The Apostle John, in his well-known story (John 21:1-14), recounts how Jesus kept the promise he had made to the women early on Resurrection morning. In Matthew’s account, Jesus had instructed them, “Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee and there they will see me” (Matt 28:10). Galilee was, of course, the ‘home turf’ of most of the apostles. Matthew had been the Romans’ tax officer in Capernaum, the provincial border town at the head of the lake, where he had a home and income large enough to hold a banquet (Matt 9:9-10; Luke 5:27-29). Two pairs of brothers, Peter and Andrew, James and John, had been partners in a vibrant fishing business in the very same town (Luke uses two plural nouns, “metochois” and “koinonoi”, both meaning ‘partners’ in the sense of shared activity (ch.5 vv.7 & 10 respectively). And it is this very John who tells us on this occasion of at least seven of them who obeyed Jesus’ instruction to go to Galilee: Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James and John, plus two unnamed others.

Here was the very real, living, breathing, flesh-and-bone Jesus, the fully resurrected Yeshua HaMaschiach, who even shared meals with them.

Simple peasants?

Commonly, it is assumed, or even asserted, that these disciples were simple countryfolk. For example, the American scholar Bart Ehrman maintains that the apostles “were uneducated lower-class Aramaic-speaking Jews from Palestine”. He then claims of the Gospels, “These books are not written by people like that.”¹ It is true that, at the time of the first Pentecost, the disciples were identifiable by their Galilean accents (Acts 2:7), and, at their trial by the Sanhedrin, Peter and John were perceived as “uneducated and untrained men”, despite their bold and fluent defence which amazed the officials (Acts 4:13). Nonetheless, John was not some scruffy peasant, as, following the arrest of Jesus, he was able to enter the courtyard of Caiaphas and to obtain entrance for Peter as he “was known to the High Priest” (John 17:16), possibly through supplying top-quality salted kosher fish to this elite household.

Thriving Galilean towns

Assertions such as Ehrman’s also fly in the face of what is known of the Galilee of Jesus’ day. Capernaum was a thriving town, with a main street running northward from the quayside, with side alleys off, and many single-storeyed courtyard houses with several rooms. Evidence of their roofs matches Mark’s account of the opening made to lower the paralytic healed by Jesus (Mark 2:4). It had a synagogue, and the house of Peter has been identified nearby, larger than the average. According to Israeli expert, Mendel Nun, “Along the shore ran a 2,500-foot-long promenade, or paved avenue, supported by an 8-foot-wide seawall…. Vessels at Capernaum could load and unload cargo and passengers on several piers that extended about 100 feet from the promenade into the lake. Some of the piers are paired and curve toward each other, forming protected pools. Others are triangular in shape.”² It was here, by the quayside, that Matthew had his tax office (Mark 2:13-14) and here where the boats of the four fishermen were based. Nun also finds that several types of net are identifiable from the Gospels, for example, the cast net (amphiblestron), seine net (sagene), and trammel net (included in diktya), designed for specific purposes on Galilee.

In addition to land and poll tax, the Romans levied “indirect taxes in the form of tolls and duties on the transporting of goods. Taxes were collected at ports, important cross-roads, places of commerce, and at offices by city gates.”³ In addition to its agricultural and fishing base, Capernaum was on the international trade route between Egypt and Damascus, the “Via Maris”, and effectively a border control between the provinces of Herod Antipas and Herod Philip, rulers who collected taxes for Rome. Matthew would thus be literate, accountable to the ‘King Herod’ (Antipas) of the New Testament, and his agents, at this important customs post.Coin of Herod Antipas Year 34 30AD minted at Tiberias Credit Classical Numismatic Group Creative Commons

Across the lake to the southwest lay Migdal Nunya (Migdal of the fishes), the home town of Mary Magdalene. Josephus refers to Migdal by its Greek name, Tarichaeae, which means ‘salted fish’. Excavations have uncovered a synagogue, “a large marketplace with 28 shops, about 300 fishing weights, 40 pools and more than 4,000 ancient coins.”⁴ Some pools were used for storing live fish for sale, and others for salting fish for transport. Strabo, the Greek geographer-historian, commended the fish, which was available and highly esteemed in the Roman markets: “At the place called Tarichaeae the lake supplies excellent fish for pickling.”⁵ This place would have been an additional ready market for the brothers’ catches.

Substantial fishing boats

Between here and Capernaum, south of Ginnosar, a first-century boat-building yard was discovered in lake mud in 1986, with the remains of a vessel that matches an ancient mosaic depiction, found at Magdala, but now on show at Capernaum. It fits the Gospel narratives really well. It had rowing positions for four men, and a position for a helmsman with a quarter-rudder, along with evidence for a mast for the square sail shown in the mosaic.⁶ It was over 27 feet long and over 7.5 feet wide, and could carry up to 15 people, representing a considerable business investment. Though often known as ‘The Jesus Boat’, there is no evidence to connect it directly to the disciples.

Dated between 40 BC and 50 AD, such was the type of vessel as required by several Gospel incidents. For example, in the first miraculous catch of fish, the partners have two boats, the Greek word for each being ‘ploion’, a sailing vessel (Luke 5:1-11). The same word is used of the boat in which the twelve disciples witnessed the calming of the storm, after Jesus had been asleep in the stern (Mark 4:35-39). Also, it’s the word used by John in recounting the other storm, in which they were greatly troubled when rowing in strong winds and rough seas, when Jesus calmed the waves and joined them (John 6:16-21). In contrast, the following day, people who had shared the loaves and fishes near Bethsaida, wanting to go by boat to Capernaum to seek Jesus, did so in ‘little boats’ (‘ploiaria’) (6:24). Peter and Andrew, James and John would be unable to crew such large vessels themselves. In fact, in Mark’s record of their calling by Jesus, whilst Peter and Andrew were fishing by cast net, James and John were in their own boat, mending their nets along with their father, Zebedee, and some ‘hired servants’ (‘misthoton’: wage workers) (Mark 1:16-20). Thus, we know that the partners were not simple fishermen at all, theirs was a substantial business operation.

Reconstruction of Ginnosar boat, photo by Todd Bolen, BiblePlaces.com

Disappointment

Turning back to the promised post-resurrection meeting with Jesus, we initially find fisherman John telling us on this occasion of at least seven of them who followed Jesus’ instruction and travelled to Galilee: the fishermen Peter, James and John, together with Thomas, Nathanael and two unnamed others. According to John, one of the former fishermen, at Peter’s instigation (perhaps impatient at waiting for Jesus), they went night-fishing (Jn 21:3-4). We aren’t told exactly how many of them went, but according to Mendel Nun, the Israeli authority on the historic fishing industry on Galilee, at least four men were needed to handle the kind of net used at that time, and we’ve already seen the kind of vessel involved. Night-fishing, he tells us, yields the greatest likelihood of a substantial catch, as in the hours of darkness fish cannot see the nets. Despite all their local knowledge and experience, John plaintively tells us, “and that night they caught nothing”. Disappointment is writ large in John’s account – a ‘no-show’ from Jesus, and a ‘no-show’ from the fish!

Strange questions

Still afloat after dawn, they see an unidentified lone figure on the shoreline, one who surprisingly shouts a question. In John’s Greek, he asks, “Little children, do you not have anything eatable?”. Wow! And ‘Wow!’ again! First of all, doesn’t it seem odd that a stranger would address seasoned fishermen as ‘little children’? I suppose it’s quite possible that it’s a colloquialism, rather as if we were to say, ‘Have you caught anything, lads?’ On the other hand, much more likely, it could have been intended to recall the affectionate bond between the Rabbi and his followers: if so, it failed! Secondly, why not ask directly about fish? Instead, he asks, “don’t you have anything eatable (‘prosphagion’)?” This bespeaks local and very Jewish insight. There were (and still are) several species of fish in the Sea of Galilee, but not all are edible for Jews – catfish, having no scales, are not kosher, so the question makes perfect sense. Thirdly, why phrase the question in the negative, “do you not have anything eatable”? It seems that Jesus already knew of their ‘nil return’! However, the net result of all this (pardon the pun!) is that they still don’t recognise Jesus.

It's the Lord!

Having received the simple answer, “No!”, this stranger continues with an instruction that could have seemed impertinent – the experts were in the boat, after all! “Cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some,” he says. On doing so, to their great surprise, the net fills so much that they need extra help to haul it in, other disciples coming in “the little boat” (‘ploiarion’) (Jn 21:8)⁷. This catch must have recalled to their minds that previous occasion, early in the ministry of Jesus, when similar advice resulted in a large daytime catch after a fruitless night (Luke 5:1-11) – a miracle in that these fish would have seen the net. And now the miracle is repeated. No wonder that John, the first-hand writer of this account, exclaims, “It’s the Lord!!” To their even greater surprise, when they come to land, they see the preparation Jesus had already made for them – in effect, a barbecue – a charcoal fire, fish cooking over it, and bread available too. Here was the very real, living, breathing, flesh-and-bone Jesus, the fully resurrected Yeshua HaMaschiach, who even shared meals with them. He’d promised “they will see me there” and there he was, just as he said. Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

Endnotes

¹ Ehrman, B.D., (2014) How Jesus Became God, HarperOne: p.90
² Nun,M., “Ports of Galilee,” Biblical Archaeology Review, 25:4 (July/August 1999): p.26
³ Taxation Israel (julianspriggs.co.uk) accessed 12 April 2021
⁴ The Fishy Secret to Ancient Magdala’s Economic Growth - Biblical Archaeology Society accessed 12 April 2021
⁵ Strabo (c.63 BC – c. AD 24), Geography, XVI.2.45
⁶ https://www.jesusboat.com/jesusboat-archive/ancient-seafaring-and-the-jesus-boat/ accessed 12 April 2021
⁷ The fact that John, one of the business partners, refers to “the little boat” is strongly suggestive of it being owned by them