It has been asked why there are two accounts in Mark's gospel of the feeding of a great crowd. Some scholars suggest that it was actually only on one occasion that Jesus fed a great crowd but that two different accounts of it were known, both of which Mark included in his gospel. Mark makes a clear distinction, however, between the two occasions of feeding a crowd (8: 18-20). It is more acceptable to say that Mark believed that there were two distinct occasions and that the second may have taken place among the Gentiles on their side of the lake. The second feeding of a crowd would therefore be understood as another fore-shadowing of the spread of the Good News to the Gentiles.