This is the same question Jesus asked before the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:38). The disciples had just asked where bread could come from in the wilderness. Jesus did not answer with a rebuke. He turned them, once again, to what they already had. Gill's note on Mark 8:5 points back to his note on Matthew 15:34, where he says Jesus asked "in a very mild and gentle manner," without upbraiding them for forgetting. The question was a patient second lesson in the same truth.

The disciples answered, "Seven." Jesus "commanded the people to sit down on the ground," took the seven loaves, "gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them" (Mark 8:6). They also had "a few small fishes," and He blessed those too (Mark 8:7). "So they did eat, and were filled" and seven baskets were taken up, after about four thousand had eaten (Mark 8:8-9). Then He sent them away.

Matthew records the disciples' answer more fully: "Seven, and a few little fishes" (Matthew 15:34). Gill notes that Mark mentions the fishes a little later, in Mark 8:7.

After the meal Jesus crossed by ship "into the parts of Dalmanutha" (Mark 8:10). Barnes notes that Matthew says He came "into the coasts of Magdala" (Matthew 15:39). The "broken meat" (Mark 8:8) is the old English for broken pieces of food, as the ESV renders it.

Jesus asked His disciples the same question twice, in two hungry crowds. That shows His patience. He taught the same lesson again when they had not yet learned it. In both feedings He started with what His disciples had. Matthew Henry notes that in this miracle He took all seven loaves, "for he would teach us to take things as they are, and accommodate ourselves to them."

Soon after, the disciples reasoned among themselves about having only one loaf in the ship (Mark 8:14-16), and Jesus asked them to recall the numbers from both meals: "And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up?" (Mark 8:20). The loaves were meant to teach them, not only to fill stomachs.