John 21:11: 153 great fishes
In the Gospel according to St.John, we have a reference to 153 great fishes. This post is a summary of my learnings to date on what this number could represent. These are theories and conjectures, some with proof texts from the Scripture, others from elsewhere.
Disclaimer: Please note that I am only applying gematria as an academic exercise to explore some concepts. I dont suggest we use the treatise available on gematria from Judaism and related gnostic and esoteric teachings, to start interpreting scriptures and prophesying based on what man has codified the system to be. This is one rabbit trail we all should avoid, as it is extremely interesting and fascinating but, in my opinion is akin to divination and we will be busy bodies with it.
Mathematical significance
Before we look at the spiritual meaning of 153 great fishes, lets see what are the properties of 153 using simple number theory.
153 = 3x3x17
153 = Sum of x (x=1..17)
153 = Sum of x! (x= 1..5)
153 = 1 cubed+ 5 cubed + 7 cubed
153 = 12 square +3 square
The first equation is the prime factorization, where two 3s and 17 shows up. There are number of significance of 3 in the Bible but what about 17? We will look at 17 later in the scriptures section.
The second equation is the classic triangular equation (or Pascals triangle) where you can draw dots starting from 1 to 17 with increasing rows to get the sum of 153.
153 is the 17th whole number in the sequence of known triangular numbers. There are interesting properties of triangular numbers. This fact of 17 was observed by Augustine of Hippo in his treatise on John's Gospel.
Scriptural Significance of 153
There are no direct correlations to the exact 153 number in the 66 books of the Scriptures, but applying gematria, we can get some interesting results. Please see my disclaimer on gematria at the start.
Using the classic Hebrew numbering using the 22 letter Hebrew alphabet, we see the following words (some of them) in the TANAK as having the value 153, all interesting in of themselves
- From Deu32:9, KJV reference, LORD's portion; heleq (2506) Yah (3068), has the gematria value of 153
- From Hos1:10, where Yah talks about how the number of children of Israel will be as sand of the sea which cannot be measured, He affirms that we are the sons of the Living God. This phrase in hebrew is beni (1121) hachay (2416) el (410), has gematria value of 153
- The phrase in God's protection or God's shadow is tsael (6738) el (410) which has the gematria value of 153
- In Eze47:10, prophesies when the fishermen will stand from Engedi (5872) to Eneglaim (5882) and spread the nets and the fish be according to their kinds of the great sea, exceeding many. The gematria for Gedi is 17 and Eglaim is 153.
Jerome conjectured that 153 were the known classification of species of fish of the sea at that time, hence he suggested that this meant, every nation will have people saved from them
Scriptural Significance of 17
There are however, some correlations to 17 in the 66 books of the Scriptures where we don't need to apply gematria, and go down the path of gnostic and esoteric rabbit trails.
- In Acts 2:9-11, if you count the regions and people groups mentioned, you get 17, which would corroborate with Jerome's conjecture.
- Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judeans, Cappadocians, Pontians, Asians, Phyrgians, Pamphylians, Egyptians, Libyans, Cyrenes, Romans, Jews (with the proselytes), Cretens and Arabians.
- In Jer32:9, Jeremiah buys the field of Hanameel for 17 shekels of silver, which is the promise from Yah that we will be buying and inheriting the land in Israel upon the promise
- In Num7, each of the tribe leader offers for the peace offerings, a total of 17 (2 oxen+5 rams+5 he goats+5 lamb yearlings)
- Some scholars have pontificated that 7 days of creation of perfection and 10 commandments which corresponds to our Messiah and Torah.
- Joseph was probably 17 when he was sold as a slave, Gen 37:2 and Jacob lived in the land of Egypt for 17 years, Gen 47:28
- Our Messiah Yeshua, when he fed the 5000, he used 5 loaves and there were 12 baskets full of fragments, he fed with 17 total things of food, John 6:13
- Heman was blessed with fourteen sons and three daughters (17 children), who were all singing praises to Yah in His House, 1 Chronicles 25:5-6
Summarizing
Using the both the gematria and the historical writings, we could say then that 153 could mean - Yah's portion, His people - Whom Yah protects - Sons of Yah - all of the groups of people (nations) saved
Or simply in the peshat reading of the scripture of 153 great fishes, as a fisherman scholar noted: since fishermen often exaggerate their claim of the catch, this was put in to provide the accurate count of the catch, so it could be corroborated with other eye witnesses of that day (similar to how specific town and parental family names are provided in the Gospels)
Shalom alecheim!