The Gospel of John describes a catch of exactly 153 fish. A particularly precise statement. The question arose here as to whether this number is a random quantity or whether there is a “little” secret hidden in it.
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Bible doesn’t need “experts”
The Bible, the Word of God, is written for every “ordinary” human being. Everything that needs to be known for the salvation of man through God’s redemptive work through Jesus Christ can be understood by everyone. This does not require any self-proclaimed, exclusive “Bible experts” who tell you that without their expertise the Word of God cannot be understood. Such people do not understand that they are declaring the Holy Spirit to be too “stupid” to be able to convey the word of God in unadulterated truth to interested people.
The Bible itself explains its symbolic language, which is often used, especially in the book of Revelation. Elsewhere in the Bible, the meanings of the symbols are explained in “plain language” (Info).
The strangely precise 153 fish
As (relatively) easy to understand as the Bible is with the help of the Holy Spirit, which is invoked before every Bible study, one particular number still stands out. In the Gospel of John, chapter 21, there are 153 fish.
Simon Peter was at the Lake of Tiberias with Nathanael of Cana, Thomas and other disciples. They agreed to go fishing for the night. However, the yield was meager. The network remained empty. The next morning, Jesus Christ stood on the shore of the lake and again asked the disciples to go out and cast the net. This time the net was full to capacity. The disciples drew the net to land as follows, John 21:9-11:
“As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.“
It is quite striking that there were not “very many”, “around 150”, or “almost 160” fish, but exactly 153. Was it actually intentional to represent this number of fish so precisely? When it comes to balancing the performance of cattle or sheep, counting each individual animal is entirely understandable, but specifying a full net to contain exactly 153 fish is quite extraordinary.
Mathematically, the 153 is striking
The number 153 is certainly a very interesting number, as the former director of the information technology department at the Physical-Technical Federal Institute in Braunschweig, Werner Gitt, emphasizes. It was also Gitt who made a probability calculation for the prophecies that had already been fulfilled in the Bible. The result shows that it can no longer have anything in common with chance (Info).
Sum of the factorials
As inconspicuous as the “153” appears, it is strange.
First, Gitt points out that 153 is the sum of the first five factorials, as follows:
1!+2!+3!+4!+5! = 153
When the factorials are broken down, the equation looks like this:
1+2+6+24+120 = 153
(Examples: 3! = 1*2*3, 4! = 1*2*3*4)
Prime number decomposition and sum
The 153 can also be expressed as 3 * 3 * 17 after a prime number decomposition.
Also 153 if you add the natural numbers 1 to 17 together, so
1+2+3+4+5+….+15+16+17 = 153
Individual digits to the 3rd power
If you look at the number 153 in individual digits and add them to the 3rd power, you get 153.
13 + 53 + 33 = 1 + 125 + 27 = 153
The word “Iesous” in the New Testament
The New Testament was written in Greek. Thus, the disciples also called Jesus Christ in the Greek version, namely “Iesous Christos” (“Ἰησοῦς Χριστός”). The Greek alphabet has numerical values behind each letter. This also applies to the name Ἰησοῦς.
Ἰ=10 η=8 σ=200 ο=70 ῦ= 400 ς=200
10 + 8 + 200 + 70 + 400 + 200 = 888
Werner Gitt also used the sum of the respective 3rd power for the number 888 and repeated this for the respective result:
83 + 83 + 83 = 512 + 512 + 512 = 1536
13 + 53 + 33 + 63 = 369
33 + 63 + 93 = 972
93 + 73 + 23 = 1080
13 + 03 + 83 + 03 = 513
53 + 13 + 33 = 153
As you can see from the calculation above, the number 153 marks the end.
Ani Elohim in the Old Testament
In addition to parts in Aramaic, the Old Testament was mostly written in Hebrew. The wording “I am God” in Hebrew is “Ani Elohim” (“אני אלוהים”). In Hebrew, too, there are numerical values behind the individual letters.
40 + 10 + 5 + 6 + 30 + 1 + 10 + 50 + 1 = 153
Jesus – I am God
When brought to a common denominator, the number 153 can also be interpreted as
“Jesus – I am God”
This would certainly correspond to the statements of the entire Gospel (Info). If such a hidden message was actually intended, then it is understandable that there must have been not 150 or 155, but exactly 153 fish.
The third power approach can also be understood as an expression of the three-unified God, i.e. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These 153 fish were named at a time when Jesus Christ had already risen. So after His glorification by the Heavenly Father, Acts 13:32-33:
“And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.”
The number 153 is a very interesting number. Werner Gitt’s idea or approach sounds very interesting. However, one should be careful not to interpret any kind of mysticism into the Gospel. This is the “specialty” of the Kabbalists and Gnostics and their interpretation of the Gospel misses the truth by miles. The results of the Gnostics can be viewed in the Septuagint Bible (Info) as well as in the new Bible translations based on the Nestle-Aland basic text (Info).
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2 Timothy 3:16
Bible verses from King James Version
