John 6:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But when He performs a miracle before many, He offers praise. In this way He removes the suspicion that He is an enemy of God or an opponent of Him who begot Him.

"He distributed to those who were reclining, and they were filled." Do you see the distance between servant and Lord? The servants worked miracles while having grace only in part.

But God accomplishes everything with full almighty power, in all its breadth.

According to some, He gives thanks in order to remain hidden from the prince of this world until the time of His Passion. By this action the prince would not judge Him to be God.

Rather, he would be deceived and beguiled, and in this way would be slain by the Cross.

So it is in the saying: “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me” (Jn 11:41). Do you see how human this saying is, and how it can trouble the minds of the simple?

Yet when He says this as man, He also immediately explains the manner of the divine economy. He explains the purpose of this invocation, which lay in His desire to conceal Himself.

He excellently guides and strengthens the unstable mind of the simple, for He says: “I knew that You always hear Me” (Jn 11:42).

For whose sake, then, does He say such words? “I said this because of the people standing around, that they may believe that You sent Me” (Jn 11:42).

Should it not be wholly clear from this that He benefits us in many ways and accomplishes, as was fitting for Him, the hidden purpose of the economy with the flesh?

For this reason He sometimes speaks as though lower than what He truly is. Therefore, just as the phrase “I thank You” is taken economically there, so here “having blessed,” or “having given thanks,” before the loaves is understood.

It should be noted that where John has “having given thanks,” ευ;χαϱηστησας, Matthew said “having blessed,” ευ;λογησας (Mt 14:19). Yet the account of the saints will not be discordant.

Paul proves that both expressions are one and the same when he says: “For every food of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer” (1 Tim 4:4-5).

That which is sanctified by prayerful offering is certainly blessed. We customarily perform this always at our tables.

But since nothing useful should be left unexamined, let us try to say a little about the five loaves that the boy had, and about the two fish.

Both the kind and the number of the things found contain a mystical meaning. Why, one of the more eager inquirers may ask, were there not four loaves and three fish?

Why not five loaves and four fish? And what need was there to narrate the number of what was found?

Would it not have been better simply to say, without additions, that the boundless multitude following Christ was filled by the very little supply that was found?

But if the blessed Evangelist narrates this also with such care, he thereby surely gives us to understand that this too must be examined.

There were, he says, five loaves, and they were barley loaves, and with them Christ feeds those who love Him. I think, though the diligent inquirer may interpret better, that the five barley loaves signify the fivefold book of wise Moses.

That is, they signify the whole Law, which provides, as it were, the coarser food of the letter and history. This is indicated by the fact that they were of barley.

The fish signify the food of fishermen, that is, the sweetest writings of the Savior’s disciples. By saying that there were two, he indicates that the apostolic and evangelical preaching shines among us.

Both are discoveries of fishermen and spiritual writings. Thus, mixing the new with the old, the Savior feeds the souls of those who believe in Him unto life, plainly eternal life.

He does this through the Law and the teachings of the New Testament. That the disciples were from among fishermen is plainly evident and well known.

Perhaps not all were so, but since there were such men among them, our reasoning will not lose its truth under the conditions stated.

He commanded the loaves to be broken, and in the breaking they were multiplied. Nothing is truer than this.

For what a multitude of books those five books of Moses produced. They appear, as though in the breaking, in the spread of teaching.

The miracles that our Lord Jesus Christ performed are divine deeds. Yet they move the human mind toward the apprehension of God in visible things.

Since He does not possess an essence that can be seen with the eyes, His miracles by which He governs the whole world and orders the life of all creation seem of little value through constant repetition.

For this reason almost no one deems worthy of attention the wonderful and marvelous works of God that appear in every grain.

Therefore, in accordance with His mercy, He retained for Himself the power to perform, at suitable times, certain deeds beyond common experience and the order of nature.

Thus, when those to whom ordinary things seem of little value see deeds that are not great, yet are unusual, they may be struck with wonder.

For governing the whole world is a greater miracle than feeding five thousand men with five loaves (cf. Jn 6:5-13). Yet no one marvels at the former.

Men marvel not at what is great, but at what is rare. For who still feeds the whole world, if not He who produces a rich harvest from a small number of grains?

Thus He did this as God. By the same power by which He multiplied a small number of grains in the fields, He multiplied the five loaves in His hands.

For authority was in the hands of Christ. Those five loaves were like grains, though not entrusted to the earth, but multiplied by Him who made the earth.

This miracle was entrusted to our senses so that our mind might be sharpened through it. It was set before our eyes so that our understanding might be stretched.

Thus we might marvel at the invisible God through visible deeds. Having risen to faith and been purified through faith, we might desire to behold intellectually Him whom, though invisible, we learned through visible things.

Nevertheless, this is not all that can be seen in the miracles of Christ. Let us ask the miracles themselves what they tell us about Christ, since they have their own language for those able to understand them.

For since Christ Himself is the Word of God, the deed of the Word is also a word for us. Therefore let us ask this miracle, which we have heard is so great, how deep it is.

Let us not only marvel at its visible part, but also comprehend its depths. For the miracle contains within itself something whose outward manifestation we admire.

We have seen and discovered something great, something remarkable, and wholly divine, which could have been done only by God. We have glorified the Doer because of the deed.

But suppose we saw beautiful letters somewhere. It would not be enough for us to praise the fingers of the scribe because he made them even, regular, and beautiful.

We would still need to read what was conveyed to us by their means. So it is here also.

Whoever only looks at the deed admires the beauty of what was done, so as to be struck by the Creator. But whoever understands what was done reads it, as it were.

For it is one thing to see a picture, and another to see a text. When you look at a picture, it is enough for you to observe it and admire it.

When you look at letters, this is not enough. They summon you to read them. When you look at letters and suddenly do not know how to read them, you say, “What, I wonder, is written here?”

You ask what it is, although you already see something. The one from whom you try to learn what you have seen will show you something else.

That is, you saw the shape of the letters, but he will show you something else: the meaning of the words written by the letters. He has one set of eyes, and you another.

Do you not look at the same thing? Yet you understand the signs differently.

Therefore you see and praise, while he sees, praises, reads, and understands. Since, then, we have seen and praised, let us read and understand.

“Jesus, taking the loaves and giving thanks” (Jn 6:10-11), commanded those loaves to be broken and placed before those reclining. And there were now not five loaves, but what the Creator added in abundance.

Likewise He gave of the fish, “as much as anyone wanted” (Jn 6:11). Not only was that multitude fed, but pieces also remained.

They were gathered at His command, so that they would not perish, and twelve baskets were filled with pieces (cf. Jn 6:12-13).

Thus they might know that He does not demand payment from them. Since they were not required to pay for the bread and wine, though they could have paid, they certainly could not pay for the Body and Blood.

He not only gave to us freely, but also used a certain subtlety to draw us. He gave us such small things freely in order to move us to come and receive without any payment what is greater than they are.

Those crumbs of bread and wine that He gave were sweet to the throat, but the gift of the Body and Blood was profitable for the minds. Through what is sweet to the throat He stirred us, in order to draw us to what gives life to souls.

For this reason He mixed sweetness into the wine He made, to show how great the treasures hidden in His life-giving Blood were.

At the beginning of His miracles He made gladdening wine for the guests, to make known that His Blood would fill all the nations with gladness.

All existing joys are joined to wine, and every salvation there is is bound to the Mystery of His Blood. He gave sweet wine, which changes hearts, to show that He would give them the teaching that changes hearts.

What had previously been water He changed in the water vessels into wine. So also He changed the ancient commandment into perfection. He turned water into a more excellent substance and raised the law to perfection.

The guests drank that same water, yet they no longer drank it as water. So we too, although we hear the former law, taste it as though at the end, when it has reached perfection.

After this He joined cheek to cheek, namely when we do what is perfect. As He said, "If anyone strikes you on the cheek, turn to him the other also" (cf. Mt 5:39).

But consider His creative power extending over all things. The Lord took a little bread and multiplied it in the blink of an eye. What men do with heavy labor over ten months, His ten fingers did suddenly.

He placed His hand beneath the loaves like the earth and spoke over them like thunder. He scattered the movement of His lips over them like rain. The warming breath of His mouth took the place of the sun.

Thus in a single instant He accomplished and produced what anyone else does over a long time. Though the bread was small in number, from that very smallness it begot a multitude.

It thereby proved in harmony with Him who first blessed and said, "Increase and multiply and fill the earth" (cf. Gen 1:28). For these unleavened loaves were like barren women deprived of children.

By His blessing they sprouted and multiplied into twelve baskets of fragments born from them.

When all who reclined had been satisfied, the remains of the loaves and fish filled twelve baskets to the brim. This means that the multitude is satisfied by the word of God cast forth and by the teaching of the prophets.

When the ministry to the nations is fulfilled by imparting eternal food to them, the abundance of divine goodness fills the fullness of the twelve apostles. The number of those who ate is also the number of those who would believe.

For, as it is said in the book of Acts, five thousand men believed from the countless people of Israel (Acts 4:4). The visible wonder corresponds to the measure of what lies hidden beneath it.

The loaves broken together with the fish, and the people satisfied, yield a remainder corresponding to the number of the believing people and of the apostles filled with divine grace. Thus the measure corresponds to the number, and the number to the measure.

"Increase visibly, and multiply, and feed all who are now seated." Immediately the loaves showed obedience to the Lord. They multiplied incomprehensibly, as Christ commanded, the Heavenly Bread, who grants incorruption.

This is not a prayer for the granting of power, but an affirmation of His kinship with the Father and the Spirit. Basil of Seleucia holds a similar opinion. By recalling God's promises to Adam and Noah, Romanos emphasizes God's power to beget life.

Κοφινος, a basket, equals a quarter of a vedro by our measure. Twelve baskets make three vedros, or two chetveriks. Therefore the Russian translation should have put twelve baskets, or small wicker-baskets, not twelve boxes.

When Jews had to pass through pagan or Samaritan villages, they stocked up on bread and carried it in baskets. See Mt 16:7; Mt 8:14; Deut 26:2, 4.

They did this chiefly out of fear of being defiled by unclean food. Juvenal says, "Here for the Jews is a grove with a sacred spring and their beggar's basket" (Sat. 3.15).

Thus all the baskets of the twelve disciples were filled with the remains of the miraculous meal.

"Then the men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, 'This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.'" "The miraculous multiplication of the five loaves showed the almighty power of the divine Author of nature," says St Hilary.

The witnesses of the deed, the five thousand people, recognized a miracle in what had happened before their eyes. They said that the one who performed this miracle was none other than the expected messenger of God, the Messiah.

The people spoke this way about Jesus on other occasions also. See Mt 16:13; Mt 21:11; Lk 7:16.

The Neologists, Paulus and others, do not wish to recognize a miracle in this event. They say that the people were satisfied not only with the five loaves, but that they had their own food with them.

But this means speaking of a historical event otherwise than the eyewitnesses speak of it, and amusing oneself with fables. The eyewitnesses said to Jesus, "Send them away, for they have nothing to eat" (Mk 6:36; Lk 9:12).

The apostles look for food for the people and find only five loaves and two fish with one boy (Mk 6:38). The questioning of Philip was made precisely to guard such a great event from doubts.

Finally, the Evangelists say directly that all five thousand were satisfied by those five loaves offered to them. And all five thousand said the same in their judgment of the event.

"Therefore, when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain alone."

The miracle so struck the people and so convinced them that Jesus was the Messiah that they wanted at once to proclaim Him king. If He was the Messiah, then, according to their mistaken belief, He was an earthly king, the restorer of the mighty kingdom of Israel's kings.

They wanted to use violence, if necessary. But the kingdom of Jesus Christ is not a worldly kingdom (Jn 18:36). He came to earth to fulfill the will of the heavenly Father, not to seek earthly glory for Himself.

Therefore He hid Himself from the people on a solitary mountain, where He had previously been with the disciples (v. 3). He withdrew in order to devote Himself to prayer in solitude (Mt 14:23; Mk 6:46).

The miracle on the lake and the discourse on the heavenly bread follow in Jn 6:16-71.