Charles Ellicott Commentary Mark 8:4

"And his disciples answered him, Whence shall one be able to fill these men with bread here in a desert place?" — Mark 8:4 (ASV)

Satisfy.—The verb is the same as the “filled” of Mark 7:27.

Here in the wilderness.—The word here, as in Matthew 15:33, is not the one usually employed, and is abstract, not concrete, in its form, suggesting the idea, i.e., of “loneliness,” and through that, of a lonely place. It is used in a like sense in 2 Corinthians 11:26; Hebrews 11:38. Like many other abstract words, it seems to have tended to a concrete meaning; but there is always an appreciable shade of difference.