Bible Lexicons

In the private account P Oxy IV. 736.46, 89 (c. A.D. 1) a half obol and 2½ obols respectively are set down for προσφάγιον, which the editors render ";relish"; (similarly in ib. 739.10, .12). In the same account 61; 52, 52 ὄψον and ὀψάριον are translated ";sauce."; But the plentiful evidence from Hellenistic writers in Wetstein ad John 6:9 would seem to show that ὄψον and ὀψάριον meant ";fish"; predominantly as early as Plato, and ordinarily in later times as in Athenaeus. In the same way, to judge from the papyrus evidence, προσφάγιον is best understood of some staple article of food of the genus fish, rather than of a mere ";relish."; Thus in P Oxy III. 498.33 (ii/A.D.) it is provided that a stone-cutter’s wages are to be so many drachmae a day along with ἄρ ]τον ἕνα καὶ προσφάγιον, and in P Grenf II. 7721 (iii/iv A.D.) (= Selections, p. 121) provision is made ὑπ (ὲρ)] δαπάνης ἐν ψωμίοις καὶ προσφαγίοις (δραχμαὶ) ι ̄ς ̄, ";for outlays in delicacies and foods 16 drachmae."; It would, therefore, be to one of the articles of an ordinary meal that Jesus’ question referred in John 21:5, where the RV rendering is supported by the Lewis Syriac, and by d of the Old Latin (aliquid manducare). See further Field Notes, p. 109, and Abbott Joh Gr. p. 193 f.