Jesus Chooses His First Followers^(A)

¹⁶ When Jesus was walking by ·Lake Galilee [^Tthe Sea of Galilee], he saw Simon [^CPeter; cf. 3:16] and his brother Andrew ·throwing [casting] a net into the lake because they were fishermen. ¹⁷ Jesus said to them, “Come ·follow me [be my disciples], and I will ·make you [teach you how to] fish for people.” ¹⁸ So Simon and Andrew immediately left their nets and followed him.

¹⁹ Going a little farther, Jesus saw two more brothers, ·James and John, the sons of Zebedee [^LJames the son of Zebedee, and his brother John]. They were in a boat, ·mending [preparing] their nets. ²⁰ Jesus immediately called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired workers and followed Jesus.

¹⁸ As Jesus was walking by ·Lake Galilee [^Tthe Sea of Galilee], he saw two brothers, Simon (called Peter) and his brother Andrew. They were ·throwing [casting] a net into the lake because they were fishermen. ¹⁹ Jesus said, “Come ·follow me [be my disciples], and I will ·make you [teach you how to] ·fish for people [^Tfishers of men].” ²⁰ So Simon and Andrew immediately left their nets and followed him.

²¹ As Jesus ·continued walking by Lake Galilee [went on from there], he saw two other brothers, ·James and John, the sons of Zebedee [^LJames the son of Zebedee, and his brother John]. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, ·mending [or preparing] their nets. Jesus ·told them to come with him [called them]. ²² Immediately they left the boat and their father, and they followed Jesus.

² Jesus saw two boats at the shore of the lake. The fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. ³ Jesus got into one of the boats, the one that belonged to Simon [^CPeter], and asked him to push off a little from the ·land [shore]. Then Jesus sat down and continued to teach the people from the boat.

⁴ When Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Take the boat into deep water, and ·put [let down] your nets in the water to catch some fish.”

⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we ·worked [labored] hard all night trying to catch fish, and we caught nothing. But ·you say [because you say; ^Lupon your word] to put the nets in the water, so I will.” ⁶ When the fishermen did as Jesus told them, they caught so many fish that the nets began to ·break [tear]. ⁷ They ·called [signaled; motioned] to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats so full that they were almost sinking.

⁸ When Simon Peter saw what had happened, he bowed down ·before [^Lat the knees of] Jesus and said, “Go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man!” ⁹ [^LFor] He and the other fishermen were amazed at the many fish they caught, as were ¹⁰ James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will ·fish for people [catch people; ^Tbe fishers of men].” ¹¹ When the men brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed Jesus.

The First Followers of Jesus

³⁵ The next day John [^Cthe Baptist; 1:6] was [standing] there again with two of his ·followers [disciples]. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus walking by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God [see 1:29]!”

³⁷ The two ·followers [disciples] heard John say this, so they followed Jesus. ³⁸ When Jesus turned and saw them following him, he asked, “What are you looking for?”

They said, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” (“Rabbi” means “Teacher.”)

³⁹ He answered, “Come and see.” So the two men went with Jesus and saw where he was staying and stayed there with him that day. It was about ·four o’clock in the afternoon [^Lthe tenth hour; ^Chours were counted from dawn, about 6 AM].

⁴⁰ One of the two men who followed Jesus after they heard John speak about him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and say to him, “We have found the Messiah.” (“Messiah” means “Christ.”) [^CBoth Hebrew Mashiach (Messiah) and Greek Christos (Christ) mean “Anointed One.”]

⁴² Then Andrew took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas.” (“Cephas” means “Peter.”) [^CBoth Aramaic Cephas and Greek Petros mean “rock.”]