Can “fishing” mean “judgment”?

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on February 5, 2022 under Ask the Pastor |

A friend of our church asks:

“In Matthew 4:18-20 Jesus Simon and Andrew who were casting nets because they were fishermen.  Jesus says “follow me and I will make you fishers of men”.  They immediately followed.  I suspect their Jewish minds may have immediately thought of Jer. 16:16 or Amos 4:2 which link fishing for men to God’s judgment.

“I can’t seem to find fishing related to men in the OT that is not specifically for judgement. …  It seems their jewish minds would immediately have thought of judgement rather than salvation because of the two referenced passages…  Can you help me process this?”

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Thanks for your question.While it’s true that those two old testament passages speak of ‘fishing’ and ‘fishermen’ as pictures of the way God searches out sinners for judgment (and perhaps as an illustration of how an object of God’s wrath cannot hide and escape); I don’t think that Simon and Andrew would have automatically thought that way about Jesus’ words.  I think that–as fishermen–they were just thinking of fish–and interpreted Jesus’ words in accordance with what they had just been doing.

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I don’t know if this helps or not; but there’s a practice in biblical interpretation that we need to beware of.  It’s often called “illegitimate totality transfer”.  As the name suggests, it occurs whenever the whole possible range of meaning of a word or figure is brought ‘illegitimately’ to bear on a specific instance.  It comes usually in two forms:

First, it occurs when a translator or interpreter brings the whole possible semantic range of a word to bear on a specific instance of that word.  If I say, for example, “I’m going to run to the store”; common sense would tell you that it doesn’t mean that I’m going to melt and trickle down the road and into the store’s parking lot; or that I’m going to literally jog down the road to the store; or that the whole way to the store I’m going to campaign for political office.  In the specific context in which I would have spoken, “run” means only one thing: I’m going to make a quick trip to the store.  To make the word “run” mean all of those other things is a case of illegitimate totality transfer.  (Many people love using the Amplified Bible; but I suggest that it’s a translation to only use cautiously, because it’s an example of the comprehensive abuse of this as a translation principle.)

Second, illegitimate totality transfer occurs when an interpreter brings the whole possible range of biblical symbolism to bear on every specific phrase or event.  For example, many preachers have said that ‘every appearance of leaven in the Bible is a symbol of sin’.  But that’s simply not true.  When Jesus spoke for example of how the kingdom of God is like a woman placing leaven in a lump of bread, common sense would restrict it to a symbol of how the kingdom is permeative and pervasive in its influence–not that the spreading of the kingdom involves the spreading of moral corruption.  Or other preachers speak of how the appearance of birds always symbolize the presence of unbelievers; but that’s not true either.  When Jesus spoke of how a mustard seed grows into a tree and the birds of the air rest on its branches, He wasn’t trying to make the point that the kingdom would be filled with wicked people, but simply that the benefits and blessings of the kingdom would reach many.

I think the same kind of thing would be true in this case.  To make the phrase ‘fishers of men’ to be a reference to judgment based on those two Old Testament references would be, in my mind, a case of illegitimate totality transfer.  But let’s put it to the test.  Think of Luke 5.  In that passage, Jesus told Peter and his crew to cast their net off to a certain spot, and they took in a great catch.

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”  For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.  And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.”  So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him (Luke 5:8-11).

They didn’t then go forth with Jesus to administer judgment.  Instead, they followed Jesus as He healed, and comforted and saved people – winning them to Himself and ultimately redeeming them.  It’s true that, in John 9:39, Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”  But that ‘judgment’ may be best understood as a matter of putting people on the forks of a decision about Him, rather than of administering the immediate wrath of God.

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This is all a long way of getting to the point; but no – I don’t believe either the Lord or those two fishermen were thinking about judgment based on those two Old Testament passages.  It was observant of you to notice those passages; but I don’t think that’s how Peter and Andrew understood things.  Instead, I think they were simply thinking of how, whereas they used to use means to lure, draw in, and take fish, they would now be used by Jesus to lure, draw in, and win women and men for salvation through faith in Him.  The fact that there’s no Old Testament example of the use of fishing as an illustration of ‘winning souls’ doesn’t necessarily prohibit this interpretation.

Perhaps the best principle would be to only interpret the symbolic meaning of a New Testament word or event as far as common sense would allow; and to then only bring in a deeper meaning from the Old Testament when the context clearly requires it.

Hope this helps.  Always a blessing to hear from you, good brother.

Blessings,

Pastor Greg