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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Matthew 13:47 - 13:47
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Net (σαγήνῃ)
See on Mat 4:18. The only occurrence of the word in the New Testament. A long draw-net, the ends of which are carried out and drawn together. Through the transcription of the word into the Latin sagena comes seine. From the fact of its making a great sweep, the Greeks formed a verb from it, σαγηνέυω, to surround and take with a drag-net. Thus Herodotus (iii., 149) says: “The Persians netted Santos.” And again (vi., 31), “Whenever they became masters of an island, the barbarians, in every single instance, netted the inhabitants. Now, the mode in which they practise this netting is the following: Men join hands, so as to form a line across from the north coast to the south, and then march through the island from end to end, and hunt out the inhabitants.” Compare Isa 19:8 : “Those who spread nets on the face of the waters shall languish.” Also, Hab 1:15-17, where the Chaldaean conquests are described under this figure.
Gathered of every kind
Compare the graphic passage in Homer (“Odyssey,” xxii., 384-389) of the slain suitors in the halls of Ulysses.
“He saw that all had fallen in blood and dust,
Many as fishes on the shelving beach,
Drawn from the hoary deep by those who tend
The nets with myriad meshes. Poured abroad
Upon the sand, while panting to return
To the salt sea, they lie till the hot sun
Takes their life from them.”