the Israelites established their identity as the people of God by witnessing God's grace, punishment, and power. In the later biblical writings, the Second Temple Jewish literatures, and rabbinic writings, the wilderness had been re-interpreted symbolically, cosmologically, and eschatologically, implying a chaotic state that should be transformed by God's grace and a place where God's people are gathered and fed with the hope of a messianic banquet. Mark accumulates these images and implications of the wilderness into Jesus' feeding miracles, and presents the feedings of the multitude in the wilderness in light of the new exodus. The wilderness is portrayed as the place where green grass grows; in the wilderness Jesus as the eschatological shepherd leads and cares for his people with compassion and gathers and feeds them with a messianic banquet. Jesus is manifested as the Savior and Feeder who guides, cares for, and gives abundant food to his people, in which the new exodus is unfolded.