^16 (A)As He was going along 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 have you become fishers of people.” ¹⁸ Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. ¹⁹ And going on a little farther, He saw ^[a]James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John, ^[b]who were also in the boat mending the nets. ²⁰ Immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and went away ^[c]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 his brother Andrew, 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 people.” ²⁰ Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. ²¹ Going on from there He saw two other brothers, ^[b](D)James the son of Zebedee, and his brother ^[c]John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets; and He called them. ²² Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.

² and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. ³ And ^(A)He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little distance from the land. And He sat down and continued teaching the crowds from the boat. ⁴ Now 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 responded and said, “^(C)Master, ^(D)we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but ^[a]I will do as You say and let down the nets.” ⁶ And when they had done this, ^(E)they caught a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to tear; ⁷ so they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, to the point that they were sinking. 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 likewise also were ^[b]James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “^(F)Do not fear; from now on you will be ^(G)catching people.” ¹¹ 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. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of ^[b](C)John; you shall be called ^(D)Cephas” (which is translated ^[c](E)Peter).