Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 5:1

"Now it came to pass, while the multitude pressed upon him and heard the word of God, that he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret;" — Luke 5:1 (ASV)

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.