John 6:9

Bible in Basic English

There is a boy here with five barley cakes and two fishes: but what is that among such a number?

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
“There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish—but what are they for so many?”

King James Version (1611)
There is a lad here, which hath fiue barley loaues, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?

King James Version
There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?

English Standard Version
"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?"

New American Standard Bible
"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are these for so many people?"

New Century Version
"Here is a boy with five loaves of barley bread and two little fish, but that is not enough for so many people."

Amplified Bible
"There is a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are these for so many people?"

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?"

Legacy Standard Bible
"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?"

Berean Standard Bible
"Here is a boy with five barley loaves and two small fish. But what difference will these make among so many?"

Contemporary English Version
"There is a boy here who has five small loaves of barley bread and two fish. But what good is that with all these people?"

Complete Jewish Bible
"There's a young fellow here who has five loaves of barley bread and two fish. But how far will they go among so many?"

Darby Translation
There is a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fishes; but this, what is it for so many?

Easy-to-Read Version
"Here is a boy with five loaves of barley bread and two little fish. But that is not enough for so many people."

Geneva Bible (1587)
There is a little boy heere, which hath fiue barlie loaues, and two fishes: but what are they among so many?

George Lamsa Translation
There is a boy here, who has with him five barley loaves and two fishes; but what are these for all of them?

Good News Translation
"There is a boy here who has five loaves of barley bread and two fish. But they will certainly not be enough for all these people."

Lexham English Bible
"Here is a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?"

Literal Translation
A little boy is here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are these for so many?

American Standard Version
There is a lad here, who hath five barley loaves, and two fishes: but what are these among so many?

Hebrew Names Version
"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these among so many?"

International Standard Version
"There's a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fish. But what are they among so many people?"2 Kings 4:43;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
There is here a certain youth, who hath with him five cakes of barley and two fishes; but these what are they for these all ?

Murdock Translation
There is a lad here, who hath with him five cakes of barley, and two fishes; but what are these for all those [fn] ?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
There is a litle ladde here, whiche hath fyue barly loaues and two fisshes, but what are they among so many?

English Revised Version
There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two fishes: but what are these among so many?

World English Bible
"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these among so many?"

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
but what are they among so many?

Weymouth's New Testament
"There is a boy here with five barley loaves and a couple of fish: but what is that among so many?"

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
seith to him, A child is here, that hath fyue barli looues and twei fischis; but what ben these among so manye?

Update Bible Version
There is a lad here, who has five barley loaves, and two fish: but what are these among so many?

Webster's Bible Translation
There is a lad here, who hath five barley-loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?

New English Translation
"Here is a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what good are these for so many people?"

New King James Version
"There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?"

New Living Translation
"There's a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?"

New Life Bible
"There is a boy here who has five loaves of barley bread and two small fish. What is that for so many people?"

New Revised Standard
"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?"

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
There is a little lad here, that hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes, - but, these, - what are they, for such numbers?

Douay-Rheims Bible
There is a boy here that hath five barley loaves and two fishes. But what are these among so many?

Revised Standard Version
"There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many?"

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
There ys a lad here which hath fyve barly loves and two fisshes: but what is that amoge so many?

Young's Literal Translation
`There is one little lad here who hath five barley loaves, and two fishes, but these -- what are they to so many?'

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
There is a lad here, yt hath fyue barlye loaues, and two fishes, but what is that amoge so many?

Mace New Testament (1729)
there is a lad here, who hath five barley-loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?

Simplified Cowboy Version
"Is this boy's five biscuits and two pieces of jerky close, Phil?"

Contextual Overview

¹ After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee--that is, the sea of Tiberias. ² And a great number of people went after him because they saw the signs which he did on those who were ill. ³ Then Jesus went up the mountain and was seated there with his disciples. ⁴ Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. ⁵ Lifting up his eyes, Jesus saw a great number of people coming to where he was, and he said to Philip, Where may we get bread for all these people? ⁶ This he said, testing him: for he had no doubt what he himself would do. ⁷ Philip made answer, Bread to the value of two hundred pence would not be enough even to give everyone a little. ⁸ One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to Jesus, ⁹ There is a boy here with five barley cakes and two fishes: but what is that among such a number? ¹⁰ Jesus said, Let the people be seated. Now there was much grass in that place. And those seated on the grass were about five thousand.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

which: Matthew 14:17, Matthew 16:9, Mark 6:38, Mark 8:19, Luke 9:13

barley: Deuteronomy 8:8, Deuteronomy 32:14, 1 Kings 4:28, 2 Kings 7:1, Psalms 81:16, Psalms 147:14, Ezekiel 27:17, 2 Corinthians 8:9, Revelation 6:6

but: John 6:7, John 11:21, John 11:32, 2 Kings 4:42-44, Psalms 78:19, Psalms 78:41

Reciprocal: Numbers 11:22 - General 2 Kings 4:43 - What Proverbs 27:7 - to Matthew 15:33 - to fill

Cross-References

Genesis 2:4
These are the generations of the heaven and the earth when they were made.

Genesis 5:1
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God made man, he made him in the image of God;

Genesis 5:22
And after the birth of Methuselah, Enoch went on in God's ways for three hundred years, and had sons and daughters:

Genesis 5:24
And Enoch went on in God's ways: and he was not seen again, for God took him.

Genesis 6:9
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was an upright man and without sin in his generation: he went in the ways of God.

Genesis 6:15
And this is the way you are to make it: it is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.

Genesis 7:1
And the Lord said to Noah, Take all your family and go into the ark, for you only in this generation have I seen to be upright.

Genesis 10:1
Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: these are the sons which they had after the great flow of waters

Genesis 17:1
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord came to him, and said, I am God, Ruler of all; go in my ways and be upright in all things,

Genesis 48:15
And he gave Joseph a blessing, saying, May the God to whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, gave worship, the God who has taken care of me all my life till this day,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

There is a lad here,.... Who either belonged to Christ and his disciples, and was employed to carry their provisions for them; which, if so, shows how meanly Christ and his disciples lived; or he belonged to some in the multitude; or rather he came here to sell what he had got:

which hath five barley loaves. The land of Canaan was a land of barley, as well as wheat, Deuteronomy 8:8; this sort of grain grew there in plenty, and was in much use; the Jews had a barley harvest, Ruth 1:22, which was at the time of the passover; for on the second day after the passover, the sheaf of the first fruits was waved before the Lord, which was of barley; hence the Targumist on the place just cited, paraphrases it thus;

"they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of the passover, and on the day the children of Israel began to reap the sheaf of the wave offering, which was of barley.''

And it was now about the time of the passover, as appears from John 6:4, and had it been quite the time, and the barley sheaf had been waved, it might have been thought that these loaves were made of the new barley; but though barley was in use for bread among the Jews, as is evident, from the mention that is made of barley loaves and cakes, 2 Kings 4:42; yet it was bread of the coarsest sort, and what the meaner sort of people ate; see Ezekiel 4:12. Yea, barley was used for food for horses and dromedaries, 1 Kings 4:28; and since therefore these loaves were, if not designed for the use of Christ and his twelve apostles, yet for some of his followers, and which they all ate of; it is an instance of the meanness and poverty of them: but however, they had better bread than this, even the bread of life, which is afterwards largely treated of in this chapter, which some of them at least ate of; and as our countryman Mr. Dod used to say,

"brown bread and the Gospel are good fare:''

and it may be further observed, that the number of these loaves were but few; there were but "five" of them, for "five thousand" persons; and these do not seem to be very large ones, since one lad was able to carry them; and indeed, these loaves were no other than cakes, in which form they used to be made:

and two small fishes; there were but "two", and these "small"; it is amazing, that five thousand persons should everyone have something of them, and enough: these fishes seem to be what the Jews c call

מוניני, and which the gloss interprets "small fishes": and by the word which is used of them, they seem to be salted, or pickled fishes, and such it is very probable these were; Nonnus calls them,

ιχθυας οπταλεους, "fishes which were broiled", or perhaps dried in the sun; see Luke 24:42.

But what are they among so many? everyone cannot possibly have a taste, much less any refreshment, still less a meal.

c T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 60. 2. & Sanhedrin, fol. 49. 1.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse John 6:9. There is a lad here — παιδαριον, a little boy, or servant, probably one who carried the apostles' provisions, or who came on purpose to sell his bread and fish.

Five barley loaves — Barley scarcely bore one-third of the value of wheat in the east: see Revelation 6:6. That it was a very mean fare appears from Ezekiel 13:19, where the false prophetesses are said to pollute the name of God for handfuls of barley, i.e. for the meanest reward. And Plutarch, in Apoph. p. 174, speaking concerning the flight of Artaxerxes Mnemon, says he was reduced to such distress as to be obliged to eat barley bread. See Kypke. From this and other circumstances we may plainly perceive that the self-denying doctrine preached by Christ and his apostles was fully exemplified in their own manner of living.

Two small fishes — δυο οψαρια. The word of οψαριον signifies whatever is eaten with bread, to perfect the meal, or to make it easy of deglutition, or to help the digestion. There is no word in the English language for it, which is a great defect. The inhabitants of Scotland, and of the north and north-west of Ireland, use the word kytshen, by which they express what ever is eaten with bread or potatoes, as flesh, fish, butter, milk, eggs, c., no satisfactory etymology of which word I am able to offer. In the parallel places in the other three evangelists, instead of οψαριαι, χθυας is used so that the word evidently means fish in the text of St. John: John 21:5.