When evening came (hōs opsia egeneto). “The late hour” (hōra understood), and so in late Greek the adjective is used as a substantive. It is late evening (real evening), not the early evening in mid-afternoon (Mat 14:15). The disciples were in no hurry to start back to Bethsaida in Galilee (Mar 6:45), Capernaum in John (Joh 6:17).