Luke 5:1-11

V.

(1-11) And it came to pass... — See Notes on Matthew 4:18. The narrative here has so many points in common with that in St. Matthew and St. Mark (Mark 1:16) that it has been supposed by most commentators to be a different report of the same facts. It is supposed to be all but incredible that the call to the four disciples, the promise that they should be “fishers of men,” their leaving all and following their Master, could have been repeated after comparatively so short an interval. On the other hand, St. Luke places it after the healing of Simon’s wife’s mother; St. Mark and St. Matthew place what they relate before, and the miraculous draught of fishes and Peter’s confession are singularly distinctive features. Their narrative, again, is unconnected with our Lord’s preaching to the people, with which this opens. On the whole we cannot go farther than saying that there is a slight presumption against the hypothesis of identity. On the assumption of difference we may infer that while our Lord went by Himself to preach the gospel of the kingdom to “the other cities,” the disciples returned, as they did after the Resurrection, to their old manner of life, and were now called again to their higher work.

The lake of Gennesaret. — St. Luke is the only Evangelist who thus describes the Sea of Galilee. On the land of Gennesaret, see Note on Matthew 14:34.