and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.
This passage of story fell, in order of time, before the two miracles we had in the close of the foregoing chapter, and is the same with that which was more briefly related by Matthew and Mark, of Christ's calling Peter and Andrew to be fishers of men, Mat 4:18, and Mar 1:16.
Commenting on Luke 5:1-11
And saw two ships standing by the lake,.... Or two fishing boats; which were, as the Arabic version renders it, "detained by anchors at the shore of the lake"; the one belonging to Peter and Andrew, and the other to Zebedee, and his two sons, James and John: but the fishermen were gone out of them; that is, either the above persons, or their servants...
Verse 2. Two ships. The skips used on so small a lake were probably no more than fishing-boats without decks, and easily drawn up on the beach. Josephus says there were 230 of them on the lake, attended by four or five men each. That they were small is also clear from the account commonly given of them.