Matthew 4:19

Καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς, Δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου, καὶ ποιήσω ὑμᾶς ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων.

RBT Greek Interlinear:

Strongs 2532; kai; καὶ; and; Conj

Strongs 3004; legei; λέγει; is speaking; V-PIA-3S

Strongs 846; autois; αὐτοῖς; to themselves; PPro-DM3P

Strongs 1205; Deute; Δεῦτε; Come; V-M-2P

Strongs 3694; opisō; ὀπίσω; back; Prep

Strongs 1473; mou; μου; of myself; PPro-G1S

Strongs 2532; kai; καὶ; and; Conj

Strongs 4160; poiēsō; ποιήσω; I will make; V-FIA-1S

Strongs 4771; hymas; ὑμᾶς; yourselves; PPro-A2P

Strongs 231; halieis; ἁλιεῖς; seamen; N-AMP

Strongs 444; anthrōpōn; ἀνθρώπων; men; N-GMP

RBT Translation:

Come Here to My Future Self

And he is speaking to themselves, "Come hereafter to myself and I will make yourselves seamen of men!"^9d

He is Evening He is MorningBehind to "Come here"

Julia Smith Literal 1876 Translation:
And he says to them, Come after me, and I will make you the fishermen of men.

LITV Translation:
And He says to them, Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Footnotes

9d

Mat 4:19

Δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου The meaning of "after me" in the sense of following is made up based on this one verse, as it is not a usage found in Classical Greek. Thus the Greek phrase is unique in its own right. The primary and oldest meaning of ὀπίσω is “behind, backward, in the rear”, the opposite of πρόσω(θεν) “forward, in front.” This is when it is used in the sense of place. It is also used in the sense of time “afterward, later, in the future.”

Sense	Example	Explanation
after, later	Il. 6.352	opposed to νῦν (“now”): “afterwards.”
opposed to προπάροιθε (“beforehand”)	Od. 11.483	clearly temporal contrast “before / after.”
ὀπίσω ὁρᾶν	Soph. Oid. Tyr. 488	literally “to see behind,” i.e. “to see what is to come.”
ἅμα πρόσσω καὶ ὀπίσσω ὁρᾶν, λεύσσειν, νοεῖν	Hom. (var.)	“to see both forward and behind,” i.e. to see both near and distant future (sometimes misread as “past and future,” but grammatically ὀπίσω refers to what follows, not what precedes).

So ὀπίσω in temporal usage means “later, subsequently, in the future”, not “in the past.”

Note the usage in Matt. 3:11; John 1:15; 1:27 (coming after/subsequently of me)

(cf. LSJ, Bailly ὀπίσω)

The Greek ἁλιεῖς is a noun, and not a verb. The word ἁλιεύω is the verb "to fish" and is not used here. To express the traditional interpretation, one would expect οἱ ἀλιεύοντες "the ones who fish for" (Cf. Perseus ἀλιεύοντες)

"οἱ ἀλιεύοντες ἀνθρώπους" 

"those who fish for men"

Where ἀνθρώπους is in the accusative.

The traditional interpretation is a misnomer at best. The genitive "of" was craftily used in an accusative sense because in English the word "of" can sometime have an accusative sense. AI even knows this:

ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων would not mean "fishers for men" in the grammatical sense. Here's why:

• • ἁλιεῖς is the nominative plural of ἁλιεύς, meaning "seaman/sailor/fisherman."
  • ἀνθρώπων is in the genitive plural, which generally indicates possession, origin, or association, rather than the direct object of an action.

In this construction, ἀνθρώπων would typically mean something like "of men" or "of people." 

However in English, "fishers of men" can have an accusative sense because the preposition "of" often corresponds to the genitive in Greek, but it can sometimes express a direct object relationship in English.

However, in Greek, ἀνθρώπων (genitive) would not directly translate to the same sense as an accusative would in English. The genitive here expresses "of men" or "belonging to men," which indicates a relationship of association rather than a direct object of the action (i.e., fishing for men).

To break it down:

• • ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπων: "Fishers of men" (genitive), meaning those who are fishers in association with men, or who fish in the realm of men. It has more of an abstract or metaphorical relationship with "men" rather than a direct action of fishing.
  • ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπους: "Fishers of men" (accusative), which is the more straightforward and grammatically correct way to express "those who fish for men."

While ἀνθρώπων can indeed imply a relationship that, in some contexts, could be understood in English as an accusative sense, Greek grammar would not use the genitive here to indicate a direct object of the action in the way English might allow.

So, if you want to keep the sense of "fishing for men," using the accusative (ἀνθρώπους) would be the best way to directly express that in Greek.

To express "fishers for men" or "those who fish for men," you'd need the accusative case, as in ἁλιεῖς ἀνθρώπους, where ἀνθρώπους is in the accusative and would be understood as the object of the verb ἀλιεύειν (to fish).

The Greek noun ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos) denotes a human being generically and can be used in both individual and collective senses. In the plural (e.g., ἄνθρωποι, ἀνθρώπων), it typically refers to humankind or people generally, in contrast to divine beings or animals (cf. Il. 5.442; Plato, Rep. 619b). It is distinct from ἀνήρ, which specifies an adult male. Though ἄνθρωπος may contextually carry a pejorative or ironic tone (e.g., in Attic oratory), its fundamental semantic range remains broadly inclusive of all human beings.