Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 1:17
And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
And Jesus said unto them, come ye after me,…. Leave your worldly employments, and become my disciples,
and I will make you to become fishers of men: which will be a much more excellent and honourable employment, as men, and the souls of men, are more excellent, and of more worth than fishes;
[See comments on Mt 4:19].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Become (). Mark has this word not in Matthew. It would be a slow and long process, but Jesus could and would do it. He would undertake to make fishers of men out of fishermen. Preachers are made out of laymen who are willing to leave their business for service for Christ.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
To become ()
An addition of Mark.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And Jesus said unto them,” (kai eipen autois ho lesous) “And Jesus called out to them,” for help, for service, as surely as God called Isaiah, Isa 6:8; and Samuel, 1Sa 3:4-10; and Moses, Exo 3:1-12; and Abraham, Gen 12:1-5.
2) “Come ye after me,” (deute opiso mou) “You (two) come after (to follow after) me,” to do my bidding. He still calls.
3) “And I will make you to become fishers of men,” (kai poieso humas genesthia haleeis anthropon) “And I will make you all (both) to become fishers of men (of human beings).” The term “to become” implies a gradual process of training, Mat 4:18-19; Luk 5:10-11.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
Ver. 17. See Trapp on “ Mat 4:19 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
17. ] is here inserted before for minute accuracy.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mar 1:17 . : I will make you become , implying a gradual process of training; therefore the disciples called as early as possible.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Come. This call explains Act 1:21, Act 1:22. The official mission comes liter, in Mar 3:17, &c.
to become fishers of men. The likeness is not conveyed by the Figure of speech Simile, or stated by Metaphor, but is implied by the Figure of speech Hypocatastasis. See App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
17.] is here inserted before for minute accuracy.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
fishers: Eze 47:10, Mat 4:19, Mat 4:20, Luk 5:10, Act 2:38-41
Reciprocal: Mat 10:2 – Simon Mat 13:47 – a net Mat 19:27 – we have forsaken Mar 2:14 – Follow me
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
CONDITIONS OF SUCCESSFUL SERVICE
And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
Mar 1:17
The Saviours promise is most reassuring. Christ was the Master Fisher of men, and He undertakes to make us fishers like Himself, if only we will come after Him. What then are the conditions for serving Christ?
I. There must be personal devotion to the Lord Jesus.Our service must be all for Christ. We are all called to serve. All our service must be unto Him. Love for Christ, not enthusiasm for humanity, must be our motive. We are His soldiers and servants, bought by His redeeming love. The importance of this devotion to Christ lies in many directions:
(a) It keeps us from being too much engrossed in our own corner of the vineyard. It delivers us from a narrow sectarian or congregational spirit. If we are working primarily for Christ, we shall recognise as fellow-labourers all others who are working for Him. It is only natural that our church, our schools, our branch of work should have a large place in our hearts, but let us see that Christ has always the first place.
(b) Then it keeps us from being too anxious as to results. If our work is for Him, faithfulness is everything; success may be as Christ thinks best. Some men are set to plough and sow, others to reap and gather the harvest. It is enough for the servant if he is sure that he is doing the Masters bidding. Duties are ours, results belong to God.
(c) It keeps us working on right lines. We are often tempted to think that the end justifies the means, and in our anxiety to win men we may use means that God cannot bless.
(d) Then we shall live behind our work, not upon it. We shall live upon the Master, not upon our service. This is most important.
II. There must be increasing dependence upon God the Holy Ghost.This follows from our devotion to Christ. Our dependence upon the Holy Spirit should be so absolute that in one sense the Holy Spirit is the agent, and we are only instruments. Our aim is to be meet for the Masters use. It is the Master who uses. The vessel can do nothing except hold and carry what it receives. In a double sense it is not its own. It cannot lift or move itself.
III. We must be filled with true love for men.Not every philanthropist is a Christian, but every true Christian is a philanthropist. If our love spring from the right source, it will flow out in true love for men. We shall love one another with a pure heart fervently. This love of men will show itself in many ways.
(a) We shall have an intelligent sympathy with their real needs. If asked for bread we shall not offer a stone. There is only one Bread of Life. We shall have nothing to do with modern substitutes for the Gospel.
(b) There will be a magnificent hopefulness about our work. Love is always hopeful. Our love for men will make us cling to them, and never give up. What a splendid programme is the programme of the Gospel! We have it sketched out in the text of our Saviours first sermon at Nazareth. See the persons reachedthe poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, the blind, the bruised. To these we are sent.
(c) And there will be plenty of aggressive enterprise.When He gives the word we shall not fear to launch out into the deep.
Rev. F. S. Webster.
Illustration
The nature of the call is unique. It is wonderfully absolute and authoritative. It asks entire submissionperfect obedience. It invites to a position of subordination. Come after Me. It is notCome with Me; enter into partnership with Me, that we may together carry out and carry forward this great enterprisethe Kingdom of God. No; that is not it. A kingdom He had come to establish, but it was not to be an oligarchy; and as little was it to be a republic. It was to be a monarchy. So Christ begins, as He means to proceed. He is King, and will be; and besides Him there is, and there will be, no other. All in the Kingdom come after Him. It was so, it is so, and it evermore will be so.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
7
Using their own occupation as a basis for his figures of speech, Jesus compared the proposed work of these men with what they had been doing. They were still to be fishers, but were to fish after men with the bait of the Gospel.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mar 1:17. Come ye after me. A more literal rendering of the command recorded by Matthew: Follow me.
To become. More strictly accurate than Mat 4:19, hence not copied nor condensed from that account.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Mar 1:17-20. Come, and I will make you fishers of men I will enable you to draw them into my true church by the net of my gospel. And straightway Upon his call; leaving their nets, they followed him From this time they forsook their employ, and constantly attended him. Happy they who follow Christ at the first call! When he had gone thence, he saw James See on Mat 4:21. Mending their nets, which they had washed, Luk 5:2. The Greek word, , here rendered mending, or refitting, signifies also preparing, or making.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. 18 And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.
In my mind this passage displays a basis for the call of God upon a man for ministry. This was not a call to salvation, indeed one might wonder if that had not already happened in these men’s lives. This was a call to training, a call to follow Him and a call to learn of Him.
There had to have been some decision in their minds to drop what they were doing and to respond to this call.
The “come ye” was not just an invitation, but it was an imperative, a command, or an order to action. Again, it would seem that there had been interaction before this occasion, otherwise why would two intelligent brothers follow the command of a total stranger.
The term “followed” has the thought of not only coming along behind, but that of doing so as a disciple. These men understood that they were going to be trained as fishers of men. They seemed to understand what was coming in their lives and they accepted this call upon their life.
So men and women today understand that call to minister as a setting aside of present situations and going off to follow one that will train them. One of the men of Moody’s day, indeed it may have been Moody himself said something along the lines that God doesn’t call prepared men; he prepares the men He calls.
This is important to understand. You may be trained in a certain field, but when God calls you He may have other plans for your life. He might use you in your field of training but from observation of life, He seldom does.He wants you prepared as He wants you rather than as you are. If you are reading this and God has been prodding you to consider ministry rather than the occupation you are in or might be preparing for, don’t worry about dropping your nets and following Him, He certainly knows better than you.
In my early Christian life I was a television repairman. When God started moving me toward ministry I of course checked into missionary aviation and radio. I was a good technician so God must want me fixing radios for Him. Nope, that door was slammed shut when I tried to open it.
I continued to pray and consider, and realized that He had other plans for me. It turns out He used that technician training to support us through school and many non-paying ministries. He knows MUCH better than you what He wants of you. When He calls, just drop your nets and follow. It is a simple formula.
We might add Joh 1:35-42 to our understanding of the call we have just covered. 35 “Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; 36 And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! 37 And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. 38 Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou? 39 He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour. 40 One of the two which heard John [speak], and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. 42 And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.”
Andrew and Peter certainly did know of the Christ before they were called by him to be disciples. Andrew had been following John and knew of the coming Messiah.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
Simon (Peter) and Andrew had met Jesus previously (Joh 1:35-42). Mark stressed the urgency of Jesus’ call and the immediacy of the disciples’ response. Normally young men who wanted to learn from a rabbi sought one out, but Jesus called Simon and Andrew to participate in an urgent task with Him.
"Follow me" meant "come behind me as a disciple." It was an invitation, but in view of who Jesus was it had the force of a command. These men would have understood it as a call to become a permanent disciple of Jesus. [Note: Edersheim, 1:474.] The figure of fishing people out of divine judgment comes from the Old Testament (Jer 16:16; Eze 29:4-5; Eze 38:4; Amo 4:2; Hab 1:14-17). God was the fisher of men. Likewise the sea had a metaphorical meaning of sin and death (Isa 57:20-21). This illustration would have appealed to fishermen. Jesus was calling these men to assist Him in delivering people from divine judgment by taking the gospel to them. As fishing, this calling would also involve hard work, self-sacrifice, and skill.
"First, the call came after the open breach with, and initial persecution of, the Jewish authorities. It was, therefore, a call to fellowship in His peculiar relationship to the Synagogue. Secondly, it necessitated the abandonment of all their former occupations, and, indeed, of all earthly ties. (Mat 4:20; Mat 4:22) Thirdly, it was from the first, and clearly, marked as totally different from a call to such discipleship, as that of any other Master in Israel. It was not to learn more of doctrine, nor more fully to follow out a life-direction already taken, but to begin and to become, something quite new, of which their former occupation offered an emblem." [Note: Ibid., 1:474-75.]
"Jesus did not invent the term ’fishers of men.’ In that day, it was a common description of philosophers and other teachers who ’captured men’s minds’ through teaching and persuasion." [Note: Wiersbe, 1:112.]
The brothers’ response was admirably immediate (Gr. euthys). They began to follow Jesus by quitting their jobs as fishermen. Their commitment to Jesus increased as time passed. There is a strong emphasis on discipleship in the second Gospel. Evidently Simon and Andrew believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but they had much to learn about His full identity (cf. Joh 3:22-30).
"Precisely because Jesus has come fishing becomes necessary." [Note: Lane, p. 68.]