properly · verb — present active indicative, 3rd person singular
them
αὐτοῖς·autois
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — dative plural masculine
Follow
δεῦτεdeute
G1205
come hither! · interjection
me
μοῦmoû
G3450
of me
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
I will make
ποιήσωpoiēsō
G4160
to make or do (in a very wide application · verb — future active indicative, 1st person singular
you
ὑμᾶςhymâs
G5209
you (as the objective of a verb or preposition)
fishers
ἁλιεῖςhalieis
G231
a sailor (as engaged on the salt water) · noun — accusative plural masculine
of men
ἀνθρώπων.anthrōpōn
G444
from G3700 (ὀπτάνομαι)) · noun — genitive plural masculine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Mark 1:17-18 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
John 12:26 If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.
Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Luke 9:59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
John 1:43 The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.
Luke 5:27 And after these things he went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me.
John 21:22 Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.
Mark 2:14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphæus sitting at the receipt of custom, and said unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followe…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Matthew 4:18-22
When Christ began to preach, he began to gather disciples, who should now be the hearers, and hereafter the preachers, of his doctrine, who should now be witnesses of his miracles, and hereafter concerning them. Now, in these verses, we have an account of the first disciples that he called into fellowship with himself.
And this was an instance, 1. Of effectual calling to Christ. In all his preaching he gave a common call to all the country, but in this he gave a special and particular call to those that were given him by the Father. Let us see and admire the power of Christ's grace, own his word to be the rod of his strength, and wait upon him for those powerful influences which are necessar…
And he saith unto them, Follow me--rather, as the same expression is rendered in Mark, "Come ye after Me" (Mar 1:17).
and I will make you fishers of men--raising them from a lower to a higher fishing, as David was from a lower to a higher feeding (Psa 78:70-72).
John Gill on Matthew 4:19
And he saith unto them, follow me,.... These two brethren had been the disciples of John, as Theophylact thinks, and which seems agreeable to John 1:35 and though through John's pointing out Christ unto them, they had some knowledge of him, and conversation with him, yet they abode with him but for that day, John 1:37 and afterwards returned to their master; and upon his imprisonment, betook themselves to their former employment: from whence Christ now calls them to be his disciples, saying "follow me", or "come after me": that is, be a disciple of mine; see Luke 14:27. And to encourage them to it, makes use of this argument; "and", or "for", I "will make you fishers of men": you shall be fi…
Matthew 4:18-25
Matthew 4:18-25
Mark 1:16-20
Luke 5:1-11
18. And Jesus, walking near the sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon surnamed Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishers. 19. And he saith to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. 20. And they, having left their nets, immediately followed him. 21. And advancing thence, he saw other two brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets: and he called them. 22. And they immediately, having left the ship and their father, followed him. 23. And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preachin…
The Church Fathers
(Ver. 19, 20.) Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. These first ones were called to follow the Lord: fishermen and unlettered men are sent to preach, lest the faith of believers be thought to come about not by the power of God, but by eloquence and teaching.
The operations of their secular craft were a prophecy of their future dignity. As he who casts his net into the water knows not what fishes he shall take, so the teacher casts the net of the divine word upon the people, not knowing who among them will come to God. Those whom God shall stir abide in his doctrine. Fishers of men, that is, teachers, that with the net of God's word you may catch men out of this world of storm and danger, in which men do not walk but are rather borne along, the Devil by pleasure drawing them into sin where men devour one another as the stronger fishes do the weaker, withdrawn from hence they may live upon the land, being made members of Christ's body.
Here they proved that they were true sons of Abraham, because by a similar pattern they followed the Savior on hearing God's voice. For they immediately gave up hope of material advantage that they might seek eternal rewards. They left behind their earthly father that they might have a heavenly Father, and hence not undeservedly were they chosen. So the Lord chose fishermen who in a better way of plying their fishing trade were converted from earthly to heavenly fishing, that they might catch the human race for salvation like fish from the deep waters of error, according to what the Lord himself said to them: "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." It was the very same thing he had promised through Jeremiah the prophet: "Behold, I am sending for many fishers, says the Lord, and they shall catch them; and afterward I will send for many hunters and they shall hunt them." So we see that the apostles are called not only fishermen but also hunters: fishermen, for in the nets of gospel preaching they catch all believers like fish in the world; hunters, for they catch for salvation by heavenly hunting those people who are roving in this world as though in the woods of error and who are living like wild animals.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Andrew — Manliness, a Greek name; one of the apostles of our Lord. He was of Bethsaida in Galilee (John 1:44), and was the brother of Simon Peter (Matt. 4:18; 10:2). On one occasion John the Baptist, whose…
Fisher — Besides its literal sense (Luke 5:2), this word is also applied by our Lord to his disciples in a figurative sense (Matt. 4:19; Mark 1:17).
John — (1.) One who, with Annas and Caiaphas, sat in judgment on the apostles Peter and John (Acts 4:6). He was of the kindred of the high priest; otherwise unknown. (2.) The Hebrew name of Mark (q.v.). He…
Peter — Originally called Simon (=Simeon, i.e., “hearing”), a very common Jewish name in the New Testament. He was the son of Jona (Matt. 16:17). His mother is nowhere named in Scripture. He had a younger…
Ship — No one writer in the whole range of Greek and Roman literature has supplied us with so much information concerning the merchant-ships of the ancients as St. Luke in the narrative of St. Paul’s voyage…
Agency · IN SALVATION OF MEN — IN SALVATION OF MEN
Andrew · General references — General references
Apostles · Selection of — Selection of
Call · .APOSTLES — .APOSTLES
Fishermen · Certain apostles — Certain apostles
Minister, Christian · .FISHERS OF MEN — .FISHERS OF MEN
Come, follow me: This involved accepting the beliefs and lifestyle of a master as one’s own (16:24; Deut 5:33; 1 Kgs 19:19-21). • fish for people: The disciples would participate in the saving and judging work of the Kingdom (see Matt 10:5-15; 13:47-51; Ezek 29:4-5; Amos 4:2).
Titles And Names Of Ministers · Fishers of men — Fishers of men
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
