Mark 6:45-56 Reconginising Jesus
Jesus and the Crowds at Genneraret
6:53 Gennesaret, also called Gennesar, is a fertile plain about one mile wide and three miles long at the northwest corner of Lake Galilee.
The word translated “healed” is again the one often translated “saved.” Mark probably saw in physical healing a sign of spiritual healing.
Jesus goes up the hill to pray
he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Jesus again sought solitude with God (see 6:31). This is the last mention of Jesus praying until Gethsemane in ch 14.
The words He was about to pass by them do not mean He was going “to bypass” them. He intended “to pass beside” them in the sense of an Old Testament theophany (cf. Ex. 33:19, 22; 1 Kings 19:11; Mark 6:50b) to reassure them.
but more likely the verb “pass by” should be taken in the sense of “pass before” or “pass in view of” rather than “go beyond” (cf. Exod 33:19, 22; 34:6; 1 Kgs 19:11). What Mark described was a theophany, or rather a Christophany. Jesus revealed himself to the disciples, but their unbelief and terror prevented their comprehension.
Mark explained that they responded this way because they all saw Him (not a hallucination by a few) and were terrified.
The words It is I (lit., “I am,” egō eimi) may simply convey self-identification (“It is I, Jesus”), but they are probably intended here to echo the Old Testament formula of God’s self-revelation: “I am who I am” (cf. Ex. 3:14; Isa. 41:4; 43:10; 51:12; 52:6).
Mark alone explained (gar, for) they had not caught on to the meaning of the loaves miracle (cf. 6:35–44) as a pointer to His true identity. So they did not recognize Him when He walked on the water; they were spiritually imperceptive (cf. 3:5).