John 6:5

πολὺς ὄχλος ἔρχεται, not the same crowd as was mentioned in John 6:2, else the article would have been inserted, but a Passover caravan coming from some other direction, and probably guided to Jesus' retirement by some of those who had followed in the first crowd. Seeing the crowd approaching, He initiates the idea of giving them a meal. The synoptic account is different. λέγει πρὸς τὸν φίλιππον. Why to Philip? The question was put to Philip not because he happened at the moment to be nearest to Jesus (Alford); nor, as Bengel suggests, because he had charge of the commissariat, “fortasse Philippus rem alimentariam curabat inter discipulos”; nor “because he knew the country best”; nor only, as Euthymius says, ἵνα τὴν ἀπορίαν ὁμολογήσας, ἀκριβέστερον καταμάθη τοῦ μέλλοντος γενέσθαι θαύματος τὸ μέγεθος; but Cyril is right who finds the explanation in the character of Philip and in the word πειράζων of John 6:6 [γυμνάζων εἰς πίστιν τὸν μαθήτην]. Philip was apparently a matter-of-fact person (John 14:8), a quick reckoner and good man of business, and therefore perhaps more ready to rely on his own shrewd calculations than on unseen resources. This weakness Jesus gives him an opportunity of conquering, by putting the question πόθεν ἀγοράσωμεν ἄρτους; “Whence are we to buy bread?” [lit. loaves]. πόθεν may either mean “from what village,” or “from what pecuniary resources”. Cf. πόθεν γὰρ ἔσται βιοτά; Soph., Philoct., 1159.