John 6:9

A lad [π α ι δ α ρ ι ο ν]. Diminutive. Only here in the New Testament. 28 Only John mentions the lad.

Barley [κ ρ ι θ ι ν ο υ ς]. A detail peculiar to John. The word occurs in the New Testament only here and ver. 13. An inferior sort of bread is indicated by the term. Pliny and some of the Jewish writers describe barley as food fit for beasts. Suetonius speaks of a turgid rhetorician as a barley orator, inflated like barley in moisture : and Livy relates how cohorts which had lost their standards were ordered barley for food. Fishes [ο ψ α ρ ι α]. The word occurs only here and at John 21:9. The Synoptists use ijcquev. The A. V., small fishes, is intended to render the diminutive. 29 The word means anything that is eaten with bread, and may apply to meat generally, or to what is eaten with bread as a relish. Homer speaks of an onion as a relish [ο ψ ο ν] for drink (" Iliad, " 11, 630). The term was applied to fish par excellence. Fish became among the Greeks a chief dainty to gourmands, so that Demosthenes describes a glutton and spendthrift as one who is extravagant in fish.

But what are they among so many? Peculiar to John, though the idea is implied in Luke 9:13.