Luke 5:1-3

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The General Situation.

This description furnishes a perfect frame to the scene that follows. The words, καὶ αὐτός..., He was also standing there, indicate the inconvenient position in which He was placed by the crowd collected at this spot.

The details in Luke 5:2 are intended to explain the request which Jesus makes to the fishermen. The night fishing was at an end (Luke 5:5). And they had no intention of beginning another by daylight; the season was not favourable. Moreover, they had washed their nets (ἀπέπλυναν is the true reading; the imperf. in B. D. is a correction), and their boats were drawn up upon the strand (ἑστῶτα). If the fishermen had been ready to fish, Jesus would not have asked them to render a service which would have interfered with their work. It is true that Matthew and Mark represent them as actually engaged in casting their nets. But these two evangelists omit the miraculous draught altogether, and take us to the final moment when Jesus says to them: “ I will make you fishers of men. ” Jesus makes a pulpit of the boat which His friends had just left, whence He casts the net of the word over the crowd which covers the shore. Then, desiring to attach henceforth these young believers to Himself with a view to His future work, He determines to give them an emblem they will never forget of the magnificent success that will attend the ministry for the love of which He invites them to forsake all; and in order that it may be more deeply graven on their hearts, He takes this emblem from their daily calling.