Bible Commentaries
Luke 5

Introduction

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

1 Christ teacheth the people out of Peter’s ship:

4 in a miraculous taking of fishes, showeth how he will make him and his partners fishers of men:

12 cleanseth the leper:

16 prayeth in the wilderness:

18 healeth one sick of the palsy:

27 calleth Matthew the publican:

29 eateth with sinners, as being the physician of souls:

34 foretelleth the fastings and afflictions of the apostles after his ascension:

36 and likeneth faint-hearted and weak disciples to old bottles and worn garments.

Verse 2

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Two ships, &c. — Two fishing vessels, either at anchor near the shore or aground. From these the fishermen had gone out, and were washing their nets, after an unsuccessful night’s toil. One of the vessels belonged to Simon and Andrew, the other to James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who are called “partners with Simon.” From Simon’s vessel, our Lord, being pressed on shore by the eager crowd, addressed a discourse to the multitude, who had followed him; and then directed Simon, Andrew also being with him, to launch forth into deep water, and let down their nets for a draught. We observe,

1. That Simon’s objection, We have toiled all the night and have taken nothing, renders the subsequent miracle more unequivocal and illustrious, inasmuch as it shows that the fish did not then abound in that part of the sea, or kept themselves close in their haunts.

2. That Simon’s letting down the net was an act of obedient faith:

Nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net.

3. That the abundance marked by the net breaking, or rather, being on the point of breaking, and by the draught so filling both the vessels that they were ready to sink, or in danger of sinking, was an additional proof of the miraculous character of the event; for the very impression made upon Peter, who felt himself as in the presence of Deity, and said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord proves that no ordinary event had happened, and that the draught was unparalleled and preternatural: nor was he only astonished, but all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken. They were seized with astonishment and awe, as the words signify.

4. The whole was symbolical; a mode of teaching by significant action; and when our Lord said to Simon, and through him to the other disciples, for such they already were, (see the note on Matthew 4:18,) Fear not, for from henceforth thou shalt catch men, they understood its import. This they declared by forsaking all and following him, when they had brought their vessels to land: they knew that Christ now called them to the sacred office of instructing others in the way of salvation; and they gave up all to follow him, so that they might be trained up for it. Their occupation was indeed to be in the great waters of the world; their business to catch men; that is, to make disciples of Christ; and their success was not only to be great but miraculous, and to be owing to the same Divine power working in the depths of the human heart which had wrought in the depths of the sea, and brought the fish into the net of the apostles. These great lessons were indeed afterward more clearly comprehended; but even then the apostles felt their general impression; and under the command of Him who had appeared before them as arrayed with omnipotent, power, controlling all nature, they finally went to their great enterprise, in faith and hope, launched out into the deep, and at the bidding of their Master, let down their net. With what success the history of the world is witness.

Verse 4

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Launch out, &c. — Επαναγαγε a nautical term, which signifies to put off from shore.

Verse 5

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Master we have toiled, &c. — That Simon and the others were already disciples, though now for the first time in immediate attendance upon Christ, is indicated by the mode of address, επιστατα , master, teacher, equivalent to rabbi.

Verse 8

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Depart from me, &c. — The attitude of Peter, prostrate before the feet of Christ, and his words, imply that he had at the moment as full an impression of Christ’s Divinity, as Isaiah when he saw the glory of the Lord of hosts in the temple, and exclaimed, “Wo is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips.” The nearness of the Divine presence, realized, so to speak, either in vision or thought, uniformly brings man’s sinful character to his remembrance, and makes him feel that he cannot stand acquitted before infinite justice and purity. The impression is always one of guilty dread, till we are taught that there is “a new and living way” by which we may draw near to God, and God draw near to us, without danger. That way is the atonement of Christ; and we are conducted along it to the mercy seat by the hand of faith. To make Peter in these words to desire Christ merely to “go out of his ship,” is a cold and powerless comment on a phrase which obviously carries with it a force far beyond the mere literal meaning.

Verse 10

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Catch men. — Several have shown that both Hebrew and Greek writers use terms taken from hunting and fishing, to signify the influence exerted by some on others, so as to attach them to their opinion or party. To catch men was to bring men to believe in Christ, to embrace his party, his people, in opposition to the world. The stress laid by some on the etymology of the word, which is, to catch alive in order to preserve, is fanciful. It is employed generally as a term of hunting or fishing.

Verse 12

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

A man full of leprosy. — See the notes on Matthew 8:1-2, &c.

Verse 17

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

And the power of the Lord was present to heal them. — Not the Pharisees and doctors just mentioned, for they were there only as objectors and calumniators, as appears in the following verses; but the sick persons of the place, Capernaum, where we learn from Mark he then was. Pronouns often refer to the remoter noun. The power of the Lord is the power of Christ; so that the evangelist evidently regarded the miraculous power of Christ as inherent IN HIMSELF, which is the grand distinction between him, and the most highly endowed of his servants. To be present to heal, is a mode of expressing the present exercise of power. That wondrous virtue which he possessed he exerted in healing many sick persons on that occasion.

Verses 18-25

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

A man taken with the palsy. — See the notes on Matthew 9:2, &c., and Mark 2:4, &c.

Verse 26

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

We have seen strange things. — Παραδοξα , literally, things beyond all thought, παρα την δοξην , and therefore wonderful. Cicero renders παραδοξα admirabilia. The remark refers to the whole series of miracles, principally, perhaps, to the healing of the paralytic, who had been brought upon a couch by four men, and by Christ’s simple word had been enabled to take up that couch and walk home. They had heard too his sins pronounced forgiven by the same Being that had healed him. — One of the strange things, therefore, they had seen, was the departure of a sinner publicly forgiven from the presence of Him who claimed the right and power to forgive sin, and who proved it by a miracle. That indeed was to them the strangest, and probably the most inexplicable, of the strange things they had that day seen.

Verse 27

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

A publican sitting at the receipt, &c. — See the notes on Matthew 9:9-17.

Verses 28-29

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Left all, &c. — He left his profitable occupation, and the gains of the remaining part of the year; for if he was one of those publicans who farmed a portion of the imposts by the year, he would have paid in advance. This is the more probable, as it accounts for his speedy departure from his occupation. Had he been a government servant hired at a salary, like our custom house officers, to collect the duties, he must in justice have remained until a successor had been appointed; but having himself purchased the tolls and dues for a given period, he was at liberty to throw up the office of exacting them at pleasure. This circumstance also, with that of his making a great feast on occasion of his being called to be an apostle, shows that Matthew was a man of respectable rank. The feast, δοχην , according to the Hebrew משׁ?תה , was of that kind which only people of some wealth could give, and at which the guests were numerous. Often indeed have great feasts been made upon the acquisition of wealth and honour: this was the first, and perhaps the only one, ever designedly made in celebration of the renunciation of both, and which expressed the joy of the host at the prospect of becoming the poor disciple of him who had not “where to lay his head.” Surely there must have been a strong and pure principle of faith and love in the breasts of these early disciples who forsook their all, whether fishing boats and nets or the publican’s booth, to follow a Master who held out no worldly inducements. For though it may be said that they might expect that his kingdom was outward and political as well as spiritual, and that he would at length raise both himself and them to honour, (and that they did indulge this anticipation is evident,) yet still there was THAT wrought in their hearts which took a deep hold of their affections, and planted itself in their conscience, which was far above worldly hopes; and by it they were enabled to pass through all those trials of their faith to which it was in wisdom subjected, that it might be at last crowned with the resistless demonstration of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Matthew is called Levi by St. Luke; which has given rise to some controversy as to whether two apostles are not meant. The similarity of the circumstances, however, indisputably proves that two transactions cannot have been intended; and it was sufficiently common for the Jews to have two names, and to be called indifferently by either or by both; as Simon and Peter, and Simon Peter.

Verse 30

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Their scribes and Pharisees murmured, &c. — See notes on Matthew 9:14-17. Some MSS. and versions leave out αυτων ; but if it be retained, the scribes and Pharisees of Capernaum may be those particularly alluded to.

Verse 36

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

Then both the new maketh a rent. — These two last clauses of the verse must be read in a reversed order, to make the sense conspicuous, If otherwise, the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old, and (what is worse) the new maketh a rent.

Verse 37

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

New wine into new bottles. — See the notes on Matthew 9:17.

Verse 39

Watson - Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark

No man also, having drunk old wine, &c. — He refuses the new wine, which is harsh in its taste, and prefers the old, which is χρηστοτερος , better, because mellower and more generous. The superiority of old to new wine forms the basis of various proverbs and allusions among ancient writers. Our Lord’s meaning is generally understood to be, that it is difficult suddenly to change old habits, and therefore his disciples must be trained up gradually to austerities which were practised by the disciples of John and the Pharisees. But he did not enjoin these austerities upon his disciples afterward, and could not, therefore, intend gradually to train them to practise them. — Nor can the interpretation of Wolfius, who applies the words to the Pharisees, as intimating that they were too much attached to their old traditions to relish Christ’s new doctrine, be maintained, because our Lord’s words clearly imply, on his part, a justification of the choice of old wine to new. The true import appears to be, that our Lord tacitly affirms that his DISCIPLINE was as much more pleasant to a spiritual taste, such as he had excited in a good degree in his disciples by his teaching, and as much more salutary in comparison with the discipline of the Pharisees and that practised by the disciples of John, as old wine was more grateful and wholesome than new; and so his disciples, having proved the excellence of the rule and spirit of his religion, were not likely to measure their steps back to the ordinances of inferior dispensations. There is also, probably, in the words a reproof of the austerities in question, as NOVELTIES in religion, and therefore to be compared to new wine. Those of the Pharisees were certainly of human invention, and so probably were those fasts of the disciples of John, rules devised and practised after their master had been cast into prison; for in his preaching he appears not to have enjoined them. — But freedom from superstitious rigidity had been the character of true religion in all ages; and our Lord therefore compares his rule of discipline, as being conformed to that which had a Divine authority from the beginning, to old wine, and declares it better. No inventions of men can compare with the simple institutions of God. Old wine with the Jews was wine of the age of three years.