fishers of men

The Gospel According to Luke 5:1–11 (NABRE) describes Jesus’ call of his disciples and includes the wonderful passage: “from now on you will be catching men,” which sometimes is translated elsewhere as “I will make you fishers of men.”

While the English pun “fishers of men” is clever and catchy, it’s not what Jesus said. The Greek verb translated as “fisher” or “catcher” is ζωγρέω (zogreo) and means “to take alive” or “to capture.” While this word could be used to describe capturing an animal, it was also used to describe taking prisoners of war.

The image in the Greek text uses the fullness of the disciples’ nets as a means of describing the quantity of people they will catch but not so much the method. Their nets will be overflowing as they capture people alive for God.

Have you ever thought of discipleship as a form of taking prisoners for God? What do you think this discipleship looks like?

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