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MARK 1:20 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Mark 1:19Mark 1:21
“And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.”
Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him — the immediacy mirrors verse 18: no deliberation, no farewell, no gradual departure. The departure is complete enough to leave Zebedee still at work, mid-task, now without his sons. The family dimension of discipleship cost is present but not sentimentalized: Mark notes the departure from the father without commenting on the father's response. The double call — Simon and Andrew, then James and John — establishes the first four disciples and the inner circle that will recur throughout Mark. The kingdom's arrival creates new primary loyalties that realign every other relationship.

Church Fathers on Mark 1:20

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
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Mark 1:20 — Community Reflections | HolyStudy