John 6:4-13

6:4 (Now the Jewish feast of the Passover¹ was near.)² 6:5 Then Jesus, when he looked up³ and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread so that these people may eat?” 6:6 (Now Jesus⁴ said this to test him, for he knew what he was going to do.)⁵ 6:7 Philip replied,⁶ “Two hundred silver coins worth⁷ of bread would not be enough for them, for each one to get a little.” 6:8 One of Jesus’ disciples,⁸ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 6:9 “Here is a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what good⁹ are these for so many people?”

6:10 Jesus said, “Have¹⁰ the people sit down.” (Now there was a lot of grass in that place.)¹¹ So the men¹² sat down, about five thousand in number. 6:11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed the bread to those who were seated. He then did the same with the fish,¹³ as much as they wanted. 6:12 When they were all satisfied, Jesus¹⁴ said to his disciples, “Gather up the broken pieces that are left over, so that nothing is wasted.” 6:13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves¹⁵ left over by the people who had eaten.

¹sn Passover. According to John’s sequence of material, considerable time has elapsed since the feast of 5:1. If the feast in 5:1 was Pentecost of a.d. 31, then this feast would be the Passover of a.d. 32, just one year before Jesus’ crucifixion.

²sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

³tn Grk “when he lifted up his eyes” (an idiom).

⁴tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

⁶tn Grk “Philip answered him.”

⁷tn Grk “two hundred denarii.” The denarius was a silver coin worth about a day’s wage for a laborer; this would be an amount worth about eight months’ pay.

⁸tn Grk “one of his disciples.”

⁹tn Grk “but what are these”; the word “good” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

¹⁰tn Grk “Make.”

¹¹sn This is a parenthetical note by the author (suggesting an eyewitness recollection).

¹²tn Here “men” has been used in the translation because the following number, 5,000, probably included only adult males (see the parallel in Matt 14:21).

¹³tn Grk “likewise also (he distributed) from the fish.”

¹⁴tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵sn Note that the fish mentioned previously (in John 6:9) are not emphasized here, only the five barley loaves. This is easy to understand, however, because the bread is of primary importance for the author in view of Jesus’ upcoming discourse on the Bread of Life.