Luke 5:4-10

a.The Preparation.

In the imperative, launch out (Luke 5:4), Jesus speaks solely to Peter, as director of the embarkation; the order, let down, is addressed to all. Peter, the head of the present fishing, will one day be head also of the mission.

Not having taken anything during the night, the most favourable time for fishing, they had given up the idea of fishing in the day. Peter's reply, so full of docility, indicates faith already existing. “ I should not think of letting down the net; nevertheless at Thy word...” He calls Jesus ἐπιστάτης, properly Overseer, Master. This word frequently occurs in Luke; it is more general than ῥαββί or διδάσκαλος; it refers to any kind of oversight.

The miraculous draught may be only a miracle of knowledge; Jesus had a supernatural knowledge of a large shoal of fish to be found in this place. There are numerous instances of a similar abundance of fish appearing in an unexpected way. Jesus may, however, have wrought by His own will what is frequently produced by physical circumstances.

The imperf., was breaking, Luke 5:6, indicates a beginning to break, or at least a danger of it. The arrival of their companions prevented this accident. The term μέτοχοι denotes merely participation in the same employment.

In Matthew and Mark, John and James were mending their nets. Luke contains nothing opposed to this.

Meyer thinks Peter's astonishment (Luke 5:8) incomprehensible after all the miracles he had already seen. But whenever divine power leaves the region of the abstract, and comes before our eyes in the sphere of actual facts, does it not appear new? Thus, in Peter's case, the emotion produced by the draught of fishes effaces for the time every other impression. ῎Εξελθε ἀπ᾿ ἐμοῦ. Go out [of the boat, and depart] from me. Peter here employs the more religious expression Lord, which answers to his actual feeling.

The word ἀνήρ, a man, strongly individualizes the idea of sinner.

If the reading ᾗ be preferred to ὧν (Alex.), we must take the word ἄγρα, catch, in the passive sense.

The term κοινωνοί, associates (Luke 5:10), implies more than μέτοχοι, companions (Luke 5:7); it denotes association in a common undertaking.