^6:1After this¹ Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberias).²^6:2A large crowd was following him because they were observing the miraculous signs he was performing on the sick. ^6:3So Jesus went on up the mountainside³ and sat down there with his disciples. ^6:4(Now the Jewish feast of the Passover⁴ was near.)⁵^6:5Then Jesus, when he looked up⁶ 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 Jesus⁷ said this to test him, for he knew what he was going to do.)⁸^6:7Philip replied,⁹ “Two hundred silver coins worth¹⁰ of bread would not be enough for them, for each one to get a little.” ^6:8One of Jesus’ disciples,¹¹ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ^6:9“Here is a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what good¹² are these for so many people?”

^6:10Jesus said, “Have¹³ the people sit down.” (Now there was a lot of grass in that place.)¹⁴ So the men¹⁵ sat down, about five thousand in number. ^6:11Then 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,¹⁶ as much as they wanted. ^6:12When they were all satisfied, Jesus¹⁷ said to his disciples, “Gather up the broken pieces that are left over, so that nothing is wasted.” ^6:13So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves¹⁸ left over by the people who had eaten.

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John 6:11: Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.

Footnotes

1 Again, μετὰ ταῦτα (meta tauta) is a vague temporal reference. How Jesus got from Jerusalem to Galilee is not explained, which has led many scholars (e.g., Bernard, Bultmann, and Schnackenburg) to posit either editorial redaction or some sort of rearrangement or dislocation of material (such as reversing the order of chaps. 5 and 6, for example). Such a rearrangement of the material would give a simple and consistent connection of events, but in the absence of all external evidence it does not seem to be supportable. R. E. Brown (John [], 1:) says that such an arrangement is attractive in some ways but not compelling, and that no rearrangement can solve all the geographical and chronological problems in John.
2 This is a parenthetical note by the author. Only John in the New Testament refers to the Sea of Galilee by the name Sea of Tiberias (see also John 21:1), but this is correct local usage. In the mid-20’s Herod completed the building of the town of Tiberias on the southwestern shore of the lake; after this time the name came into use for the lake itself.
3 Up on the mountainside does not necessarily refer to a particular mountain or hillside, but may simply mean “the hill country” or “the high ground,” referring to the high country east of the Sea of Galilee (known today as the Golan Heights).
4 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.
5 This is a parenthetical note by the author.
6 Grk “when he lifted up his eyes” (an idiom).
7 Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
8 This is a parenthetical note by the author.
9 Grk “Philip answered him.”
10 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.
11 Grk “one of his disciples.”
12 Grk “but what are these”; the word “good” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.
13 Grk “Make.”
14 This is a parenthetical note by the author (suggesting an eyewitness recollection).
15 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).
16 Grk “likewise also (he distributed) from the fish.”
17 Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 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.