Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Luke 5:10

κοινωνοί, ‘associates’ in profits, &c. comp. Luke 5:7.

μὴ φοβοὺ. Accordingly, on another occasion, when Peter sees Jesus walking on the sea, so far from crying Depart from me, he cries “Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come to Thee on the water” (Matthew 14:28); and when he saw the Risen Lord standing in the misty morning on the shore of the Lake “he cast himself into the sea” to come to Him (John 21:7). These blessed words μὴ φοβοῦ, so characteristic of the Gospel (Matthew 10:26; Matthew 10:31; Matthew 14:27; Matthew 28:5; Mark 5:36; Mark 6:50) seem to be favourite words with St Luke (Luke 1:13; Luke 1:30; Luke 2:10; Luke 8:50; Luke 12:4; Luke 12:7; Luke 12:32; Luke 24:36; Acts 18:9; Acts 27:24).

ἔσῃ ζωγρῶν. Literally, ‘thou shalt be catching alive (ζωός, ἀγρεύω). If the Emperor Julian had attended to the meaning of the verb his sneer that the ‘men’ so ‘caught’ would die, like fishes out of water, would have become pointless. In Jeremiah 16:16 the fishers draw out men to death, and in Amos 4:2; Habakkuk 1:14, “men are made as the fishes of the sea” by way of punishment. Here the word seems to imply the contrast between the fish that lay glittering there in dead heaps, and men who should be captured not for death (James 1:14), but for life. But Satan too captures men alive (2 Timothy 2:26, the only other passage where the verb occurs). From this and the parable of the seine or haulingnet (Matthew 13:47) came the favourite early Christian symbol of the ‘Fish.’ “We little fishes,” says Tertullian, “after our Fish (ΙΧΘΥΣ, i.e. Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς θεοῦ Υἱὸς Σωτήρ) are born in the water (of baptism).” The prophecy was first fulfilled to Peter, when 3000 were converted by his words at the first Pentecost. In a hymn of St Clement of Alexandria we find “O fisher of mortals who are being saved, Enticing pure fish for sweet life from the hostile wave.” Thus, He who “spread the fisher’s net over the palaces of Tyre and Sidon, gave into the fisher’s hand the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” “He caught orators by fishermen, and made out of fishermen his orators.” We find a similar metaphor used by Socrates, Xen. Mem. II. 6, “Try to be good and to catch the good. I will help you, for I know the art of catching men.”

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Luke 5:10

Old Testament

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