The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 122

Wa rend these Gospels B8 the story of the ornmhling mud vilfage, inh11bited by th., ll'.laeter'e life often without thinking how poorest e.nd least enterprising of peAsants, muoh of tho.t life is never told. After all, we so sll.dly changed ie this beautiful and only possess II few representative incidents- wealthy district, which the rabbis o-1 to love to speak of as the one among- tb., seven the events which the twelve and their first sens of Canaan which God had reeened for friends had selected o.s the themes of their himself. sermons e.nd discourses in Jeruso.Ic,m, Ver. 3.-And he sat down, ae in the syna- Corinth, Ephesus, Rome, and the g,eat gogue of Ce.perrnmm-the usual attitude of centres of early C~ristian activity. Here, the Jewish preachers. Ver. 4.-And let down your nets for a after tlJe story of one sabbe.th day's blessed draught. Not necessarily e. miraculous toil in Cnpernaum, follows e. sentence which draught; it wa.a probably a supernatural passes over, in e. word or two, many de.ye of knowledge which the Lord had of a ahoal quiet teo.ching in populous towns and villages of fish to be found in the spot inrlic.nted by of the once rich Galilee, e.nd then the him to the fishermen. TrietrRm (' "S atural History of the Bible') says, "The thickness evo.ngelist gives us with some detail the of the shoals of fish is almost incredible to account of a morning by the lake, wh~re he e.ny one who has not witnessed them. They preached from a boat to the crowds on the often cover an area of more than an acre, shore, and then went out a-fishing, 11nd, after and when the fish move slowly forward in a. the fishing, bade the fishermen leave all e.nd m0.ss, and are rising ont of the water, they are packed so close togethe-r that it appe0.n come with him, e.nd he would give them e. 11.s if a heavy re.in we.s beating down on the new work. surface of the w0.ter." Ver. 1.-And it came to pe.11, that, as the Ver. 5.-Master. The word in the original people pressed upon him to hear- the word so rendered is not Rabbi, as in the other of God. His fame as a great Teacher was Gospels, but 1-rri,na:ra, Teacher. The evidently now firmly established. If it were J5wish term would not have been under- known the.t he intended speaking in public, stood by the Gentile reader for whom the e. crowd of listeners would gather quickly story was especially intended. round him, whether in the synagogues, or by Ver. 6.-And their net brake. Augustine the lake-shore, or in the market-place. He beautifully compares the broken and torn stood by the Le.ke of Gennese.ret. On this net to the Church that now is, full of di visions occasion, as he taught by the q niet lake and rents; the net unrent and nntorn will waters, the throng was so great tbat he be the Church of the future, which will know borrowed the fuhing-boe.t of one of his no schisms. friends, and, just pushing out from the Ver. 10.-P'ear not. A feeling of intense shore, ,,poke to the multitude from the little overpowering awe on e. sudden eame on craft as it roc~ed on the wavelets of the lake. Simon after listening to the words 11.nd seeing Dean Stanley calls it " the most sacred sheet this last act of power which so closely of water which the earth cont0.ins." The affected him. The very fish of his native rabbinical derivation is interesting:" Ganne- lake, then, were subject to this strange holy sarim, garden of princes; " but it is more Man I This we.s no mortal, thought the probable th0.t Gennesaret is but e. reproduction fisherman, and he fell e.t the Master's feet. of the old Hebrew n0.me Chinneroth (Josh. " Finding as it does its parallel in 11.lmost all xii. 3), so co.lied from its harplike shape. manifestations of a Divine or even RD e.ngelio It is a beautiful sheet of water, twelve or presence, it (this 11.wful fear) must be owned thirteen miles long e.nd nearly seven bro11d to contain e. mighty, because an instructive, at one portion of the lake. The Jordan witness for the sinfulness of man's ne.ture, flows through it. In our Lord's time it w0.s out of which it comes to pass that any near surrounded by the richest and most populous revelation from the heavenly world fills the district of the Holy Land; large and flourish- children of men, even the holiest a.mong ing towns were built along its shores. them, with terror and 11.mazement, yea, some- Cnpernaum, e.s has been suid, wo.s the times with the expectation of dc!lth itself" junction of the greo.t ronds lc0.ding from (Archbishop Trench, 'Introduction to the Syri0. and the far E11st to tho Meditermne0.n Epistles to the Seven Churches'). The same on the west, cmd ,Jerusalem cm,! Egypt on "Fear not"(" Be not afraid") Wf\s uttered the south. The l11ke WCUI famous for its on like occasions to Isaiah (vi. 7), to Daniel fish, e.ud wns crowded with all dc~criptions (x. 12), and severnl times during- the enrthly of or11ft. The whole scene is now ch11nged. ministry w0.s said to the disciples, and for Senrocly ll rude bont is ever econ on the the last time the reassuring wor,ls were blue silent waters. Dcsol1tte ruins fringe spoken by the Redeemer 11.fter the Ascenstoa the deserted 11horea, with !Jore aud there a "' ws own dear follower, John, wlio oould LUK.I!:, I 114 THE GOSrEL AOCORDTNG TO BT. LURE. [on. T. 1-39,