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of all the nations, not only chiliarchs but also the multitude of the Roman army, as well as countless rulers and leaders who hold power over nations and countries, and certain others superior to these in honor and rank who are held in high esteem in the palaces, approaching the Christ of God in the same way as that chiliarch, and through his teaching having come to know the God of the God-loving men who shone among the Hebrews, have been deemed worthy of the same reward as they by the all-sovereign God. 6 For when a large crowd was pressing in on Jesus, he got into one of the boats, he says, which was Simon's. And sitting in it, he taught the crowds. And after sufficient teaching, since it was necessary also to add to the words a divine work beneficial to those who saw, the Lord exhorts Peter to let down the nets for a catch, but he said to him: "Having toiled all night we found nothing. But at your word I will let down the nets," and he did what was commanded. And when "they enclosed a great multitude of fish" and the nets, weighed down by the multitude, were breaking, they call for help those in the neighboring boat, then having drawn up the fish they fill both the boats, so that they were in danger of sinking, at which things Peter, marveling, was astonished and confessed himself unworthy of the Savior's boarding. But he, as if showing him an image of the future, clarifies also the interpretation, and Jesus says to him: "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men alive"; and to all: Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. Fittingly our Savior promised to make Galilean men—humble, rustic, knowing nothing more than the Syrian tongue, but also pursuing the lowly and humble trade of fishing—hunters of men and heralds of his teaching, and he has done so, not falsifying the promise, demonstrating the power of God active in a matter that surpasses all human excellence. For if he had brought forward some eloquent and wise men, or even some of the glorious and rich men among the Jews, and had used these as teachers of his words, it would have been likely that the matter be thought of in a more human way. For thus most men are accustomed to submit, either being enticed by money from the rich, or being deceived by a display of words and an appearance of wisdom, or being overawed by the eminence of glorious persons. But he, not using such disciples, but on the contrary the poor and inglorious and unlearned in speech, Syrian in tongue and humble and mean in appearance, was in deed clearly using only divine power, which he demonstrated first by calling them with one voice and making them his followers, and then promising to make them netters and heralds of men, so that in place of the nets they had, having received from him the dragnet woven from all kinds of words, both of the law and of the prophets and of his own inspired teaching, they might cast it into the sea of human life and enclose as many as they might find, filling their own spiritual nets with every kind of spiritual fish. But these things indeed, being heard then through the voice, were words and sounds and nothing more. But the work of the divine power he did not long delay in presenting, accomplishing in deeds these very things that had been foretold through words, so that in a short time the entire inhabited world of men acquired countless multitudes of those netted by these poor and unlearned men, and every place of Greeks and barbarians was filled with churches through that one promise of the divine voice, by which he promised not to teach his disciples, but that he himself would make them fishers of men, so that he not only foreknew nor foretold the future, but also has been revealed as the maker of such great knowledge; he both said in word and has made in deed,

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ἁπάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν οὐ χιλίαρχοι μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ τοῦ Ῥωμαϊκοῦ στρατοπέδου πλῆθος ὡς καὶ μυρίοι ἄρχοντές τε καὶ ἡγεμόνες οἱ τῶν ἐθνῶν καὶ τῶν χωρῶν κρατοῦντες καὶ ἄλλοι τινὲς τιμῇ καὶ ἀξιώματι τούτων ὑπέρτεροι οἱ ἐν τοῖς βασιλείοις σεμνυνόμενοι ὁμοίως ἐκείνῳ τῷ χιλιάρχῳ τῷ θεοῦ Χριστῷ προσιόντες καὶ διὰ τῆς αὐτοῦ διδασκαλίας τὸν τῶν παρ' Ἑβραίοις λαμψάντων θεοφιλῶν ἀνδρῶν ἐπιγνόντες θεόν, τῆς ἴσης αὐτοῖς ἐκείνοις ἠξίωνται παρὰ τῷ παμβασιλεῖ θεῷ ἀμοιβῆς. 6 πολλοῦ γὰρ ὄχλου ἐπικειμένου τῷ Ἰησοῦ ἐνέβη, φησίν, εἰς ἓν τῶν πλοίων, ὃ ἦν Σίμωνος. καθίσας δὲ ἐν αὐτῷ, ἡρμήνευσε τοῖς ὄχλοις. μετὰ δὲ αὐτάρκη διδασκαλίαν ἐπειδὴ ἔδει καὶ θεϊκὸν ἔργον προστιθέναι τοῖς λόγοις ὠφέλιμον τοῖς ὁρῶσι, παρακελεύεται μὲν τῷ Πέτρῳ ὁ κύριος χαλάσαι εἰς ἄγραν τὰ δίκτυα, ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· «δι' ὅλης νυκτὸς κοπιάσαντες οὐδὲν εὕρομεν. ἐπὶ δὲ τῷ ῥήματί σου χαλάσω τὰ δίκτυα», καὶ τὰ προστεταγμένα ἐποίει. ὡς δὲ «συνέκλεισαν πλῆθος ἰχθύων πολὺ» καὶ διερρήγνυτο τὰ δίκτυα τῷ πλήθει βαρούμενα, προσκαλοῦνται μὲν εἰς βοήθειαν τοὺς ἐν τῷ γειτνιῶντι πλοίῳ, εἶτ' ἀνελκύσαντες τοὺς ἰχθύας πληροῦσιν ἄμφω τὰ σκάφη, ὡς κινδυνεύειν αὐτὰ βυθισθῆναι, ἐφ' οἷς ὁ Πέτρος ἀποθαυμάσας ἐξεπλάγη ἀνάξιόν τε ἑαυτὸν τῆς σωτηρίου ἐπιβάσεως ὡμολόγει. ὁ δ' ὥσπερ ἐπιδείξας αὐτῷ τὴν τοῦ μέλλοντος εἰκόνα διασαφεῖ καὶ τὴν ἑρμηνείαν, καί φησι πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁ Ἰησοῦς· «μὴ φοβοῦ· ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ἀνθρώπους ἔσῃ ζωγρῶν»· πρὸς δὲ πάντας· δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου καὶ ποιήσω ὑμᾶς ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων. Γαλιλαίους ἄνδρας εὐτελεῖς, ἀγροίκους οὐδὲν πλέον τῆς Σύρων φωνῆς ἐπισταμένους, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ἐπιτήδευμα ταπεινὸν καὶ εὐτελὲς τῆς ἁλιείας μετερχομένους εἰκότως ὁ σωτὴρ ἡμῶν θηρευτὰς ἀνθρώπων καὶ κήρυκας τῆς αὐτοῦ διδασκαλίας ποιήσειν ἐπηγγέλλετο καὶ πεποίηκεν οὐ ψευσάμενος τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν, παριστὰς θεοῦ δύναμιν ἐνεργητικὴν πράγματος πᾶσαν ἀνθρώπων ἀρετὴν καλύπτοντος. εἰ μὲν γὰρ λογίους τινὰς καὶ σοφοὺς ἢ καὶ τῶν παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις ἀνθρώπων ἐνδόξων καὶ πλουσίων προσαγόμενος τούτοις ἐκέχρητο διδασκάλοις τῶν αὐτοῦ λόγων, κἂν εἰκὸς ἦν ἀνθρωπινώτερον ἐπινενοῆσθαι τὸ πρᾶγμα. οὕτω γοῦν οἱ πλείους τῶν ἀνθρώπων εἰώθασιν ὑποτάττεσθαι ἢ χρήμασιν ὑπὸ πλουσίων δελεαζόμενοι ἢ λόγων περιβολῇ καὶ φαντασίᾳ σοφίας ἀπατώμενοι ἢ ὑπεροχὰς ἐνδόξων προσώπων καταπληττόμενοι. ὁ δὲ μὴ τοιούτοις χρησάμενος μαθηταῖς, τοὐναντίον δὲ πένησι καὶ ἀδόξοις καὶ τὸν λόγον ἰδιώταις Σύροις τε τὴν φωνὴν καὶ τὸ σχῆμα ταπεινοῖς καὶ εὐτελέσιν, ἔργῳ δῆλος ἦν μόνῃ τῇ θεϊκῇ δυνάμει χρώμενος, ἣν ἐνεδείξατο πρῶτα μὲν φωνῇ μιᾷ προσκαλεσάμενος αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀκολούθους αὐτοῦ καταστήσας κἄπειτα ἐπαγγειλάμενος σαγηνευτὰς καὶ κήρυκας ἀνθρώπων ποιήσειν αὐτούς, ἵν' ἀνθ' ὧν εἶχον δικτύων λαβόντες παρ' αὐτοῦ τὴν ἀπὸ παντοίων λόγων νομικῶν τε καὶ προφητικῶν τῶν τε τῆς ἐνθέου διδασκαλίας αὐτοῦ πλακεῖσαν σαγήνην ἐμβάλωσιν εἰς τὴν τοῦ ἀνθρωπείου βίου θάλατταν καὶ περιβάλωσιν ὅσους ἂν εὕρωσιν, πληροῦντες τὰ ἑαυτῶν λογικὰ δίκτυα παντὸς γένους λογικῶν ἰχθύων. ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μέν, διὰ φωνῆς τότε ἀκουόμενα, ῥήματα καὶ ψόφοι καὶ πλέον ὑπῆρχεν οὐδέν. τῆς δ' ἐνθέου δυνάμεως τὸ ἔργον οὐκ εἰς μακρὰν παρεστήσατο, αὐτὰ δὴ ταῦτα τὰ διὰ τῶν λόγων προηγορευμένα τοῖς ἔργοις ἐπιτελέσας, ὡς ἐν βραχεῖ χρόνῳ τὴν σύμπασαν ὁμοῦ ἀνθρώπων οἰκουμένην μυρία πλήθη τῶν σαγηνευθέντων ὑπὸ τῶν πενήτων καὶ ἰδιωτῶν τούτων ἀνδρῶν κτήσασθαι πληρωθῆναί τε ἐκκλησιῶν πάντα τόπον Ἑλλήνων τε καὶ βαρβάρων διὰ μίαν ἐκείνην ἐπαγγελίαν τῆς θεϊκῆς φωνῆς, δι' ἧς οὐ διδάξειν τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ μαθητάς, ἀλλ' αὐτὸς ποιήσειν αὐτοὺς ἁλιέας ἀνθρώπων ἐπηγγείλατο, ὥστ' οὐ προέγνω μόνον οὐδὲ προέφησε τὸ μέλλον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ποιητὴς τῆς τηλικαύτης γνώσεως ἀποπέφανται, εἶπέ τε τῷ λόγῳ καὶ πεποίηκε τῷ ἔργῳ,