Matthew 4:19
Encyclopedia
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
has just begun preaching in Galilee
Galilee
Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...
and has encountered the fishermen Simon Peter and Andrew
Saint Andrew
Saint Andrew , called in the Orthodox tradition Prōtoklētos, or the First-called, is a Christian Apostle and the brother of Saint Peter. The name "Andrew" , like other Greek names, appears to have been common among the Jews from the 3rd or 2nd century BC. No Hebrew or Aramaic name is recorded for him...
. In this verse he calls the pair to join him.
The original Koine Greek
Koine Greek
Koine Greek is the universal dialect of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity , developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic....
, according to Westcott and Hort
The New Testament in the Original Greek
The New Testament in the Original Greek is the name of a Greek language version of the New Testament published in 1881. It is also known as the Westcott and Hort text, after its editors Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort...
, reads:
- και λεγει αυτοις δευτε οπισω μου
- και ποιησω υμας αλιεις ανθρωπων
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:
- And he saith unto them, Follow me,
- and I will make you fishers of men.
The World English Bible
World English Bible
The World English Bible is a public domain translation of the Bible that is currently in draft form. Work on the World English Bible began in 1997 and was known as the American Standard Version 1997...
translates the passage as:
- He said to them, "Come after me,
- and I will make you fishers for men."
For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 4:19
The phrase "fishers of men," also at Mark 1:17, is one of the most well known lines in the entire New Testament, and the most important metaphor for evangelism
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....
. The image probably had an important role in the adoption of the Ichthys
Ichthys
Ichthys, from Koine Greek: , is the Greek word for "fish"....
as a symbol of early Christianity. The reference has also often been moved from the disciples to Jesus, with him being called the "fisher of men," and the image of Jesus as a fisherman is second only to that of Jesus as a shepherd
Shepherd
A shepherd is a person who tends, feeds or guards flocks of sheep.- Origins :Shepherding is one of the oldest occupations, beginning some 6,000 years ago in Asia Minor. Sheep were kept for their milk, meat and especially their wool...
.
The translation "fishers of men" is well known and used by most authors, but not wholly accurate. In the Greek it is halieis anthropon, but modern scholars realize that anthropon does not just refer to men, but to all of humanity. Translators also prefer to avoid the word fisher. While it was a word common at the time the KJV was written, today it is not a standard English word; fisherman
Fisherman
A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishermen and fish farmers. The term can also be applied to recreational fishermen and may be used to describe both men...
is the standard term. For several centuries quoting this verse was one of the only times the word fisher would be used. In recent years fisher has gained some currency as a gender neutral term for fishermen.
A similar reference to fishing occurs at Jeremiah 16:15, upon which this passage might be based. In Jeremiah the reference is to hunting down sinners, in the Gospels it seems to be a milder metaphor of saving souls. The basic interpretation of the metaphor as referring to the disciples working to catch souls for Jesus as they had previously caught fish is universally agreed upon, there are, however, a number of views of the exact meaning of the metaphor. The metaphor has a somewhat different meaning depending on one's view of the type of fishing the disciples participated in. Wallace argues that the common view of fishing with a line and hook and bringing each fish in individually is misplaced, Simon and Andrew would have used nets to fish and would have brought in large numbers of fish at once through grand acts. Wuellner presents an alternate view arguing that the disciples may have caught fish individually, and even by hand. Manek believes that to fully appreciate the metaphor one must understand how the sea was viewed at the time. He argues that throughout the Old Testament the sea is presented as unholy, to create life God first needed to push away the seas, and in stories, such as that of Jonah
Jonah
Jonah is the name given in the Hebrew Bible to a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel in about the 8th century BC, the eponymous central character in the Book of Jonah, famous for being swallowed by a fish or a whale, depending on translation...
, the depths of the sea are portrayed as being synonymous with the underworld. Thus the act of fishing brings the fish from the domain of sin and death to that of God. Similarly the disciples are tasked with bringing souls from sin and evil into the domain of God. The water reference might also be linked to the idea of baptism
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
, which in Matthew 28:19 is explicitly linked to the disciples' mission.
Manek also notes that some question whether the metaphor has the universal meaning that is usually understood. Some scholars believe that Jesus only called Simon and Andrew to be fishers because they already had these skills, that is Jesus had met a teacher he would have asked them to teach for him and if he had met a soldier he would have asked him to do battle for him.
The term "follow me" refers to following as a disciple would a Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
. Any good Rabbi or teacher would have a group of disciples around him learning and doing tasks for their master. France notes that Jesus' statement is unusual as it invites the disciples to take an active part in his ministry. While both Greek and Jewish religious leaders were traditionally surrounded by a group of disciples it was more common for the disciples to search out a teacher, and for a teacher to express indifference to their followers. This verse clearly depicts Jesus' actively recruiting his followers.
As such a famous verse it has appeared a number of times in art and culture. Among literary works that reference the verse are Chaucer's "Summoner's Tale", Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, later George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron, FRS , commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was a British poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement...
's Don Juan
Don Juan (Byron)
Don Juan is a satiric poem by Lord Byron, based on the legend of Don Juan, which Byron reverses, portraying Juan not as a womanizer but as someone easily seduced by women. It is a variation on the epic form. Byron himself called it an "Epic Satire"...
, Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....
's Harold, Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel by James Joyce, first serialised in the magazine The Egoist from 1914 to 1915, and published first in book format in 1916 by B. W. Huebsch, New York. The first English edition was published by the Egoist Press in February 1917...
, and G.K. Chesterton's "The Innocence of Father Brown."