Mark 1:16–20 meaning

The parallel Gospel accounts for Mark 1:16-20 are Matthew 4:18-22, Luke 5:1-11 and John 1:40-42.

As Jesus was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen (v 16). Simon will become one of Jesus’s closest disciples over the course of His earthly ministry. 

From John’s Gospel, it appears as though Jesus and Simon had previously met one another. Their acquaintance was made when Andrew, Simon’s brother and a disciple of John the Baptizer, brought Simon to meet Jesus. John the Baptizer identified Jesus and Andrew believed Him to be the Messiah (John 1:35-41). When Andrew brought Simon to Jesus, “Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas’ (which is translated as Peter)” (John 1:42). Their previous encounter apparently took place outside of the district of Galilee (John 1:43), probably near the place where John the Baptizer was camped. Following that initial meeting, Jesus went into the wilderness alone where He fasted for 40 days and was tempted by the devil (Luke 4:1-13), and afterwards returned to Galilee (Luke 4:14). 

The Hebrew name Simon means “listen” or “hear.” Simon’s nickname is Peter (Matthew 16:18, Mark 3:16), and it is by this moniker that he is most often spoken of. “Peter” is the Anglicized version of the Greek word for “rock” or “stone,” which is “Petros.” It seems that Jesus’s nickname had not fully caught on at this time because Mark is using Simon’s given Hebrew name instead of the name of Peter, the name by which Simon would be more widely known.

“Rock” is an appropriate nickname for Simon. Rocks are hard. Petros (Peter) was hard-headed. Sometimes for good, sometimes not. For example, just after confessing Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes Him for saying He is going to die (Matthew 16:16, 22). Simon’s personality appears to be outgoing and impulsive—which leads to some spectacular failures on his behalf. But Simon Peter is also used by God in inspiring ways (Acts 2:14-40). Despite his hard-headedness and his failures, Jesus loves Peter and will lead this fisherman from Galilee to do great things for His Kingdom. Peter’s fearlessness will be a strong asset put to good purposes by God.

With one meaningful exception in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:37), Mark’s Gospel consistently refers to Simon as “Peter” from Chapter 3 onward. Mark first tells us that Simon’s nickname is “Peter” when he records the moment where Jesus chooses the twelve apostles (Mark 3:13-19). 

This seems to be the reason why Mark (and Peter—Mark’s primary source and apostolic sponsor) chose to begin this Gospel by referring to Peter with his given name of Simon and then change it to Peter, centering the name change around Simon’s appointment as one of the twelve disciples. The name change appears to be a device to emphasize the before and after of Jesus’s appointing of Peter. In this case his birth name, Simon, was used to refer to Peter before Jesus named him an apostle, and Peter is used after this event. 

Luke’s Gospel follows Mark’s pattern. Matthew’s Gospel introduces Simon as Peter from the very first mention of him (Matthew 4:18) and mostly refers to the disciple simply as “Peter” throughout his account. And John’s Gospel oscillates back and forth between referring to Simon as “Simon Peter” and “Peter.” 

We are told Jesus’s location when He called these disciples to follow Him: the shores of the Sea of Galilee. In the Old Testament, when Galilee is spoken of (which is rare) it is called “Chinnereth,” which is a Hebrew word that means “harp,” since the sea is shaped like a harp (Numbers 34:11; Deuteronomy 3:17; Joshua 11:2, 12:3, 13:27, 19:35, 1 Kings 15:20). Sometimes the Greek New Testament calls it “Gennesaret,” as in this verse, which is the Greek form of “Chinnereth” (Matthew 14:34; Mark 6:53).

It is also called the “Sea of Tiberius” after the Caesar who reigned during Jesus’s adult life (John 6:1; 21:1). The town of Tiberius was established by Herod Antipas and remains the name of the modern city on the western shore of the lake.

Today, the Sea of Galilee is roughly the same as it was in the New Testament era. It is 13 miles in length from its north to its south. The Jordan River feeds and flows from it at each of these ends. The sea is a freshwater lake and is about eight miles across at its widest point. It has 64 miles of surface area; its maximum depth is about 140 feet; and it has an average depth of 84 feet. In modern times, the eastern hills overlooking the Sea of Galilee are called the “Golan Heights.”

Mark continues to tell us that Andrew, the brother of Simon, was also seen by Jesus on the shores of Galilee that day. Less is known about Andrew. He is mentioned by name only a few times in Scripture. In John’s Gospel, Andrew was the one who introduced Simon (Peter) to Jesus (John 1:40-41). The reason Jesus invites these brothers at this time to follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men (v 17) may have been because Jesus and Andrew had previously met. The Bible tells us, without much fanfare, that Andrew brings others to Jesus on at least two other occasions (John 6:8; 12:12). Jesus is telling these fishermen that if they leave their nets and follow Him, they will be “catching the hearts and souls of men” rather than fish.

Mark tells us that the brothers immediately left their nets and followed Him (v 18). Leaving their nets is a euphemism for “leaving everything” and it shows that they did not even take the time to unload (and sell) their haul of fish.

Mark’s phrase going on a little farther (v 19) suggests a continuous event between Jesus’s calling of Simon and Andrew and His calling of the next pair of brothers. He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets (v 19).

The Zebedee brothers, James and John, round out Jesus’s inner trio with Simon Peter. They appear to be close-knit and boisterous. Their father’s name, Zebedee, means “Gift of God,” though Jesus later nicknames them “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17). At one point the “Thunder Brothers,” to the irritation of their fellow disciples, get their mother to ask Jesus to pick them to be the ones sitting at Jesus’s left and right hand when He inaugurates His kingdom. By asking to sit on His right and left, they are asking to be the next in charge (Matthew 20:20-24). James will be the first of the twelve disciples to be martyred, executed by Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:1-2). Again, the title “Thunder Brothers” indicates that Jesus is looking for fighters rather than scholars.

John was James’s younger brother. He was most likely the youngest of the disciples. He would become the author of the Gospel of John and three short epistles (1 John, 2 John, 3 John). As an old man exiled on the island of Patmos, John received apocalyptic visions and wrote the Book of Revelation.

Jesus saw these brothers in the boat mending their nets. Mark also tells us in the next verse that they were with their father Zebedee (v 20). Fishing was a family business for them. Mark then simply tells us that immediately He called them. We do not know the exact words Christ used, but the message was apparently similar to what He had said previously to Simon and Andrew. The Zebedee brothers’ response was the same as Simon and Andrew’s. They left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went away to follow Him (v 20). The fact that they left their father to manage the business without them displayed a strong personal commitment to Jesus. It also likely indicates that the prestige of being called to follow a rabbi was considered a substantially significant opportunity such that it was accepted both by father and sons as an acceptable sacrifice to be made to the family business.