Fishing, the Art of

Fishing was practiced extensively in ancient Israel and throughout the ancient Near East, particularly on the Sea of Galilee (also called the Lake of Gennesaret or Tiberias) and along the Mediterranean coast. The techniques employed in biblical times included casting and dragging nets (the draw-net or seine net, Matthew 13:47-48; the cast net, Mark 1:16), line fishing with hooks, and the use of spears or fish-traps. The industry was large enough to support guilds and commercial operations: first-century Galilean fish were salted and exported throughout the Roman Empire from facilities at Magdala (Greek: Tarichaeae, "salted fish").

The gospels set much of Jesus's Galilean ministry in this fishing context. The calling of disciples from their nets (Mark 1:16-20), the teaching from Peter's boat, the parable of the dragnet (Matthew 13:47-50), the miraculous catches, and Peter's finding a coin in a fish's mouth (Matthew 17:27) all draw on the intimate familiarity Jesus and his disciples had with this world. The art of fishing thus provided both the social context and a rich reservoir of parable material for Jesus's Galilean ministry.