SORTING FISH AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD

MATTHEW 13:47–50

Jesus had opened the day speaking to people from a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee (Matt. 13:1–2); he closed the day in a house beside the Sea of Galilee speaking with his disciples about fishing. Jesus had called a number of these men while they were fishing and had redefined their life’s work to be “fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19; see vv. 18–22). Now on the shore of that lake where they pursued their profession, Jesus used a parable to speak about the Kingdom of God using imagery with which they were familiar.

There are three general types of fishing nets that were used in the Sea of Galilee during the first century. The first is the cast net, which Peter and Andrew were using when Jesus called them to follow him (Matt. 4:18). James and his brother John were in a boat using the second type of net—a trammel—when Jesus called them to be his disciples (Matt. 4:21).18 The seine or dragnet is the third kind, and it may well be the oldest form of fishing net used in the Sea of Galilee.19

The seine is a special net that sports a long towline on each end. In order to deploy this net, the crew is divided into two groups. One remains on shore and secures one end of the net using one of the towlines while the remaining crew get into a boat and pull the net taut about fifty yards out into the lake. Floats on the top line of the net joined by weights on the bottom line keep the dragnet upright. Once the net is fully extended, the crew in the boat make a sweeping turn pulling the upright wall of the net in a semicircle back toward shore. With the boat secured, the reunited crew uses both towlines to pull the arcing net toward the shoreline, corralling and entangling fish as it goes.20

Mending fishing nets in the early 1900s.
Courtesy of the House of Anchors Museum, Kibbutz Ein Gev.

Fisherman with St. Peter’s Fish (Arabic musht, meaning “comb,” referring to the shape of the dorsal fin).
© Direct Design.

Once the net is on shore, the work has just begun. The dragnet is an indiscriminate gatherer, and as a result it draws in a wide variety of fish, some of which cannot be eaten in accordance with Jewish dietary law. Fish that have dorsal fins and scales are approved to be eaten; those without dorsal fins or scales have to be discarded (Lev. 11:9–12). Consequently, once the fishermen have pulled in the net to the shore, it is necessary to separate the “good” fish from the “bad” fish.

Using this information, Jesus provided a parable about catching all kinds of fish and then separating the good fish from the bad (Matt. 13:47–48). The parable contains a number of details that call to mind fishing with a dragnet. In the parable Jesus linked the final activity of the fishing process with the end of the age. He pointed out an important similarity between what the fishermen in the parable had been doing and what would happen in the Kingdom of God. Just as fishermen spread nets, gathered fish, and sorted them, so the angels will gather and separate for God those who have been made righteous by him.

Catch of sardines from the Sea of Galilee.

A biny, or barbel, is a species of carp with what looks like barbs or whiskers at the corners of its mouth.