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18. ἀμφίβληστρον, ‘a casting-net,’ here only in N.T. (in Mar 1:16 the true reading is ἀμφιβάλλοντας ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ). The word occurs Herod. I. 141. Cp. Soph. Antig. 343, κουφονόων τε φῦλον ὀρνίθων ἀμφιβαλὼν ἄγει … πόντου τʼ εἰναλίαν φύσιν. Virgil alludes to the same kind of net, Georg. I. 141. Alius latum funda jam verberat amnem.
ἦσαν γὰρ ἁλιεῖς. The fisheries on the Sea of Galilee, once so productive, are now deserted. It seems that the Bedawin have an invincible dislike and dread of the sea. Consequently there is scarcely a boat to be seen, and the Lake yields no harvest. See Land and Book, 401.
ἁλιεῖς, lit. ‘sea-folk’ (ἄλς), Homeric but not in Attic writers, one of the many words that disappear from literature in the long interval between Homer and the Alexandrine epoch.
ἁλιέων βίος is quoted as a proverbial expression for a life of extreme poverty. (See Wetstein.) Such it undoubtedly was in general, but see below, Mat 4:22. No fitter training than that of the fisherman could be imagined for the perils and privations of the apostle’s life.