You will be catching men.
 Read this week’s readings here.

1 Corinthians 15, verses 3-9, is called the “Corinthian Creed” and it is one of the earliest Christian statements of faith in the Bible. Scholars believe this was the earliest creed, from shortly after Jesus’s resurrection.  

“For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.  After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.”

The last line (after the comma) may have been added by, Paul, for clarity.  Then Paul ends this reading with a beautiful and humble profession of his own faith.

  

Lake of Gennesaret

This lake is also called the Sea of Galilee, Sea of Tiberius, or Lake Kinneret.  It is a freshwater lake fed by both underground streams and the Jordan River.  The fish in the sea were an important food source for the local population.  Fishermen caught Tilapia Galilea, commonly called Musht; Biny, a type of carp; and Kinneret Sardines. 

 

A first-century fishing boat was found in the Sea of Galilee in 1986 by Moshe and Yuval Lufin, brothers who were fishermen and amateur archeologists.  The fishing boats were quite larger than what is often depicted in medieval art.  Larger than 27 feet long, these boats could hold up to fifteen men each.  They had both sails and oars. The fishermen in the Bible were professionals, who knew their jobs well.

 

When we consider the size of the fishing boats and the professional knowledge of the fishermen, the magnitude of Jesus’s miracle is far greater that what we often imagine.  This amount of fish would have fed a lot of families.  The fact that they needed the crew of two boats to bring in the nets, with fifteen men in each boat, and the fact that the boats were heavy and in danger of sinking, shows how many fish were caught.  Peter (then called Simon), James and John left their boats and followed Jesus after seeing the miracle.

  

These links are articles I used for researching the Friday Update.

 

I also use the USCCB NAB Bible and its footnotes extensively.

 

Historical Sources (Not Church Sources)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLDhKvD6ueQ
https://ferrelljenkins.blog/2014/12/01/fish-of-the-sea-of-galilee/