{"id":71295,"date":"2024-02-05T23:07:26","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T05:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=71295"},"modified":"2024-02-05T23:25:36","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T05:25:36","slug":"fisherman-or-fishermen-considering-the-churchs-corporate-mission-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=71295","title":{"rendered":"Fisherman or Fishermen? Considering the Church\u2019s Corporate Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p aria-level=\"2\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">When Jesus said in Matthew 4:19, \u201cI will make you fishers of men,\u201d do you picture an <span data-contrast=\"none\">individual<span data-contrast=\"none\"> sitting on the edge of a pier with a rod and reel? Or do you imagine a <span data-contrast=\"none\">group<span data-contrast=\"none\"> of fishermen leaning over the side of a boat, each one holding their part of a large net?<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">More importantly, which kind of fishing came to the disciples\u2019 minds?<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p aria-level=\"3\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">You or Y\u2019all?<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134245418&quot;:true,&quot;134245529&quot;:true,&quot;335559738&quot;:240,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Western Christians often imagine the individual on the pier. Why? First, translators often flatten the distinction between second-person singular and second-person plural pronouns\u2014between \u201cyou\u201d and \u201cyou all.\u201d Matthew 4:19 uses the second-person plural pronoun. So Jesus\u2019s words could be translated, \u201cI will make <span data-contrast=\"none\">you all<span data-contrast=\"none\"> fishers of men.\u201d The change is slight, but significant.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">But translation isn\u2019t the only explanation. We also have to consider the cultural intuitions of those raised in the West. Might some of us occasionally read our own individualistic presuppositions into<span data-contrast=\"none\"> the Bible? It\u2019s certainly possible.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Scores of mission texts in the New Testament employ those same plural pronouns. For example, Acts 1:8 could rightly be, \u201c<span data-contrast=\"none\">You<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Jesus said in Matthew 4:19, \u201cI will make you fishers of men,\u201d do you picture an individual sitting on the edge of a pier with a rod and reel?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":651,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[793],"tags":[321],"class_list":["post-71295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9marks","tag-evangelism-gospel","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/651"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71295"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71297,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71295\/revisions\/71297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}