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He both represented the future through a symbol and an image and through the very deed fulfilled it. For to those who long before had toiled in the night in the darkness of the light of truth and of the knowledge of God, and had not been able to catch anything for salvation, having shone His own light upon them when it had become day and light, He commands them, not trusting in their own knowledge but in His word, to cast their nets into the deep. And they gathered such a multitude of fish that their fishing gear was breaking, and the boats were in danger of sinking from the weight. And when these things happening in this way brought Peter to no ordinary amazement and fear, "Let not these things yet amaze you," the Savior says to him. "For these are still but child's play and images of things to come. For these fish are mute and irrational, and these boats and nets are made from lifeless matter, but their antitypes are not such as these. A little later, then, or rather from this point on, 'from now on you will be catching men,' being set free from this toilsome and unprofitable fishing, becoming a hunter of rational beings instead of irrational ones; and no longer from the depths of the sea, but from the salty bitterness of life and from the dark recesses of impiety and evil you will draw up into intellectual light and pure breath those who will be hunted by you; or rather, you will catch them alive by providing them life and not death. For the fish from the sea, previously living in darkness and the deep, perish as soon as they partake of light and breath, but those from among men who will be hunted by you will be caught by changing from the darkness of ignorance to a divine life. Therefore he says, 'from now on you will be catching men.' The Savior foretold these things by divine power; He himself showed these things to be faithful and true by his deeds. So then that caster of nets, that fisherman, that Syrian, instead of the hunting of fish, how many myriads of men he netted with nets of unspeakable words woven with divine power, it is not possible to comprehend in number. For things that appear are a vision of things unseen. For what the long age of life before the theophany of the Savior did not bring forth, what neither Moses the lawgiver of the Hebrews, nor the prophets of God after Moses, nor countless other hunters of old proclaiming the divine teaching to men, having toiled much through the whole night before his appearance, were able to accomplish, these things that Galilean, that poor man, that man of barbarous speech, that very Peter, accomplished. And a proof of the things then accomplished by Peter are the churches shining forth to this day, abounding with rational fish far more than the boats of that time, such as the one in Caesarea of Palestine, such as the one in Antioch of Syria, such as the one in the city of the Romans itself. For Peter himself is remembered for having established these churches and all those around them; and again he himself established those in Egypt at Alexandria itself, not, however, by himself, but through Mark who had been made his disciple. For he himself was occupied with Italy and all the nations around it, and he appointed his student Mark as teacher and netter of those in Egypt. And turn your mind also to the other disciples of our Savior, whom He, having promised to make fishers of men, showed the word by deed. So even now He himself is at work and is doing, being present everywhere on earth and filling the whole inhabited world of men with His rational nets, from every race of rational fish, both barbarian and Greek, pulling up the souls of men from the depth of evil and the darkness of impiety, and drawing them up each day and each hour to the light of the divine knowledge delivered by Him . . . . . . 7 So too again of John the son of Zebedee, whom, having seen him mending the nets at his fishing along with his father and his brother, of the same

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παρέστησέ τε τὸ μέλλον διὰ συμβόλου καὶ εἰκόνος καὶ δι' αὐτῆς ἐνεργείας ἀπεπλήρωσεν. τοῖς γὰρ πάλαι πρότερον ἐν σκοτίᾳ φωτὸς ἀληθείας καὶ θεοῦ γνώσεως ἐν νυκτὶ καταπονηθεῖσι καὶ μηδένα πρὸς σωτηρίαν θηρεῦσαι δεδυνημένοις ἐπιλάμψας τὸ ἑαυτοῦ φέγγος ἐν ἡμέρᾳ καὶ φωτὶ γενομένοις προστάττει, οὐ τῇ οἰκείᾳ ἐπιστήμῃ, τῷ δὲ αὐτοῦ ῥήματι θαρσοῦντας ἐπιβάλλειν τῷ βυθῷ τὰ δίκτυα. οἱ δὲ τοσαῦτα συνήγαγον ἰχθύων πλήθη, ὡς διαρρήγνυσθαι μὲν τὰ θηρευτικὰ ὄργανα, κινδυνεύειν δὲ εἰς βυθὸν χωρεῖν ἀπὸ τοῦ φόρτου τὰ πλοῖα. ἐπεὶ δὲ ταῦθ' οὕτως πραττόμενα τὸν Πέτρον εἰς ἔκπληξιν καὶ φόβον οὐ τὸν τυχόντα ἦγεν, ἀλλὰ ταῦτά σε, φησὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁ σωτήρ, μήπω ἐκπληττέτω. παιδιαὶ γὰρ ἔτι ταῦτα καὶ μελλόντων εἰκόνες. οἵδε μὲν γὰρ ἰχθύες ἄναυδοι καὶ ἄλογοι καὶ ταῦτα σκάφη καὶ δίκτυα ἐξ ἀψύχου ὕλης κατεσκευασμένα, ἀλλ' οὐ τοιαῦτα τούτων τὰ παραδείγματα. μικρὸν γοῦν ὕστερον, μᾶλλον δὲ ἐντεῦθεν ἤδη καὶ «ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ἀνθρώπους ἔσῃ ζωγρῶν», τῆς μὲν μοχθηρᾶς ταύτης καὶ ἀνωφελοῦς ἀπαλλαγεὶς ἁλιείας, λογικῶν δὲ ζώων ἀντὶ τῶν ἀλόγων θηρευτὴς γινόμενος, καὶ οὐκέτι ἐκ βυθῶν θαλάττης, ἐκ δὲ τῆς ἁλμυρᾶς τοῦ βίου πικρίας ἐκ σκοτίων τε μυχῶν ἀθεότητος καὶ κακίας εἰς φῶς νοερὸν καὶ καθαρὰν πνοὴν ἀνελκύσεις τοὺς ὑπὸ σοῦ θηρευθησομένους, μᾶλλον δὲ ζωγρήσεις αὐτοὺς διὰ τοῦ ζωὴν αὐτοῖς ἀλλ' οὐ θάνατον προξενεῖν. οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἐκ πελάγους ἰχθύες ἐν σκότῳ καὶ βυθῷ πρότερον ζῶντες αὐτίκα φωτὸς καὶ πνοῆς μετασχόντες ἀπόλλυνται, οἱ δὲ ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ὑπὸ σοῦ θηρευθησόμενοι ἐκ σκότους ἀγνοίας μεταβαλόντες ἐπὶ ζωὴν ἔνθεον ἀγρευθήσονται. διὸ καὶ «ζωγρῶν ἔσῃ ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ἀνθρώπους» φησίν. ταῦτα θεϊκῇ δυνάμει προηγόρευσεν ὁ σωτήρ, ταῦτα τοῖς ἔργοις πιστὰ καὶ ἀληθῆ ἐπέδειξεν ὁ αὐτός. ὁ γοῦν ἀμφιβολεὺς ἐκεῖνος, ὁ ἁλιεύς, ὁ Σύρος ἀντὶ τῆς τῶν ἰχθύων θήρας ὅσας ἀνθρώπων ἐσαγή νευσε μυριάδας λόγων ἀπορρήτων δικτύοις θεϊκῇ δυνάμει πλακεῖσιν, οὐκ ἔστιν ἀριθμῷ περιλαβεῖν δυνατόν. ὄψις δ' ἀδήλων τὰ φαινόμενα. ἃ γὰρ ὁ μακρὸς αἰὼν τοῦ βίου πρὸ τῆς τοῦ σωτῆρος θεοφανείας οὐκ ἤνεγκεν, ἃ μήτε Μωσῆς ὁ τῶν Ἑβραίων νομοθέτης μήτε οἱ μετὰ Μωσέα τοῦ θεοῦ προφῆται μήτε μυρίοι ἄλλοι πάλαι τὴν ἔνθεον διδασκαλίαν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἀναφωνήσαντες θηρευταὶ πολλὰ καμόντες διὰ πάσης νυκτὸς τῆς πρὸ τῆς ἐπιφανείας αὐτοῦ καταπράξασθαι μὴ δεδύνηνται, ταῦτα ὁ Γαλιλαῖος, ὁ πένης, ὁ βάρβαρος τὴν φωνήν, αὐτὸς ἐκεῖνος ὁ Πέτρος κατεπράξατο. δεῖγμα δὲ τῶν τότε ἐπιτελεσθέντων πρὸς Πέτρου αἱ εἰς δεῦρο διαλάμπουσαι ἐκκλησίαι, πολὺ μᾶλλον τῶν τότε σκαφῶν λογικῶν ἰχθύων πληθύουσαι, οἵα ἡ κατὰ Καισάρειαν τῆς Παλαιστίνης τυγχάνει, οἵα ἡ ἐπὶ Ἀντιοχείας τῆς κατὰ τὴν Συρίαν, οἵα ἡ ἐπ' αὐτῆς τῆς Ῥωμαίων πόλεως. τάσδε γὰρ αὐτὸς ὁ Πέτρος τὰς ἐκκλησίας καὶ τὰς ἀμφ' αὐτὰς ἁπάσας συστησάμενος μνημονεύεται, καὶ τὰς ἐπ' Αἰγύπτου κατ' αὐτὴν τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρειαν πάλιν αὐτός, οὐ μὴν δι' αὑτοῦ, διὰ δὲ Μάρκου τοῦ μαθητευθέντος αὑτῷ κατεστήσατο. αὐτὸς μὲν γὰρ ἀμφὶ τὴν Ἰταλίαν καὶ πάντα τὰ ἀμφὶ ταύτην ἔθνη ἐσχόλαζεν, τὸν δ' αὐτοῦ φοιτητὴν Μάρκον τῶν κατ' Αἴγυπτον διδάσκαλον καὶ σαγηνευτὴν ἀποδέδειχεν. τὸν δὲ νοῦν ἐπίστησον καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν μαθηταῖς, οὓς ἐπαγγειλάμενος ποιήσειν ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων, ἔργῳ τὸν λόγον ἔδειξεν. εἰσέτι γοῦν καὶ νῦν ὁ αὐτὸς ἐνεργεῖ καὶ ποιεῖ, πανταχοῦ γῆς παρὼν καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν ἀνθρώπων οἰκουμένην τῶν αὐτοῦ λογικῶν δικτύων πληρῶν, ἐκ παντὸς γένους λογικῶν ἰχθύων βαρβάρων τε καὶ Ἑλλήνων, ἀνασπῶν ἐκ τοῦ τῆς κακίας βυθοῦ καὶ τοῦ τῆς ἀθεότητος σκότους τὰς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ψυχάς, ἀνέλκων τε αὐτὰς ἐφ' ἑκάστης ἡμέρας καὶ ἐφ' ἑκάστης ὥρας ἐπὶ τὸ φῶς τῆς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ παραδοθείσης ἐνθέου γνώσεως . . . . . . 7 οὕτω δὲ πάλιν καὶ Ἰωάννου τοῦ υἱοῦ Ζεβεδαίου, ὃν ἐπὶ τῆς ἁλιείας ἅμα τῷ πατρὶ καὶ τῷ ἀδελφῷ καταρτίζοντα τὰ δίκτυα θεασάμενος τῆς αὐτῆς