John 6:8Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But Andrew’s last words show great weakness. Having said, “He has five barley loaves,” he added, “But what are these for so many?”

He thought that the Wonderworker could make only a little from a little, and more from a greater amount. But it was not so.

For the Lord it was equally easy to produce abundance from a greater or smaller number of loaves, because He did not need ready matter for this.

Taking the loaves as a kind of matter and occasion, He thus manifests the miracle. Let the Manichaeans be ashamed, who say that bread and everything created are the product of an evil god.

For this reason, if someone offers them bread, they do not take it from his hands. They order him to throw it from afar, while they stand and curse the one who offered it.

They say, “May the one who sowed you, bread, be scattered himself. May the one who ground you be ground in his body,” and other such things.

Let them be ashamed when they hear that Christ, the Son of the Good God, multiplied the loaves. If they were an evil creation, the Good One would not have multiplied evil, to say nothing of eating bread Himself.

Perhaps someone may ask: is this miracle with the loaves one and the same as the miracle described in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 14? It is one and the same.

If there the disciples come and remind Him about the people, so that He may send them away, while here Jesus Himself asks how to feed the people, there is no need to be surprised.

Both things probably occurred. First the disciples reminded the Lord about sending the people away. Then the Lord asked Philip how they might feed them.

He should have reflected that for the One who changed the nature of water into wine, healed the paralytic, and by one word drove away a disease so long present, it was not strange or foreign to create food from what did not exist. Nor was it strange for Him, by divine power, to multiply provisions that appeared utterly insignificant.

Would the authority shown in those miracles not have been effective in this case also? Therefore this pair of disciples, Philip and Andrew, answered with more hesitation than was fitting.

Nevertheless, in this case one must also observe the following. What happens among the saints, though it seems something slight, is often not without benefit. It contains something useful for the supernatural nature of the matter in which they might appear guilty of weakness.

One of the holy disciples said plainly that “two hundred denarii worth of bread is not enough for them, that each may receive a little.” The other said of the five loaves and two fish, “What are these among so many?” By this they in part magnify the miracle and set the Savior’s power in brilliant light. Their words point to the multitude of people who were about to be fed.

Thus even the force of unbelief is turned into a good testimony concerning Christ. By acknowledging that such an amount of money would not suffice for the people even for a small taste, they crown the ineffable power of the One who feeds. In truth, when they had nothing, for what did the boy’s provision mean among so many, as Andrew said, He revealed His love for the people in overflowing measure.

We shall find a similar kind of little faith in wise Moses in the wilderness. The Israelites cried out (Num 11:4-5), carried away by a detestable desire for Egyptian foods. They dreamed of unclean pots of meat, onions, and garlic.

Inclining toward vile pleasure in such base things, and neglecting divine blessings, they even rose up against Moses, the mediator and instructor. But God knew why the people had begun to cry out, and He also promised to give them meat.

Since the promise of such abundance was given in the wilderness, and its fulfillment seemed impossible from the standpoint of human reason, Moses approached God and cried out: “Six hundred thousand men on foot are among the people with whom I am, and You have said: I will give them meat, and they shall eat for a month of days. Shall sheep and oxen be slaughtered for them, and will that be enough for them?”

What did God answer? “Shall the hand of the Lord not be sufficient for this?” In what could God grow weak? (Num 11:21-23). So too one may rightly say concerning the words of Philip and Andrew: “Shall the hand of the Lord not be sufficient?”

Taking the substance of this event as an example for ourselves, let us regard little faith as the lowest of infirmities and the greatest of evils. If God acts or promises to do something, let it be received with wholly undoubting faith. Let the Godhead not be accused because, through our weakness, we cannot imagine how what surpasses us will come to pass.

It is fitting for a good and prudent man, with a fully mature mind, to consider also this. The bodily eye does not see as much as one might wish, but only as much as it is capable of receiving, and as much as the measure of our nature allows.

Those things that are at a very great height cannot be distinguished, however much the imagination strains. The eye scarcely grasps even a very faint impression of them. Think with me in the same way about the human mind.

It reaches and extends only to the limits given it by the Creator, even if it has been entirely purified. It cannot see anything above us. Indeed, it involuntarily withdraws before supernatural things, unable to receive them.

Therefore what surpasses us is received by faith, not by investigation. The one who so believes deserves praise, while the one who falls into the opposite condition by no means remains unpunished. The Savior Himself again testifies to this in the words: “He who believes in the Son is not judged, but he who does not believe is already condemned” (Jn 3:18).

Since we have already begun speaking about the need to believe God, let us try again to set forth something from the Holy Scriptures. For the readers’ benefit, let us make clear the punishment for unbelief.

I turn again to the sacred instructor Moses himself. Once, when the people in the wilderness were oppressed by unbearable thirst, Moses received the command to take Aaron as his companion and strike the rock with the rod, so that streams of water might flow out.

But he was not fully convinced by the words of the One commanding. Having fallen, in a human way, into a certain faintheartedness, he says: “Hear me, you disobedient ones. Shall we bring water out of this rock for you? And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with the rod once and twice, and much water came out. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: Because you did not believe, to sanctify Me before the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them” (Num 20:10-12).

Should it not be clear from this to everyone how heavy the retributions for unbelief are? If even one such as Moses was subjected to punishment, whom else will God spare? Upon whom will He not lay wrath for unbelief, since He is so impartial that He did not wish to release even Moses from it? To Moses He had said: “I know you above all, and you have found grace with Me” (Ex 33:12).

Thus, he says, there were five loaves, and they were barley loaves, and with them Christ feeds those who love Him. I think, though the studious reader may interpret better, that the five barley loaves signify the five-part book of wise Moses, that is, the whole Law. It provides, as it were, the coarser food of the letter and of history, for this is indicated by the fact that they were made of barley.

By the fish is meant the food of fishermen, that is, the most sweet 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.

Therefore, mixing the new with the old, the Savior feeds the souls of those who believe in Him unto life, plainly eternal life, through the Law and the teachings of the New Testament.

Finally, even the disciples who were with the Lord among the hungry wished to feed this multitude, so as not to remain indifferent. Yet they had nothing with which to feed them.

The Lord asked where bread might be bought to feed the hungry multitude. And Scripture says, “He said this to test him,” that is, the disciple Philip, whom He asked, “for He Himself knew what He would do” (Jn 6:6).

Why did He test him? Was it to show the disciple’s ignorance? Or, perhaps, by showing the disciple’s ignorance, was He pointing to something else?

This will become clear when the mystery of the five loaves begins to speak to us and disclose what He was indicating. Then we shall see why, in that deed, the Lord wished to show the disciple’s ignorance.

He asked what He Himself knew. For sometimes we ask about what we do not know, wishing to hear so that we may learn.

Sometimes we ask about what we know, wishing to know whether the one we ask knows it. The Lord knew both things.

He knew what He was asking about, for He knew what He wished to do (Jn 6:6). Likewise, He knew that Philip did not know this.

Why then did He ask him, if not to show his ignorance? As I have said, we shall understand later why He did this.

Andrew says, “There is a boy here who has five loaves and two fish; but what are these for so many?” (cf. Jn 6:8-9). When Philip, being asked, said that two hundred denarii would not suffice to buy bread to refresh such a multitude, there appeared a certain boy carrying five barley loaves and two fish.

A brief consultation followed. To buy even a piece of bread for such a mass of people would require at least two hundred denarii.

But even if they had such a sum in their common purse, there was now neither time nor possibility to make the necessary purchases. Andrew mentioned that one boy there had five barley loaves and two small fish.

Yet obviously the supply was so slight that it was hardly worth mentioning. “Make them sit down,” Christ calmly answered (Mt 14:13-21; Mk 6:30-44; Lk 9:10-17; Jn 6:1-15).

This is the miraculous feeding of five thousand people with five loaves and two fish. Even this miracle John describes briefly (vv. 1-21), using it as the occasion for a detailed exposition (vv. 23-71) of Jesus Christ’s discourse with the people “on the bread of life,” that is, the Mystery of Holy Communion.

By many experiences Jesus had shown His disciples not only the far-reaching deliberation and wisdom of His actions, but also His deep insight into the hearts of others (Jn 2:24; 6:64; 7:8; 11:4, 41, 42).

For His own sake He had no need to ask Philip what should be done. He was directing Philip’s attention to the state of affairs and prompting him to examine the matter from every side.

The other disciples also needed to examine the reality surrounding them. Yet Philip more than the others had to attend to the situation preceding the deed that Jesus wished to perform.

Philip did not yet fully believe in the divine power of Jesus (Jn 14:8). “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for them, that each of them might receive even a little,” Philip answered in v. 7.

A denarius equaled twenty kopecks. Thus about forty rubles in all would be needed to buy simple barley loaves, the ordinary food of the poor (3 Kings 7:1, 16, 18).

The Apostle Andrew finds with a boy five barley loaves, less nourishing than wheat loaves (Judg 7:13), and two baked fish. This was an insignificant supply for the multitude (Jn 6:8-9).