What Does Luke 5:6 Mean?
And when they had done this, they shut in a great multitude of fish, and their nets were tearing apart.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.THE KEY
The catch’s abundance is revealed by the same net that gathers it beginning to fail.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to the moment when what you receive presses against what currently holds it. The gathering and the strain coexist: the catch is abundant, and the net is coming apart under its weight. Fullness does not make the container limitless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that receiving more automatically means the existing structure can hold it.
THE ROOT
συνέκλεισαν
synekleisan
GROWS FROM
κλείω (kleíō), with σύν (syn-)
To shut or close; with σύν, to shut in together.
“shut in” in this verse is synekleisan. The verb pictures the fish shut inside a bounded space, not merely gathered nearby. The same verb appears in Galatians 3:22, where the KJV says Scripture “hath concluded” all under sin.
ALSO GROWS
kleíō: Shut or close.
κλείω
The base verb shows that the catch is enclosed within a boundary.
synékleisen: Shut in or enclosed; translated “concluded” in Galatians 3:22.
συνέκλεισεν
The same verb links the net’s enclosure of the fish with Scripture’s enclosing all under sin.
διερρήγνυτο
dierrhēgnyto
GROWS FROM
ῥήγνυμι
rhēgnumi
To tear, break, or burst.
“tearing apart” in this verse is dierrhēgnyto. The verb describes the net in the process of being torn apart. The strain is part of the scene: the catch is not simply full; the boundary holding it is actively failing.
ALSO GROWS
rhēgnumi: To break or burst.
ῥήγνυμι
This is the root verb behind the net’s breaking.
rhēgma: A break, rent, or rupture.
ῥῆγμα
This related form names the opening that results when something gives way.
THE PATTERN
A gathering can become so full that it exposes the limits of its container.
And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, Bring me yet another vessel. And he said to her, There is not one more vessel. And the oil stood.You lay out a table before my face, in full view of those who press me. You make my head rich with oil; my cup is soaked full.Simon Peter went up and hauled the net to the land, full of great fish, one hundred and fifty-three. And though there were so many, the net was not torn in two.THE THREAD
But the writing has shut all things in under falling short, so that the promise out of the trust of Jesus the Anointed One might be given to those who lean their full weight on him.The verb translated “inclosed” here is the same one rendered “concluded” there, carrying the image of shutting in. Galatians says all are enclosed under missing so the promise may be given; the shared root makes enclosure part of the setting in which a gift is revealed.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us