6:37a

But: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as But here introduces what Jesus said. What he said was not what the disciples expected him to say. If you have a connecting word that can be used in this way, use it here. Otherwise you could start 6:37 without a connecting word. For example:

He replied… (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
“You yourselves…” (Good News Bible)

You give them something to eat: The pronoun You is emphatic in the Greek. It is also plural. The Berean Standard Bible has added the word something to make the English natural.

Here are some ways to translate Jesus’ words here:

You yourselves give them something to eat! (Good News Bible)
-or-
It is you who must feed them!

6:37b–c

In the Greek, 6:37b–c is a single rhetorical question. See the General Comment on 6:37b–c at the end of 6:37c for ways to reorder the parts of this question.

This rhetorical question expresses both surprise and mild rebuke. The disciples were astonished that Jesus asked them to feed so many people. The request also seemed foolish. They did not know how they could buy enough food to feed so many people.

Here are several ways to translate this expression:

• As a rhetorical question. For example:

Do you expect us to go and spend two hundred denarii on bread to feed all these people?

• As a statement. For example:

Surely you do not think we should go and spend two hundred silver coins on food in order to feed all these people!

• As a tag question. For example:

Surely you do not think we should go and spend two hundred silver coins on food in order to feed all these people, do you?

• As one exclamatory statement and one rhetorical question. For example, the New International Version says:

That would take eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?

• As a rhetorical question followed by an exclamatory statement. For example, the New Living Translation, 1996 edition says:

“With what?” they asked. “It would take a small fortune to buy food for all this crowd!”

Use a form that is natural to express surprise and rebuke in your language.

6:37b

Should we go out and spend two hundred denarii: The disciples thought that Jesus wanted them to buy food for all the people. They estimated how much money they would need to buy enough food to feed the large crowd. See the next note.

two hundred denarii: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as two hundred denarii refers to two hundred silver Roman coins called “denarii.” Workers in Jesus’ time earned about twenty-five of these coins each month, so it would take about eight months for a worker to earn two hundred of them. Some English versions, such as the Berean Standard Bible, translate this literally as “two hundred denarii.” The Berean Standard Bible translates this Greek phrase as “eight months of a man’s wages” and the New International Version, 2011 edition translates it as “more than half a year’s wages” in order to show how long it took for a worker to earn two hundred denarii.

Most readers today will not know how much money “two hundred denarii” refers to. The main idea is that is was a large sum of money, probably much more than the disciples were able to pay.

Here are some other ways to translate the phrase two hundred denarii:

two hundred silver coins (Good News Bible)
-or-
almost a year’s wages (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
We would all have to work a month to earn enough money (New Century Version)
-or-
a small fortune (New Living Translation, 1996 edition)

You should avoid translating this phrase with a term for the particular kind of currency used in your area, for two reasons:

(a) It would not be historically accurate.

(b) When the value of your currency changes your translation would become outdated.

6:37c

to give all of them bread to eat: The pronoun them refers to the crowd of people.

The clause to give all of them bread to eat functions as a purpose clause. The purpose for spending two hundred denarii on bread would be to feed the people. So in many languages it may be natural to translate this as:

so that we can give it to them to eat
-or-
in order to feed them

bread: Bread was the most common and inexpensive food at that time. In this context, the word bread probably refers to round loaves of flat bread. The Greek word is plural here and in 6:38a. It could be translated as “loaves,” or “loaves of bread” in both places. Some languages may use a plural form of bread like “breads.”

If there is no word that people know for bread, you may translate bread as “food” (as in the New Living Translation). However, in 6:38c the disciples counted units (loaves) of bread. If you use a generic word such as “food” here, you should consider whether it is natural in your language to count units or servings of it.

You should not substitute a different kind of food, because these verses are talking about an event that actually happened. Refer to how you translated bread in 2:26b.

In some areas, people may not be familiar with bread. In other areas, they may consider bread to be a snack rather than a staple food. If this is true in your area, you may want to add a footnote. For example, the TRT has this footnote:

Bread and fish were the main foods for the Jews. These loaves of bread were round, thick and flat in shape. Five of them would be enough to feed about two people one meal.

General Comment on 6:37b–c

It may be more natural in your language to give the cost of the bread at the beginning or end of these verse parts. For example:

They said to him, “That would take eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” (New International Version)
-or-
They asked, “Do you want us to feed them by going and buying bread at the cost of two hundred silver coins?”

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