Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 5

And it came to pass...—See Notes on Matthew 4:18-22. The narrative here has so many points in common with that in Matthew and Mark (Mark 1:16–20) that most commentators have supposed it to be a different report of the same events. It is considered almost incredible that the call to the four disciples, the promise that they should be “fishers of men,” their leaving everything, and their following their Master could have been repeated after such a comparatively short interval.

On the other hand, Luke places it after the healing of Simon’s wife’s mother; Mark and Matthew place what they relate before, and the miraculous draught of fishes and Peter’s confession are uniquely distinctive features. Again, their narrative is unconnected with our Lord’s preaching to the people, with which this account opens. On the whole, we cannot go further than saying that there is a slight presumption against the hypothesis of identity. On the assumption of difference, we may infer that while our Lord went by himself to preach the gospel of the kingdom to “the other cities,” the disciples returned, as they did after the Resurrection, to their old manner of life, and were now called again to their higher work.

The lake of Gennesaret.—Luke is the only Evangelist who describes the Sea of Galilee this way. On the land of Gennesaret, see Note on Matthew 14:34.

Two ships.—Better, boats, or little ships, as the Greek word is a diminutive, as in John 6:23. The narrative implies that these were the respective boats of Jonas, the father of Peter and Andrew, and of Zebedee.

Washing their nets.—There is a slight, but noticeable variation here from mending their nets in St. Matthew and St. Mark. The process implied that, after fishing fruitlessly through the night, they were now abandoning the work and cleaning their nets of weeds and other debris before storing them. On the assumption that the two narratives refer to the same event, some have seen in mending a confirmation of the statement in St. Luke that the nets brake. The note on Luke 5:6 will, however, show that this is precisely what he does not say.

He entered into one of the ships.—Our Lord would seem to have chosen this mode of teaching frequently.

Let down your nets.—It is, perhaps, a slight indication that St. Luke's narrative does not describe the same event as the other Gospels, in that they use a different word for "net," one that technically has quite a distinct meaning. St. Luke’s word, however, is generic and may therefore include the other; and the other two use it when they speak of the disciples leaving their "nets."

Master, we have toiled all the night.—The word translated Master (epistates) is not the same as that (didaskalos, teacher) in the other Gospels, and often in this also, and is peculiar to St. Luke. It implies a less distinct recognition of our Lord’s character as a teacher or Rabbi, and was more the language of general respect, such as workmen might use of their master. Here, however, St. Peter’s language implies the previous discipleship which we learn from John 1:35-43.