Jesus Called Fishermen
Jesus Called Fishermen
No one would invent rural Galilee, fishermen, or tax gatherers. We have already noted that the elites of the empire held little respect for peasants. Fishermen were not peasants,80 but probably often were, like tax-gatherers, “among the more economically mobile of the village culture.”81 Nevertheless, they were not elite. Mere propagandists wishing to impress outsiders might have been happy to cite respectable adherents close to Herod (cf. Lk 8:3; Acts 13:1), who might have impressed the entire range of ancient society. By contrast, the example of fishermen could appeal only to the working class themselves.
Yet fishermen involved with Jesus also fit the criterion of Palestinian environment (here more narrowly the “criterion” of Galilean fishing villages such as Capernaum and Bethsaida). Although the primary occupation even on the lake of Galilee was agricultural,82 fishing remained a major industry there,83 and fish was a primary staple of the first-century Palestinian diet,84 as elsewhere in Mediterranean antiquity.85 Fishing imagery in Jesus’ parables fits a Galilean setting. (Thus, for example, the parable about the end-time involving a seine net and the separation of edible, perhaps kosher fish from inedible ones; Matt 13:47-50.)86
That Jesus would call fishermen, therefore, should arouse no skepticism. Davies and Allison list a number of points favoring the historical tradition behind the section,87 which I adapt only slightly below:
1. The Synoptics and John attest, probably independently, that Peter and Andrew followed Jesus in Galilee.
2. Other “Q” narratives confirm that Jesus, in contrast to most rabbis, called his own disciples (Matt 8:19-22//Lk 9:57-62), Jesus’ practice here probably follows the model of Elijah (1 Kgs 19:19-21), which plays a comparatively minimal role in rabbinic texts.88
3. The tradition of the Twelve attests that he did choose disciples whom he expected to aid his mission (like other teachers, he expected disciples to propagate the work).
4. The structure of Mk 1:17 is “recognizably Semitic” and the saying makes sense only as part of the narrative.
5. No one had reason to invent the four’s occupation as fishermen (Mk 1:16; cf. Jn 21:3), and Andrew, who is not central in Synoptic or Pauline tradition, must appear for more historical reasons.
Ben Witherington adds some other observations. For example, “fishers of humans” is hardly a later Christian image for mission, yet the metaphor makes sense if some of Jesus’ earliest disciples were fishermen. The narrative also hardly drew the image of Jesus recruiting disciples from Jewish practice (it was neither traditional Jewish nor subsequent Christian practice); finally, Luke 5:10 attests the “fishers of humans” saying in a different context and form, perhaps supporting the saying’s authenticity by means of multiple attestation.89 Some of the above arguments are more convincing than others, but cumulatively the most convincing of them offer a very strong case.