John 6:9

A lad. Gr. paidarion, literally, “a little child.” However, the word is not restricted to this sense, and may denote even a boy who is nearly full grown, as the word is used in the LXX of Joseph (Gen. 37:30) when he was at least 17 years old (see Gen. 37:2), and in the Apocrypha of Tobias, who was old enough to marry (Tobit 6:2). Andrew, being from nearby Bethsaida, may have known this boy personally, which would account for his freedom in suggesting the young man’s personal property as a possible source of food.

Barley loaves. See on Mark 6:38. Barley was considered an inferior food. Philo declares that it is fit for “irrational animals and men in unhappy circumstances” (De Specialibus Legibus iii. 57; Loeb. ed., vol. 7, p. 511). Similarly, an ancient Jewish commentary states that “lentils are human food and barley fodder for animals” (Midrash Rabbah, on Ruth 2:9, Soncino ed., p. 58). Thus Jesus taught a lesson in simplicity (see on Mark 6:42).

Small fishes. Gr. opsaria, the diminutive of opson, “prepared food,” “relish.” As small dried or pickled fish were used especially as a relish, opsarion referred particularly to them. That such is the meaning here is clear from the parallel passages in the Synoptic Gospels where instead of this term the regular word for “fish,” ichthus, appears. The bread constituted the main part of the meal, and the fish were for relish. This usage is illustrated by an Egyptian papyrus from about the end of the 1st century A.D., which, in ordering provisions for a party, requests: ‘“For Gemella’s birthday feast send some delicacies [opsaria] ... and an artaba [a large measure] of wheaten bread”’ (Papyrus Fayyum 11931, cited in J. H. Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, p. 470). See on ch. 21:9.

What are they? Andrew seems to have asked the question almost in a spirit of mockery at the thought that Jesus should even suppose it possible that so small an amount of food could feed so large a crowd. Five loaves with a few small fish for relish dramatized only more strikingly the apparently impossible situation. Yet Jesus took Andrew’s illustration of futility and made of it the means of demonstrating God’s power to do that which is otherwise impossible.