John 6:7

7 Philip answered, "Half a year's wages wouldn't buy enough bread for them -- each one would get only a bite!"

John 6:7 Meaning and Commentary

John 6:7

Philip answered him
Very quick and short, and in a carnal and unbelieving way:

two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them.
Two hundred pence, or "Roman denarii", which may be here meant, amount to six pounds five shillings of our money; and this sum is mentioned, because it might be the whole stock that was in the bag, or that Christ and his disciples had; or because this was a round sum, much in use among the Jews; (See Gill on Mark 6:37). Or this may be said by Philip, to show how impracticable it was to provide for such a company; that supposing they had two hundred pence to lay out in this way; though where should they have that, he suggests? yet if they had it, as much bread as that would purchase would not be sufficient:

that everyone of them might take a little;
it would be so far from giving them a meal, or proper refreshment, that everyone could not have a small bit to taste of, or in the least to stay or blunt his appetite: a penny, with the Jews, would buy as much bread as would serve ten men; so that two hundred pence would buy bread enough for two thousand men; but here were three thousand more, besides women and children, who could not have been provided for with such a sum of money.

John 6:7 In-Context

5 so when Yeshua looked up and saw that a large crowd was approaching, he said to Philip, "Where will we be able to buy bread, so that these people can eat?"

6 (Now Yeshua said this to test Philip, for Yeshua himself knew what he was about to do.)

7 Philip answered, "Half a year's wages wouldn't buy enough bread for them -- each one would get only a bite!"

8 One of the talmidim, Andrew the brother of Shim`on Kefa, said to him,

9 "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?"