John 6:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

After saying, "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. He had no need of prepared matter for this.

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

For this reason, if someone gives them bread, they do not take it from his hands. Instead, they order him to throw it from afar, while they stand and curse the giver: "May he who sowed you, bread, himself be scattered! May he who ground you himself be ground in body!" and the like.

Let them be ashamed, then, 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. I do not even mention that He Himself would not have eaten bread.

Perhaps someone will ask whether this miracle with the loaves is the same as the miracle described in Matthew's Gospel (see ch. 14). It is one and the same.

If there the disciples approach and remind Him about the people, asking that they be sent away, while here Jesus Himself asks how the people may be fed, there is no need for wonder.

It is likely that both took place. First the disciples reminded the Lord about sending the people away, and then the Lord asked Philip how they might be fed.

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.

The two fish, as it seems to us, signify those two exalted persons who in the Old Testament were anointed for the priesthood and kingship: the priest and the king.

To speak briefly, by the five loaves is meant the Pentateuch of Moses. It is fitting that the loaves are not wheat but barley, for they belong to the Old Testament.

You know that barley is such that one can scarcely reach the kernel. This refers to the barley grain, not the ear. The kernel is covered by the husk, and the husk itself is unyielding and hard, so that it is removed with difficulty.

Such is the text of the Old Testament, clothed in the coverings of fleshly mysteries. Yet if one reaches its kernel, it will strengthen and satisfy us.

Thus a certain boy was carrying five loaves and two fish. If we ask who that boy was, probably it was the people of Israel. They carried the Pentateuch with a childish disposition and did not eat it.

What they carried was closed, but it satisfied when it was opened. The two fish, as it seems to us, symbolize the two highest persons in the Old Testament, the king and the priest, who were anointed for sanctifying and governing the people.

At one time He Himself came, bearing the mystery, prefigured in these two persons. He came in due time, prefigured in the kernel of barley, yet hidden under its husk.

He came bearing in Himself both persons, priest and king. He is priest, offering Himself as a sacrifice to God for us. He is king, because He rules us.

What had been closed was opened. Thanks be to Him, for in Himself He fulfilled what had been promised in the Old Testament.

He commanded the loaves to be broken, and through their breaking they were multiplied. Nothing is more certain. For when those five books of Moses were interpreted, how many books did they beget, as though broken, that is, divided?

But in that barley the ignorance of the first people was hidden. Of them it was said, "To this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart" (2 Cor 3:15).

For the covering had not yet been removed. Christ had not yet come. The veils of the temple had not yet been torn through Christ crucified on the Cross.

Therefore, because the ignorance of the people abiding in the Law remained, the Lord's testing revealed the disciple's ignorance.

Each virtue has its proper food. Therefore first barley is given us as food, then wheat. To the stronger man, like Elijah, bread from the inner part of the ear is brought, bread sinners cannot defile, though they can eat it.

Therefore I know exactly what they need. I see the wilderness and the setting sun. Yet I appointed the sun's path, and I know the weariness of this seated crowd. I know what I shall do for them.

I Myself shall satisfy their hunger, I, the Heavenly Bread, who grants incorruption.

You, being men, cannot now obtain food, however zealous you may be. Either feed the people, merciful caretakers, or do not speak idly when you have no power to feed them.

For I, the good Creator and pre-eternal God, care for all things and give food to every flesh (Ps 135:25). Seeing the crowd, you grow anxious and do not think of your Provider.

But I have come to give the Heavenly Bread, who grants incorruption. What are you thinking and saying among yourselves? I know even without your answer that, seeing the people, the place, and the hour, you are perplexed.

You ask, 'Who will feed this crowd in the wilderness?' Know firmly who I truly am, my friends. I fed Israel in the wilderness (Ex 16:4) and gave him heavenly bread as a gift.

I brought water from the rock in a waterless place (Ps 77:16; Ex 17:6-7). Besides this, I sent quails beyond number, I, the Heavenly Bread, who grants incorruption."

To buy even a piece of bread for such a mass of people would require at least two hundred denarii. Even if they had such a sum in their common treasury, there was now neither time nor possibility to make the necessary purchases.

Andrew mentioned that one boy there had five barley loaves and two fish. Yet, obviously, such a supply was so small that it was hardly worth speaking of. "Make them sit down," Christ calmly answered (Mt 14:13-21; Mk 6:30-44; Lk 9:10-17; Jn 6:1-15).

See Jn 2:24; Jn 6:64; Jn 7:8; Jn 11:4, 41, 42. He had no need, for His own sake, to ask Philip what had to be done.

He was drawing 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 surrounding circumstances.

Yet Philip, more than the others, had to attend to the situation preceding the deed that Jesus intended to perform. Philip did not 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 verse 7.

A denarius was equal to twenty kopecks. Thus about forty rubles in all would be needed to buy simple barley loaves, the ordinary food of the poor. See 3 Kgs 7:1, 16, 18.

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

This meaning was transferred to fish, because fish most often served as the only seasoning for the chief food, bread. Compare Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, under Opsonium and Obsonium, with reference to Plutarch's Symposium, Horace's Second Satire, and others.

Such fish was constantly eaten by the people with bread.