John 21:3 Simon Peter said to them, I go a fishing. They say to him, We also go with you. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately… The Sea of Galilee now, as in the days of our Saviour, is well stocked with various species of fish, some of excellent flavour. One species often appears in dense masses which blacken the surface of the water, the individual fish being packed so closely together that on one occasion a single shot from a revolver killed three. These shoals were most frequently seen near the shores of Gennesareth: perhaps not far from the place where the disciples let down their net into the sea, and enclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. (Recovery of Jerusalem.)The place soon asserted its right to the name Bethsaida by the exceeding abundance of the fish we saw tumbling into the water. The hot springs flowing in here over these rocks, and a little farther on in larger volume over a clean brown sand, warm all the ambient shallows for a hundred feet from shore, and, as much vegetable matter is brought down by the springs, and probably also insects which have fallen in, all these dainties are half cooked when they enter the lake. Evidently the fish agree to dine on these hot joints, and therefore in a large semicircle they crowd the water by myraids round the warm river mouth. Their backs are above the surface, as they bask or tumble and jostle crowded in the water. They gambol and splash, and the calm sea, fringed by a reeking crowd of vapour, has beyond this belt of living fish, a long row of cormorants feeding on the half-boiled fish as the fish have fed on insects underdone. White gulls poise in flocks behind the grebes or cormorants, and beyond these again ducks bustle on the water or whirl in the air. The whole is a most curious scene, and probably it has been thus from day to day for many thousand years. I paddled along the curved line of fishes' backs and flashing tails. Some leaped into the air, others struck my boat or paddle. Dense shoals moved in brigades as if by concert or command. (MacGregor's Jordan.) Parallel Verses KJV: Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. |
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