Mark 1:19 — Community Reflections

MARK 1:19 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And when he had gone a little further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets.”

When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets — the second call follows immediately, and the scene is the same: working fishermen in the ordinary moment of their trade. James and John are preparing their nets (repairing or arranging them), mid-task in the family business. The presence of Zebedee their father and hired men communicates that this is a prosperous operation — leaving it involves both family disruption and economic sacrifice. The detail that hired men are mentioned but not called suggests the call is selective: Jesus chooses whom he calls, and the call creates a distinction within families and workplaces.

Church Fathers on Mark 1:19

As the Evangelist John relates, Peter and Andrew were disciples of the Forerunner, but seeing that John had borne witness to Jesus, they joined themselves to him; afterwards, grieving that John had been cast into prison, they returned to their trade.
Theophylact · 11th century

Now fishers and unlettered men are sent to preach, that the faith of believers might be thought to lie in the power of God, not in eloquence or in learning. It goes on to say, 'and immediately they left their nets, and followed Him.'
Bede · 8th century · in Marc., 1, 6

Further, we are mystically carried away to heaven, like Elias, by this chariot, drawn by these fishers, as by four horses. On these four corner-stones the first Church is built; in these, as in the four Hebrew letters, we acknowledge the tetragrammation, the name of the Lord, we who are commanded, after their example, to 'hear' the voice of the Lord, and 'to forget' the 'people' of wickedness, and 'the house of our fathers' ' [Ps 45:10] conversation, which is folly before…
Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

Read all 6 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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