Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Mark 1:14-20, Fishermen called
Jesus announces that God's kingdom is near, then calls two pairs of brothers from their nets on the Sea of Galilee.
Mark 1:14-20, in every translation this tool compares.
Once John is in prison, Jesus starts announcing in Galilee that God's long-awaited rule is arriving and calls people to turn and trust it. Beside the lake he summons two pairs of brothers who fish for a living, and they walk away from their work and, in one case, from their father. Mark shows at the outset what following this teacher costs.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/kingdom-of-god\/","n":"God's kingdom","s":"Kingdom meant God's reign, God becoming king in fact. It was the good news Isaiah promised, and in Jesus' day it was also a slogan.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-sea\/","n":"The sea","s":"To ancient Israel the sea stood for chaos and danger that only God could command. The Gospel stories on the lake of Galilee lean on that old picture.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/fishing-trade\/","n":"Fishing on the lake","s":"Fishing was a real business on the lake of Galilee: boats, costly nets, partnerships between families, work through the night and fish sold in the morning. Fishermen did better than most peasants.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/following-a-teacher\/","n":"Following a teacher","s":"A disciple walked behind his teacher, lived with him, learned his ways and carried his reputation. Jesus chose his own, which only radical teachers did.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/family-first\/","n":"The family's name","s":"Families lived, worked and stood together. Walking out of the family business or putting kin second was a public offense.","r":""}
Keener notes that many scholars think commercial fishermen, though not elite, were usually better off than the peasants who made up most of Galilee, and that hired men point to a family firm with ample income. These men were leaving something. Garland disagrees: owning a boat no more made Zebedee's family well off than owning oxen made a farmer rich; such fishermen leased their fishing rights and probably belonged to a cooperative that sold to wealthier middlemen. He describes the cast net and the trammel net, which could stretch five hundred feet and needed two boats.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Mark 1:15, 1:16, 1:17 and 1:20
- N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, comment on Mark 1:14-20
- David E. Garland, Mark, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Mark 1:16 and 1:19
