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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2011
The use of the term άλεεῖς άνθρώπων, “fishers of men” at Mark 1:17 (on which depends Matthew 4:19 but only indirectly Luke 5:10) has often been treated as a self-evident metaphor. “The words of Jesus summon Simon and Andrew to become disciples and heralds of the Kingdom of God,” Vincent Taylor says. Other figures might have sufficed for this dual purpose and the peculiar nature of the metaphor is not explored when the terms “disciples” and “heralds” are used. What is the relationship of disciples to Jesus and how heralds were related to the Kingdom is not made clear although the Markan term may have been intended to do something of this kind. It is insufficient to observe that, since the four men are depicted as fishermen, the summons is appropriately phrased.The metaphor has a Biblical background which provides some clue to the nature of their new calling or, since they are already fishermen, to a new type of fishing and a new catch. Riesenfeld underlines the importance of the phrasing of the call but does not enquire into its meaning.
1 See the use of “selbstverständlich” in the Billerbeck quotation below.
2 V. Taylor, The Gospel According to St. Mark, p. 169. “It is astonishing how widely appraisals of the story can differ” (p. 168). The development suggested below may account for this.
3 H. Riesenfeld, “The Ministry in the New Testament” in A. Fridrichsen (ed.), The Root of the Vine, p. 109. Riesenfeld observes, “Christ is not himself designated a fisher.” There is no suggestion in the Bible that the Messiah casts the net, though Lohmeyer (infra, p. 32, n.6) notes that in Clement of Alexandria Jesus is designated άλιεὺς μερόπων..
4 G. A. Buttrick on Matthew 4:19, Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 7, p. 276.
5 E. Lohmeyer, Das Evangelium des Markus, p. 32. The meaning in Lohmeyer is beneficent but the terms used suggest a cosmogony which lies in a more remote background as advanced by J. Manek and referred to below.
6 H. L. Strack and P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum N.T. aus Talmud und Midrasch, Vol. I, p. 188 on Matthew 4:19.
7 See my The Jesus of the Parables, pp. 70 f. The change in meaning may be found in Ignatius, Magnesians, X.2. where νέαν ζύμην takes the place of Paul's ἄζυμοι in I. Corinthians 5:7,8.
8 J. Manek, “Fishers of Men” in Novum Testamentum, Vol. II, Fasc. 2. (April 1957) pp. 138–141. I am indebted to Dr. K. Stendahl for referring me to this article.
9 Ibid., p. 140.
10 See the references in J. J. Wetstein, Novum Testamentum (1751) under Matthew 4:19 and in Arndt and Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, under άλιεύς. The comparison of the Sophists to anglers has a sense similar to that found in the Rabbis referred to above. See also the references to Diog. Laert. etc. by Nock, A. D. in “Conversion and Adolescence” in Pisciculi (Antike u. Christentum, Ergänzungsband I, 1939), p. 166, to which the author has kindly drawn my attention.Google Scholar
11 E. L. Sukenik, The Dead Sea Scrolls of the Hebrew University, Plate 39.
12 Baumgarten, J. and Mansoor, M. (“Studies in the Hodayot-II,” J.B.L. LXXIV. II. Sept. 1955, p. 193)Google Scholar translate, “And Thou hast placed me in terror/With many fishermen / Who spread a net over the face of the waters / And (with) those who hunt the sons of injustice / And there for judgment hast Thou established me.” M. Burrows, (The Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 408), “Thou didst put me in a dwelling.…” T. H. Gaster (The Dead Sea Scriptures, p. 149), “and though Thou hast placed me full oft / in ready reach of their haul….” This is modified by a more literal version in Gaster's notes (ibid. p. 214, n.3) “And Thou hast placed me in the drag (Heb. magor; cf. Habakkuk 1.15) with many fishermen….” It is a question whether 
is to be read “dwelling” or “terror” as both meanings are possible for 
In the latter case 
would have to be understood in the sense of “over against.” Gaster's “drag” is suggested by the Kal Impf. 
and not by the words 
or 
in Habakkuk 1:15 and seems less likely, but it does suggest the point of view of the fish rather than the fisherman. It is not entirely clear that this is what is meant but the context of judgment is unmistakable and in line with the Old Testament. Baumgarten and Mansoor comment, with reference to Jeremiah 16:16, “From the latter allusion it is clear that the author is here referring to the divine agents of punishment” (ibid., p. 193). The phrase 
is a reproduction of Isaiah 19:8 (except for the vowel 
in 
and so appears in IQIs.a, but is not extant in IQIs.b. Similar lines in column 3, line 26 of the Hodayoth appear to have the context of dread.
13 In the Gospels this is not followed up by the description of a new kind of fishing but rather by the “training” (to use an older phrase) of the disciples. I shall hope to show why this is so.
14 Op. cit., p. 32.
15 M. Dibelius, From Tradition to Gospel (Eng. trans.), p. 109, cf. p. 44.
16 R. Bultmann, Die Geschichte der Synoptischen Tradition, p. 26, cf. p. 50 and E. Klostermann, Das Markusevangelium, p. 14.
17 Klostermann, op. cit., p. 15. Cf. E. Schweizer, “Discipleship and Belief in Jesus as Lord from Jesus to the Hellenistic Church” in New Testament Studies, Vol. 2., No. 2., Nov., 1955, p. 88. The article is a “theological interpretation.” Of the call of Levi he says, “In the call of Jesus, God himself breaks through the barrier to the sinner.” The issue here is not a call of the sinner to repentance but of fishermen to a new kind of fishing.
18 Op. cit., p. 32.
19 M. Goguel, Life of Jesus (Eng. trans.), p. 87. At pp. 324 ff. Goguel resorts to the Johannine explanation but the fact that John makes this pericope intelligible does not offer proof that it so happened.
20 A. Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, p. 369. He does not refer to the term. It may be noted here how giving a Gospel pericope a title (“The Call of the Disciples”) will for decades influence or even determine its exegesis. See instances in The Jesus of the Parables, pp. 60. 81, 110 etc.
21 E. P. Gould, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to St. Mark, p. 18, says, “This is the first instance of parabolic language.” In a sense this is true since the words fit the stated occasion but it is not a similitude. J. Schniewind, Das Evangelium nach Markus, correctly observes that Jesus used parabolic language to stir up the hearers (p. 51).
22 W. E. Bundy, Jesus and the first three Gospels, pp. 70 ff. He designates it, “A highly subjective piece of tradition” and the assumptions are those of “the Christian believer” (p. 71).
23 Cf. Goguel; also J. A. T. Robinson, “Elijah, John and Jesus,” in New Testament Studies, Vol. 4, No. 4, 1958.
24 The phrase τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοû θεοû is properly a technical Christian term (used by Paul in six cases) and is here probably used by Mark of the Christian Gospel (see 1:1) which is good news of salvation in Christ and could hardly have been preached by Christ. At this place it is not possible to get behind it unless we isolate the proclamation in the form, “the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent.”
25 M.-J. Lagrange, Évangile selon Saint Marc, pp. 18 f.
26 Taking Mark's infinitive in this sense and putting deviner in italics.
27 Bundy, for example, makes the story a conversion of “the first third of the apostolic roster into history.” Op. cit., p. 72.
28 With others, Bundy finds (op. cit., p. 72) an echo of I Kings 19:19 ff. But Elijah's call to Elisha, while sudden, is a call to succeed him and we should have to read this into our pericope. This is not what “come after me” means since Jesus is not turning over to them a task he is laying down. The post-resurrection church would so interpret it, which is Bundy's point. My point is that the metaphor in its original sense proved difficult to use in the later situation.
29 The Jesus of the Parables, pp. 101 ff. Schniewind notes the connection with Matthew and asks whether in Mark Jesus uses the term in the Old Testament sense of the impending (kommende) judgment but finds God's judgment completed in the “ministry of the word” (op. cit., p. 51). On the combination of eschatological and ecdesiological interests in Matthew see G. Bornkamm, “Enderwartung und Kirche im Matthäusevangelium,” in W. D. Davies and D. Daube (eds.), The Back ground of the New Testament, pp. 222–260. The function of the final separation and its relation to the Church is brought out in this same connection.
30 The term “fishers” does not appear in John and ἁλιεύω only in the appendix (21:3) in the words of Peter (see below). “Net” does not occur but three different words for fish are used in ch. 21.
31 C. H. Dodd, “The Appearances of the Risen Christ,” in D. E. Nineham (ed.), Studies in the Gospels, pp. 9–35.
32 An interpretation which depends on Jerome (cf. Wetstein, ad. loc), though D. F. Strauss, e.g., has questioned whether Oppian, one of the writers on whom Jerome depends, clearly designates the exact number; see The Life of Jesus, authorized trans. 1865, Vol. II, p. 133. In a later edition (1906, trans, of 4th ed.) Strauss observes, “the ancient legend was fond of occupying its wonder workers with affairs of fishing, as we see in the story related of Pythagoras by Jamblichus and Porphyry” (p. 318).
33 It is a mistake to interpret Peter's, ‘I am going fishing” (21:3) as a despairing decision to return to his former occupation. In the allegorical atmosphere of the passage it is better read as Peter's decision to take the lead in the mission to which he and the others feel themselves called. J. Jeremias has explored the stages by which this became a universal mission and shows that Jesus eliminated the factor of hate from the eschatological expectation (Jesus' Promise to the Nations, Studies in Biblical Theology, No. 24, pp. 40 ff.). The saying in which the Twelve become judges of Israel found in Matthew 19:28 and Luke 22:30 deals with the ultimate function of the fishers in the eschatological denouement, suggesting that this logion belongs to the stage of postponement with Matthew 13:47 ff. Luke has attached the words to others about the Messianic Banquet and made it part of the Last Supper sayings where it has a more appropriate eschatological setting than in Matthew 19. In the diverse settings the service involved differs — in Matthew “following,” in Luke, sharing Christ's trials.
34 R. H. Lightfoot, St. John's Gospel, p. 342, suggests that Luke had to include it here since he has no appearances outside of Jerusalem. This may be a contributory cause but the placing is more purposeful than expedient. The call to Peter alone may be another sign of its resurrection provenance.
35 I would suggest that this term applies to many of the pericopes, some of which have been designated “biographical” and others “epiphany stories.” The former element was not in the modern sense a real interest. There was, however, deep interest in the depiction of the Lord “in the days of His flesh.” For this combined interest in the man Jesus and the Lord Christ the term “Dominical” seems better than “biographical.”
36 E. Schweizer, op. cit., pp. 88 f., notes the eschatological atmosphere. “But Jesus now in reality goes along this path as the ‘eschatological’ Righteous One…. He had taken them with him along this pathway and they were prepared for renunciation for the sake of the dawning Kingdom.” Cf. Lohmeyer (op. cit., p. 32) where the eschatological community impinges on time and space.
37 Schniewind assumes that the metaphor would take the hearers by surprise and would arouse them by its relation to their occupation. The possibility of its direct application in the Biblical sense as a fulfillment passes over into the “ministry of the Word” (Dienst am Wort), op. cit., p. 51. This expression has connotations which better fit the Johannine and Lukan forms and can only receive the force Jesus gave to “fishers of men” if the original call to an eschatological task is understood.
There is one place in which the figure of sheep is used eschatologically, the difficult passage Matthew 25:31–46. It belongs in the same transitional category as the Dragnet, the Son of Man appears as King rather than shepherd, and the apostles do not appear in any capacity.
