upon  the  green  grass]  St  Mark  alone  mentions  the  green  grass,  "still
fresh  in  the  spring  of  the  year,  before  it  had  faded  away  in  the  summer
sun."  It  was  the  season  of  the  Passover,  corresponding  to  our  March
or  April,  hence  there  was  "much  grass  in  the  place;"  comp.  John  vi.  10.
40.  in  ranks']    Literally,  they  reclined  in  parterres  (areolatim).
"  As  they  sat  in  these  orderly  groups  upon  the  grass,  the  gay  red  and
blue  and  yellow  colours  of  the  clothing,  which  the  poorest  Orientals
wear,  called  up  in  the  imagination  of  St  Peter  a  multitude  of  flower-
beds in  some  well-cultivated  garden."     Farrar's  Life  of  Christ,  p.  402.
"  Our  English  '  in  ranks '  does  not  reproduce  the  picture  to  the  eye,
giving  rather  the  notion  of  continuous  lines.     Wyclif  was  better,  '  by
parties  ;'  perhaps  in  groups  would  be  as  near  as  we  could  get  to  it  in
English."     Trench,  Miracles,  p.  265.     St   Mark  here,   as  elsewhere,
doubtless  reproduces  the  description  of  the  scene  by  St  Peter.
by  hundreds,  and  by  fifties]  "  Two  long  rows  of  100,  a  shorter  one  of
50  persons.  The  fourth  side  remained,  after  the  manner  of  the  tables
of  the  ancients,  empty  and  open."  Gerlach.
41.  and  blessed]    The  words,  though  not  given,  were  probably  those  of
the  ordinary  grace  before  meat  in  use  in  Israel.     ' '  He  gives  thanks  to
God,  as  the  father  surrounded  by  his  household  was  on  the  occasion  of
the  Passover  wont  to  do,  for  His  natural  gifts  and  covenant  blessings.
