The Greek terms that are used for what is translated as “net” in English are translated in languages like Navajo (Dinė) where fishing with nets is not known as “instruments to catch (or: bring out) the fish.” (Source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
“[People living close to lakes] produced further problems for us over fishing terms when we reached the revision of the Gospels. Fishing is practically unknown in the mountain streams and rivers, so there is hardly any vocabulary for it up-country. In Mat. 4:18 we read that Jesus saw two brethren “casting a net into the sea.” The word we used for net (urusenga) is used all over Rundi for a fishing net, whatever it is like, but when I read this to some people who live by the lake they said it was the wrong word, as from the context this happened during the daytime, and urusenga-fishing is only done at night. It appears that the urusenga is something like a shrimping net, and is used on moonless nights, when the fishermen hold flares over the side of the boat and attract a certain variety of very small fish which swim about in shoals. The net they use for day-time fishing is something like a drag-net and is called urukwabu. On enquiry inland, I never discovered a single person who knew this word. It was obviously the right one, technically speaking, but we felt that the few thousand lake-dwellers could not be weighed against almost the entire population of the country, so we had to employ the up-country word, putting an explanatory note in the margin that by the lake this net is called urukwabu.”
Click or tap here to see a short video clip showing net-fishing in biblical times (source: Bible Lands 2012)
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 5:6:
Noongar: “So they called their friends in the other boat. They came and helped them. They filled both boats with fish so the two boats nearly sank.” (Source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang)
Uma: “From there, he threw their nets, there really were very many fish that entered into them, with the result that their nets began to tear.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “When they had thrown out the nets, they caught very many fish, therefore their nets almost tore.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And then they threw out their nets again, and when they pulled up their net they were really convinced because of the very many fish that were caught, because the nets almost broke they were so full.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “That being so, they lowered them and truly many were what they got until the nets were almost ripping.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Well, they dropped it again. When they pulled it up, it almost broke for it was so full of the fish which had entered.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Living Water is produced for the Bible translation movement in association with Lutheran Bible Translators. Lyrics derived from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®).
kai touto poiēsantes ‘and after having done this,’ refers (again in the plural) back to chalasō ta diktua ‘I will let down the nets.’
sunekleisan plēthos ichthuōn polu ‘they enclosed a great quantity of fishes.’ The fact that ichthuōn stands between plēthos and attributive polu shows that semantically plēthos ichthuōn represents one concept.
sugkleiō ‘to enclose,’ without specific reference to fishing.
dierrēsseto de ta diktua autōn ‘and their nets were breaking.’ de is transitional. Semantically the clause describes the consequences of the preceding one, cf. e.g. An American Translation (“… such a shoal of fish that their nets began to break”). Syntactically and semantically the clause goes with the preceding rather than with the following clause.
The force of the imperfect tense dierrēsseto is best brought out by such renderings as, ‘were at breaking point,’ ‘threatened to break,’ since an actual breaking of the nets did not happen.
diarrēssō (also 8.29) ‘to tear,’ either intransitive or transitive.
Translation:
When they had done this, a transitional phrase, which has also been rendered, ‘this having been done,’ or, repeating the previous verb, ‘having let down’ (Ekari).
They enclosed, or, ‘they held/confined in it (or, in the net),’ ‘they brought together’ (Pohnpeian), or simply, ‘they caught.’
A great shoal of fish, or simply, ‘very many fish.’ — Fish may have to be described, e.g. ‘(edible) things that live in the water’; or the name of one species must do duty for all, e.g. ‘eel’ (Wantoat).
Were breaking, or, ‘almost tore’ (Toraja-Sa’dan; similarly Balinese, where one has moreover to specify whether the threatening event did, or did not, take place afterwards).
Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.
When they had done so: The clause When they had done so means “Once the fishermen had lowered/cast their nets into the water.” It connects Jesus’ command with what happened next. Some other ways to translate this are:
When the fishermen did as Jesus told them (New Century Version) -or-
They let them down (Good News Translation)
5:6b
they caught such a large number of fish: The pronoun they refers to the fishermen.
In some languages it may be more natural to make the nets the subject. For example:
their ⌊nets⌋ trapped such a large number of fish -or-
their nets were so full of fish (New Living Translation (2004))
caught: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as caught has the basic meaning “to enclose.” Different languages have different expressions for “catching” fish. See 5:4c for some examples.
a large number of fish: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as a large number of is the same word that is often used to describe a large crowd of people. It describes a large number of something.
If your language has a specific word for a large group of fish, use it here. For example:
a great shoal of fish (Revised Standard Version)
(The word “shoal” is a specific English term that is used only for a group of fish.)
their nets began to tear: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as tear also means “break.” For example:
their nets began to break (New International Version)
Use a term in your language that refers to nets breaking or tearing.
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