Vincent Word Studies - Luke 5:10

Vincent Word Studies - Luke 5:10 - 5:10

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com

Vincent Word Studies - Luke 5:10 - 5:10

(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Partners (κοινωνοὶ)

In Luk 5:7 the word rendered partners is μέτοχοι; from μετά, with, and ἔχω, to have. The word here denotes a closer association, a common interest. The kindred noun, κοινωνία, fellowship, is used of the fellowship of believers with Christ (1Co 1:9); the communion of the body and blood of Christ (1Co 10:16); the communion of the Holy Ghost (2Co 13:14). The persons referred to in Luk 5:7 might have been only hired workmen (Mar 1:20), temporarily associated with the principals.

Thou shalt catch (ἔσῃ ζωγρῶν)

Lit., thou shalt be catching, the participle and finite verb denoting that this is to be his habitual calling. Both Matthew and Mark make the promise to be addressed to Peter and his companions; Luke to Peter alone. The verb ζωγρέω, to catch, is compounded of ζωός, living, and ἀγρεύω, to catch or take. Hence, lit., to take alive: in war, to take captive, instead of killing. Thus Homer, when Menelaus threatens the prostrate Adrastus:

“Adrastus clasped the warrior's knees and said,

O son of Atreus, take me prisoner” (ζώγρει).

Iliad, vi., 45, 6; compare Iliad, x., 378.

So Herodotus: “The Persians took Sardis, and captured Croesus himself alive” (ἔξώγρημαν). - I., 86.

There is certainly a reason for the use of this term, as indicating that Christ's ministers are called to win men to life. Compare 2Ti 2:26, where, according to the best supported rendering, the servant of God is represented as taking men alive out of the power of Satan, to be preserved unto the will of God; i.e., as instruments of his will (compare A. V. and Rev.). The word thus contains in itself an answer to the sneering remark of the Apostate Julian, that Christ aptly termed his apostles fishers; “for, as the fisherman draws out the fish from waters where they were free and happy, to an element in which they cannot breathe, but must presently perish, so did these.”