Mark 6:39

By companies [σ υ μ π ο σ ι α σ υ μ π ο σ ι α]. Peculiar to Mark. The Jewish dining - room was arranged like the Roman : three tables forming three sides of a square, and with divans or couches following the outside line of the tables. The open end of the square admitted the servants who waited at table. This explains the arrangement of the multitude here described by Mark. The people sat down, literally, in table - companies, arranged like guests at table; some companies of a hundred and some of fifty, in squares or oblongs open at one end, so that the disciples could pass along the inside and distribute the loaves.

Green. Mark only.