Luke 5:11

Luke 5:11. They left all. The special call to James and John (Matthew 4:21) probably intervened

Followed him. Luke thus indicates that they thenceforth constantly attended Him. The whole occurrence was allegorized very early: the boat being taken as representing the Church; the net, doctrine; the sea, the heathen world; the bursting of the net, heresies. The fish was a favorite symbol among the early Christians, especially as the initial letters of the Greek phrase: Jesus Christ, son of God, Saviour, made up the word meaning fish (Ιχθυς). Much of this is fanciful. The miracle after the resurrection (John 21), in which Peter was equally prominent, when the Shepherd's duty was added to that of the Fisher, forms a parallel and contrast to this one. The earlier miracle is ‘symbolical of the gathering of men into the outward kingdom of God on earth, from which they may be lost;' the later one of ‘the gathering of the elect souls into the kingdom of glory, none of whom will be lost.' Trench (after Augustine).