a fishing net: the ordinary, general word for the mesh of cords a fisherman used to catch and hold fish
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
Greek had a small vocabulary of net words, and this is the plain, everyday one. Two of the others name a particular design: the circular throw net (ἀμφίβληστρον) that one man swung out over the shallows, and the long dragnet (σαγήνη) that two boats stretched between them and swept toward the beach. This word does not specify the design. It is what a writer reaches for when he simply means "the nets," and it can cover any of them.
Every use in the New Testament is a literal net, and they all sit inside two scenes: Jesus calling fishermen beside the Sea of Galilee, and the breakfast catch after the resurrection. The verbs around the word are the plain routine of the trade:
washing them out after a night on the water (Luke 5:2)
mending and setting them straight in the boat (Matthew 4:21,Mark 1:19)
letting them down into deep water for a catch (Luke 5:4,Luke 5:5)
hauling one to shore heavy with fish (John 21:8,John 21:11)
That routine is the point. Nets were the most valuable equipment a Galilean fishing family owned and the thing that made their living possible, which is why the call stories measure the disciples' response by what they walked away from: they left the nets. John's closing scene turns on the same object from the other side, a net so full it could not be lifted into the boat and yet did not tear.
in the New Testament it always means gear for catching fish, never netting of any other kindLuk 5:2Mat 4:21
it is the general term standing alongside two more specific Greek net words, so choosing it signals the working equipment rather than one style of netMat 4:20
Both
both name a mesh of knotted cords made to catch and hold what passes into itJhn 21:11
Only net
English "net" ranges over hairnets, tennis nets, safety nets and computer networks, so on its own it carries nothing of the fishing trade
“nets”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“fishing net”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How diktuon differs from similar Greek words
ἀμφίβληστρονthe round throw net one man flung out from the shore or the shallows, weighted at the rim so it dropped over the fish; it names a specific design, not netting in general.
The ordinary word for nets as a fisherman's working equipment, something owned and looked after: washed at the shore, mended in the boat, and left behind when the disciples follow Jesus.Luk 5:2Mat 4:21Mrk 1:18
Used of nets let down into deep water from a boat and hauled back by a crew, large enough to strain and start tearing under a heavy catch.Luk 5:4Luk 5:6Jhn 21:11
Carries the weight of the fishing miracles, where the state of the net is the point of the story: it breaks under one catch and holds unbroken under another.Luk 5:6Jhn 21:8
Both
Both name a fishing net thrown into the water to take fish, and English Bibles render each one simply as "net".Mat 4:18Jhn 21:6
Both belong to the same handful of Gospel scenes on the Sea of Galilee, describing the trade of the same fishermen as Jesus calls them.Mrk 1:16Mrk 1:19
Within one short passage the two words can point to the same gear, since Matthew has the brothers casting the one and then, two verses later, leaving the other.Mat 4:18Mat 4:20
Names the round net a single fisherman throws by hand, so it appears only at the instant of the throw, with the men standing at the water rather than working from a boat.Mat 4:18Mrk 1:16
Turns up only in the brief picture of Peter and Andrew at work, and never in the surrounding scenes of washing, mending, hauling, or leaving the gear behind.Mat 4:18Mrk 1:16
σαγήνηthe long dragnet stretched between boats and swept in to the beach, which is why it pictures a haul that gathers everything indiscriminately.
This is the ordinary working gear of real fishermen, shown as something they own and tend: they are washing it beside the lake, or sitting in the boat repairing it.Luk 5:2Mat 4:21
Because it belongs to them, leaving it behind is what makes the call to follow Jesus cost something: the first disciples walk away from their nets.Mat 4:20Mrk 1:18
It is small enough to be handled by hand from a boat, let down or thrown over one side at a word and pulled straight back in.Luk 5:4Jhn 21:6
The stories keep track of whether it holds: one catch starts tearing it apart, while another huge haul leaves it whole, and that detail is the point being made.Luk 5:6Jhn 21:11
Both
Both are fishing nets on the same lake, thrown into the water and then hauled in loaded with fish that has to be brought to land.Jhn 21:11Mat 13:47
Both end up standing for gathering people rather than fish: the overwhelming catch in Luke leads straight into Jesus telling Simon he will be catching people from now on, and the dragnet is the kingdom itself sweeping in a crowd of every sort.Luk 5:6Mat 13:47
Names one particular kind of net, the long seine dragged through the water, rather than the general word for any net, and English "seine" comes from it.Mat 13:47
Its defining trait is that it sweeps up everything in its path: it gathers fish of every kind, so the sorting of good from bad can only happen afterward on shore.Mat 13:47
It never appears in an actual fishing scene. Its single use is a picture of the kingdom of heaven, with no fisherman named and no boat in view.Mat 13:47
diktuon in the other biblical languages
מִכְמֶרֶתHebrew“net”the Hebrew word for a fisherman's net, the gear of the Nile fishermen and of the conqueror in Habakkuk who hauls in nations like a catch.
Every use sits in a plain story about working fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, with the ordinary chores of the trade in view: washing the nets on the shore, mending them in the boat, letting them down at a word.Luk 5:2Mat 4:21Luk 5:4
It becomes the thing men walk away from: the net stands for the whole livelihood the first disciples leave behind to follow Jesus.Mat 4:20Mrk 1:18
The net's own strength is part of the drama. In one catch it starts tearing under the load, and in another it comes up full of large fish and still holds together.Luk 5:6Jhn 21:11
Both
Both name the net a fisherman spreads or lets down over water to take fish, and English Bibles render each one "net".Isa 19:8Luk 5:5
Both are the heavy kind of net that gathers a whole mass of fish at once and has to be dragged in, not a line with a single hook on it.Hab 1:15Jhn 21:8
In both, the net carries the fisherman's fortunes with it: when the nets fail, the men who spread them are ruined, and when they fill, the men who own them rejoice.Isa 19:8Hab 1:16Luk 5:6
It never turns up in a plain narrative scene. Both places it appears are prophetic poetry announcing what will happen to nations.Isa 19:8Hab 1:15
What it hauls in can be people rather than fish. Habakkuk pictures a conquering army sweeping up whole populations the way a fisherman drags in a catch.Hab 1:15
It can be worshiped. The conqueror offers sacrifice and burns incense to his own net, treating the means of his success as his god.Hab 1:16
It is one named piece of gear among several, listed beside the fishhook and the other net a fisherman carries, rather than a catch-all term for anything woven to trap fish.Isa 19:8Hab 1:15
רֶשֶׁתHebrew“net”the general Hebrew word for a net, used far more often of a trap laid for a person or an animal than of fishing gear.
Always a fishing net: the mesh let down into the sea to gather fish, the everyday working gear of Galilean fishermen. Every occurrence sits in a fishing scene, and the word never names a trap for people or a piece of furniture.Mat 4:21Luk 5:4Jhn 21:6
A physical tool its owner tends between catches: washed after a night's work, mended while it hangs, and hauled up so full it nearly bursts yet holds.Luk 5:2Mat 4:21Jhn 21:11
Both
Both name a net of knotted cords that is spread or cast to enclose and take living creatures, drawn shut once the catch is inside.Luk 5:6Ezk 32:3
Chiefly a hunting or trapping net: a concealed mesh spread on the ground to catch prey, and above all the hidden snare the wicked lay to entrap an unsuspecting person.Psa 9:15Psa 35:7Pro 1:17
Overwhelmingly figurative: the trap the enemy sets for the innocent, and the net God himself spreads to bring down a nation or its king in judgment.Psa 31:4Ezk 12:13Hos 7:12
Uniquely also names a fixed object rather than a catching device: the bronze grating of network fitted beneath the altar of the tabernacle.Exo 27:4Exo 38:4
חֵרֶםHebrew“devoted thing”mostly means something placed under God's ban and given over to destruction; where it does mean a net, it is a net of doom spread to trap a nation, never neutral working gear.
Always an ordinary, literal fishing net, the working gear of Galilee fishermen that the first disciples leave behind or let down at Jesus' word.Mat 4:20Luk 5:5
Carries no menace: it is simply the tool of the trade, and even a miraculous overload of fish does not tear it.Jhn 21:11Luk 5:6
Both
Both name a net let down into the water to take fish and then hauled in with its catch.Jhn 21:6Hab 1:15
In each the net stands for a sweeping, total capture: the Galilee net enclosing a great shoal, the prophet's net dragging up a whole people.Luk 5:6Ezk 32:3
Its dominant meaning has nothing to do with a net: a person or thing placed under God's irrevocable ban, devoted to him and commonly given over to destruction.Jos 6:17Lev 27:28
Even where it does mean a net, the net is an instrument of capture and doom: spread to trap a nation, or sacrificed to by the conqueror who trusts it.Mic 7:2Hab 1:16
שְׂבָכָהHebrew“latticework”netting as a pattern rather than as fishing gear: the bronze latticework on the temple pillars and the grating under the altar, mesh that decorates or covers instead of catching anything.
A working fishing net that men cast, draw in, and mend along the Sea of Galilee.Mat 4:21Luk 5:4Jhn 21:11
The gear disciples abandon to follow Jesus, standing for their whole former livelihood.Mat 4:20Mrk 1:18
Both
Both name a net of knotted cords that catches and holds: the Greek word for a fisherman's haul, the Hebrew word (in this one use) for the snare that closes on a walker's feet.Jhn 21:6Job 18:8
Ornamental bronze meshwork wrapping the tops of the temple pillars, a decorative lattice rather than anything that traps.1Ki 7:181Ki 7:412Ch 4:12Jer 52:22
The crisscrossed lattice screen over a window opening, through which a person can fall.2Ki 1:2
Every use is the working gear of the fishing trade, handled by the men who own it: washed out after a night on the water, mended in the boat, let down for a catch, and dragged up on the beach.Luk 5:2Mat 4:21Luk 5:4Jhn 21:11
Nothing menacing attaches to it. Nobody is caught in these nets against their will, so the word functions as valuable property, and leaving the nets behind is what measures the cost of following Jesus.Mat 4:20Mrk 1:18
It stays literal every time. The word names a piece of equipment and never stands in for capture, ruin, or a fortified place, so whatever weight the nets carry in these scenes comes from the stories around them.Mrk 1:19Jhn 21:6
Both
Both name a mesh of knotted cords made to take a catch, and both are used of fish taken in the water.Luk 5:6Ecc 9:12
Each sits inside a small set of net words in its own language, so the single English word "net" hides which one the writer actually chose. A different Greek net word stands two verses before the Galilee scene, and a second Hebrew net word stands right beside this one in Ecclesiastes.Mat 4:20Ecc 7:26
The net is set for a victim, and the verse cares about the one caught rather than the one working. Job protests that God has closed a net around him, and Ecclesiastes describes a woman whose heart is nets.Job 19:6Ecc 7:26
The same spelling also covers built works rather than mesh: the ramps and walls a great king raises around a small town, the fortified height the nations mass against, and the stronghold a captured king is shut inside.Ecc 9:14Isa 29:7Ezk 19:9
It can slide from the gear over to what the gear brings home, which is why one hard line in Proverbs is rendered "net" in some Bibles and "spoil" in others.Pro 12:12
What scholars say about diktuon
The lexica are unanimous: BDAG and LSJ both give δίκτυον as a net, in Greek usage most often a fishing net though the term is also applied to hunting nets, and Louw and Nida classify it straightforwardly among implements for catching fish. It is the generic member of a small New Testament set that also contains ἀμφίβληστρον, the cast net of Matthew 4:18 and Mark 1:16, and σαγήνη, the seine or dragnet of Matthew 13:47; the Synoptic call narratives move between the specific and the generic term within a single pericope (Matthew 4:18, 20). Studies of the first-century Galilean fishing economy (Wuellner; Hanson; Nun) describe the three techniques implied by these terms and note the capital value of nets to a fishing household, which informs the force of ἀφέντες τὰ δίκτυα in Matthew 4:20 and Mark 1:18. In John 21 the singular δίκτυον is a narrative motif in its own right: commentators (Brown; Keener) discuss the unbroken net alongside the number 153, while agreeing that the lexical sense of the noun contributes nothing to that discussion beyond its ordinary reference.