Hello, I studied classicis and archaeology in college (rusty knowledge of Greek/Latin) and I'm not affiliated with any religion. I've been reading the Gospel of Mark in Koine and want to know more about different types of New Testament bread and anything we know about the technical manufacturing/distribution of different types of bread/grain/yeast in the area. I've seen people say Jesus and the disciples were carrying around barley loaves, but that's actually not the Greek word (ἄρτος). Also, there are two different baskets used to carry bread in the 5,000 people-fed miracle and the 4,000. Any significance in terms of telling us about where the bread came from or what it was made out of? What started me thinking about all of this was the warning to "beware the levening," which is know is usually interpreted figuratively, but could there have been types of bread/food that Jesus thought were sub-quality or physically harmful in certain areas he visited?
ἄρτος is just a generic word for bread, it doesn't rule out barley, though it does more often indicate wheat bread. The reason people suggest it was barley loaves, is because of John 6:9
Ἔστιν παιδάριον ὧδε ὃς ἔχει πέντε ἄρτους κριθίνους καὶ δύο ὀψάρια· ἀλλὰ ταῦτα τί ἐστιν εἰς τοσούτους;
where κριθίνους indicates barley. Philo, The Special Laws, III.57 seems to indicate barley is a relatively poorer form of bread:
And the reason why the flour is to be made of barley is, perhaps, because the food which is made of barley is of a somewhat ambiguous character, and is suited for the use both of irrational animals and of needy men; and is therefore a sign that a woman who has committed adultery differs in no respect from the beasts, whose connections with one another are promiscuous and incessant; but she who is pure from all such accusations is devoted to that manner of life which befits human beings.
I can't really comment any further on bread production and distribution, not without doing further reading myself, though prima facie I would not think that the two different words for baskets in Mark 6 and 8 are indicating different types of bread in and of themselves.