Mark 1:16-20

¹⁶ And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.

¹⁷ Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

¹⁸ They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

¹⁹ When He had gone a little farther from there, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets.

²⁰ And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after Him.

Also found in Matthew 4:18-22.

The men mentioned in this passage had already met Jesus on a previous occasion (John 1:35-42).

[Jesus] does not, as unthinking readers fancy, come upon two utter strangers, fascinate and arrest them in a moment, and sweep their lives into the vortex of His own. Andrew had already heard [John] the Baptist proclaim the Lamb of God, had followed Jesus home, and had introduced his brother, to whom Jesus then gave the new name Cephas. Their faith had since been confirmed by miracles. The demands of our Lord may be trying, but they are never unreasonable, and the faith He claims is not a blind credulity.

Nor does He, even now, finally and entirely call them away from their occupation. Some time is still to elapse, and a sign, especially impressive to fishermen, the miraculous draught of fishes, is to burn into their minds a profound sense of their unworthiness, before the vocation now promised shall arrive. — Chadwick, page 19.

casting a net (v.16) = lit. “to throw on both sides,” actively fishing.

follow (v.17) = “come after,” in the sense of joining one’s party.

make you become (v.17) — a long process

followed (v.18) … from a word meaning “to walk the same road.” The word is used with the associative-instrumental case, the idea being “to follow with” another. It implies fellowship, joint-participation, a side-by-side walking with another. Thus it has come to mean, “to join one as a disciple, to cleave steadfastly to one, conform wholly to his example, in living and, if need be, in dying.” — Wuest, page 29.

called (v.20) = called aloud, uttered in a loud voice. The boat they were in wasn’t a small rowboat but a larger fishing vessel, which would probably have been out from the shore in deeper water (unless there was a wharf).

servants (v.20) — perhaps an indication that their business was prosperous.