9th February 2025, 5th Sunday after the Epiphany

St Luke 5: 1-11

Luke 5:1-11

Jesus calls the disciples to fish for people

5:1Once while Jesus was standing beside the Lake of Gennesaret and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God,

5:2he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets.

5:3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.

5:4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”

5:5Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”

5:6When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to burst.

5:7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.

5:8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’s knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

5:9For he and all who were with him were astounded at the catch of fish that they had taken,

5:10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who are partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”

5:11When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

^[1]Ἐγένετο δὲ ἐν τῷ τὸν ὄχλον ἐπικεῖσθαι αὐτῷ τοῦ ἀκούειν τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν ἑστὼς παρὰ τὴν λίμνην Γεννησαρέτ, 

^[2]καὶ εἶδε δύο πλοῖα ἑστῶτα παρὰ τὴν λίμνην· οἱ δὲ ἁλιεῖς ἀποβάντες ἀπ᾿ αὐτῶν ἀπέπλυναν τὰ δίκτυα.

 ^[3]ἐμβὰς δὲ εἰς ἓν τῶν πλοίων, ὃ ἦν τοῦ Σίμωνος, ἠρώτησεν αὐτὸν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἐπαναγαγεῖν ὀλίγον· καὶ καθίσας ἐδίδασκεν ἐκ τοῦ πλοίου τοὺς ὄχλους.

 ^[4]ὡς δὲ ἐπαύσατο λαλῶν, εἶπε πρὸς τὸν Σίμωνα· ἐπανάγαγε εἰς τὸ βάθος καὶ χαλάσατε τὰ δίκτυα ὑμῶν εἰς ἄγραν. 

^[5]καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ Σίμων εἶπεν αὐτῷ· ἐπιστάτα, δι᾿ ὅλης τῆς νυκτὸς κοπιάσαντες οὐδὲν ἐλάβομεν· ἐπὶ δὲ τῷ ῥήματί σου χαλάσω τὸ δίκτυον.

 ^[6]καὶ τοῦτο ποιήσαντες συνέκλεισαν πλῆθος ἰχθύων πολύ· διερρήγνυτο δὲ τὸ δίκτυον αὐτῶν.

 ^[7]καὶ κατένευσαν τοῖς μετόχοιςτοῖς ἐν τῷ ἑτέρῳ πλοίῳ τοῦ ἐλθόντας συλλαβέσθαι αὐτοῖς· καὶ ἦλθον καὶ ἔπλησαν ἀμφότερα τὰ πλοῖα, ὥστε βυθίζεσθαι αὐτά.

 ^[8]ἰδὼν δὲ Σίμων Πέτρος προσέπεσε τοῖς γόνασιν ᾿Ιησοῦ λέγων· ἔξελθε ἀπ᾿ ἐμοῦ, ὅτι ἀνὴρ ἁμαρτωλός εἰμι, Κύριε·

 ^[9]θάμβος γὰρ περιέσχεν αὐτὸν καὶ πάντας τοὺς σὺν αὐτῷ ἐπὶ τῇ ἄγρᾳ τῶν ἰχθύων ᾗ συνέλαβον, 

^[10]ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ᾿Ιάκωβον καὶ ᾿Ιωάννην, υἱοὺς Ζεβεδαίου, οἳ ἦσαν κοινωνοὶ τῷ Σίμωνι. καὶ εἶπε πρὸς τὸν Σίμωνα ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς· μὴ φοβοῦ· ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ἀνθρώπους ἔσῃ ζωγρῶν.

 ^[11]καὶ καταγαγόντες τὰ πλοῖα ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν, ἀφέντες ἅπαντα ἠκολούθησαν αὐτῷ.

Comments

The periphrastic verbs in the passage have nuances that might go unnoticed.

[1] Ἐγένετο δὲ…: the construction is continued in the next verse, καὶ εἶδε δύο πλοῖα. This is a Semitic idiom which throws emphasis on the second part of the complex sentence, ‘It came to pass that…HE SAW TWO BOATS’.

ἦν ἑστὼς: The form is a periphrastic plupf. of the verb ἵσταμαι, ‘I stand’ (lit. ‘he was’ + ‘having stood’, hence ‘he had stood/ had been standing’). This is exampled in cl. Gk but used also in NT (Blass-Debrunner-Funk, par. 352: ἦν [the impf. of εἰμί] + pf. part. in pass. or less freq. act. voice). The periphrasis here lends force to the idea of ‘standing’ and the duration of this state: ‘he had been standing for quite a while’.

[4] εἰς ἄγραν: ἄγρα, fem., ‘hunt’, ‘fishing’; the prep. phrase (‘to the hunt’) means ‘to hunt fish, go fishing’. Cf. v. 9.

[5] ἐπιστάτα: voc. of ἐπιστάτης, lit. ‘supervisor’; ‘Master’ (EDNT s.v.). (LSJ II.2. s.v. renders the term as ‘Rabbi’.) Only Luke uses the term and always in the voc.

ἐπὶ δὲ τῷ ῥήματί σου: ‘by you word’, ‘by what you say’; ῥῆμα, ‘word’, ‘ that which is spoken’ (cl. Gk poetry & prose: LSJ s.v. 1). It occurs far less often than λόγος in the NT (EDNT s.v. 1 & 2). Greek, as many languages, stresses the difference between word and action; that is the case here, as we shall see. The relation between faith in Jesus’ words and deeds is uppermost.

 [7] συλλαβέσθαι αὐτοῖς: συλλαμβάνω, act., & συλλαμβάνομαι, mid., as here, ‘lay hold of, help to pull’ (cl. Gl: LSJ II.1.a; cl. Gk omits the dat. ‘along with’). The Engl. tr. ‘help them’ is not quite accurate. Cf. v. 9.

[9] συνέλαβον: συλλαμβάνω,‘seize’ (see immed. above).

[10] ἔσῃ ζωγρῶν: the periphrasis (future of εἰμί + pres. part.), ‘you will be fishing, captivating/ capturing’ is a Semitic idiom, and lays stress on duration (Blass-Debrunner-Funk par. 353.7). ζωγρέω, ‘take alive, take captive’ (cl. Gk); cf. ζωγρεῖον, ‘aquarium for fish’ (cl. Gk).