Mark 6:32 - Exposition

And they went away in the boat ( τῷ πλοίῳ ) to a desert place apart —the boat, no doubt, which our Lord had ordered to be always in attendance upon him. We learn from St. Luke ( Luke 9:10 ) that this desert place was near to "a city called Bethsaida." It seems that there were two places called Bethsaida—one in Galilee proper, and the other to the north-east of the Sea of Galilee. It was to the neighborhood of this latter place that our Lord here directs the boat to take him. The other Bethsaida is mentioned lower down at Verse 45. The word Bethsaida means the "fish village."