^16 (A)As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. ¹⁷ And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” ¹⁸ And immediately they left their nets and followed Him. ¹⁹ And going on a little farther, He saw ^[a]James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. ²⁰ And immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went away ^[b]to follow Him.

The First Disciples

^18 (A)Now as Jesus was walking by ^(B)the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, ^(C)Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ And He *said to them, “^[a]Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” ²⁰ And immediately they left their nets and followed Him. ²¹ And going on from there He saw two other brothers, ^[b](D)James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. ²² And immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.

² and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, and the fishermen, having gotten out of them, were washing their nets. ^3 (A)And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the crowds from the boat. ⁴ And when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and ^(B)let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵ Simon answered and said, “^(C)Master, ^(D)we labored all night and caught nothing, but at Your word, I will let down the nets.” ⁶ And when they had done this, ^(E)they enclosed a great quantity of fish. And their nets began to break; ⁷ so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸ But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” ⁹ For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken, ¹⁰ and ^[a]James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon, were also likewise amazed. And Jesus said to Simon, “^(F)Do not fear, from now on you will be ^(G)catching men.” ¹¹ And when they had brought their boats to land, ^(H)they left everything and followed Him.

^40 (A)One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹ He first *found his own brother Simon and *said to him, “We have found the ^(B)Messiah” (which translated means ^[a]Christ). ⁴² He brought him to Jesus. When Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of ^(C)John; you shall be called ^(D)Cephas” (which is translated ^[b](E)Peter).