Fish
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G4371 names something eaten with bread and can refer to fish in its sole New Testament setting. John 21:5 records Jesus calling from the shore and asking the disciples whether they have any food or fish.
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Full entry for προσφάγιον (G4371) · Open the biblical lexicon
G4371 names something eaten with bread and can refer to fish in its sole New Testament setting. John 21:5 records Jesus calling from the shore and asking the disciples whether they have any food or fish.
The BSB source-word alignment has 1 aligned row for this entry. Common renderings include fish (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at John 21:5. Its strongest book concentrations include John (1).
G4371 names something eaten with bread and can refer to fish in its sole New Testament setting. John 21:5 records Jesus calling from the shore and asking the disciples whether they have any food or fish. The governed form is an accusative singular noun, and this one question is the entire direct lexical evidence. The catch, charcoal fire, bread, fish, meal, recognition, and later conversation belong to the chapter's context; they are not additional occurrences of this word.
The disciples answer no after an unsuccessful night. Jesus then directs the cast that produces many fish, and he invites them to breakfast after they reach shore. The scene presents real hunger, work, failure, provision, recognition, and fellowship. Yet this rare noun cannot establish a universal promise of commercial success, miraculous supply, vocational guidance, or restoration. It does not prove what Jesus knew by means of the question, define the catch's symbolism, or make material abundance the measure of faith.
Pastoral use should stay small enough for the evidence. Jesus addresses tired workers about an ordinary need within a larger resurrection appearance. Teachers may observe that the risen Jesus meets disciples amid labor and a meal, but they should not shame people facing hunger, unemployment, disability, debt, burnout, or an unanswered prayer. Practical care, fair work, food assistance, rest, medical care, and truthful acknowledgment of need remain compatible with faith.
One direct governed form appears in Jesus' shore-side question in John 21:5. The rest of the breakfast scene is contextual support, not broader lexical distribution.
Children, do you have any fish?
The sole direct occurrence names the food Jesus asks whether the disciples possess. The answer is negative.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. A relish or delicacy eaten with bread, specifically cooked fish as accompaniment rather than main dish.
A relish or delicacy eaten with bread, specifically cooked fish as accompaniment rather than main dish.
(φαγεῖν), Hellenistic for ὄψον ὀψάριον) a relish or dainty (esp, cooked fish), to be eaten with bread: Jhn.21:5 (have ye taken any fish, Field, Notes, 109; Abbott, Essays, 105; cf. M, Pr., 170n; MM, Exp., xxi).
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
1 Greek text appearance shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
anything eaten with bread
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 1 case and number pattern. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
προσφάγιον is built from these roots:
G4371 contributes one small but concrete detail to John 21: Jesus asks tired disciples whether they have food, and they answer no. The scene then moves into a catch and a shared breakfast, but those developments come from the narrative rather than from a hidden meaning inside the noun. That distinction protects both Scripture and people. A teacher can affirm that resurrection life is not indifferent to bodies, work, hunger, disappointment, and fellowship without promising that every empty net will soon become full.
The church may respond through meals, fair pay, rest, practical assistance, and patient presence. It should not treat lack as unbelief, abundance as divine endorsement, or a miraculous narrative as a technique for controlling outcomes.
John.21.5
The sole governed form is an accusative singular noun, G4371. Lexical witnesses allow the sense of food eaten with bread or fish, and the governed translation uses fish because of John 21's setting. One form cannot establish a broader semantic pattern, symbolic system, or preferred translation in other contexts.
Scripture often joins divine care to ordinary food, hospitality, labor, and dependence, but G4371 itself supplies no direct cross-Testament chain. Such connections must be presented as themes governed by their own passages.
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