WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:03.919 The Bible almost never gives you an exact number. It 2 00:00:04.040 --> 00:00:11.880 says forty days, twelve tribes, five thousand, fed round numbers, symbols, estimates. 3 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:15.439 So when the Gospel of John suddenly records that the 4 00:00:15.519 --> 00:00:19.160 disciples caught exactly one hundred and fifty three fish on 5 00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:23.920 the Sea of Galilee, something is off. Scholars have been 6 00:00:24.039 --> 00:00:28.399 arguing about this for two thousand years. What nobody knew 7 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:32.960 is that one hundred and fifty three connects ancient Greek mathematics, 8 00:00:33.399 --> 00:00:38.039 a Hebrew prophecy from Ezekiel, sacred geometry, and a broken 9 00:00:38.119 --> 00:00:41.520 fisherman named Simon Peter to a breakfast on a beach 10 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:45.920 that rewrote his entire life. To understand why one hundred 11 00:00:45.960 --> 00:00:49.920 and fifty three matters, you first have to understand the 12 00:00:50.039 --> 00:00:54.679 morning it happened, because the context is not background noise. 13 00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:58.759 The context is the entire point. If you had been 14 00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:01.880 standing on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee 15 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:06.519 sometime around thirty three a d just before dawn, you 16 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:11.000 would have seen something strange. A small fishing boat, maybe 17 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:14.519 twenty five feet long, riding low in the water, about 18 00:01:14.519 --> 00:01:18.560 one hundred yards from shore. Inside the boat, a group 19 00:01:18.599 --> 00:01:22.879 of men working through the night, hauling nets, checking ropes, 20 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:26.480 scanning the dark surface of the water for any sign 21 00:01:26.519 --> 00:01:30.680 of movement beneath it. These were not weekend hobbyists out 22 00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:36.799 for a relaxing afternoon. Simon Peter Thomas called Didymus Nathaniel 23 00:01:36.879 --> 00:01:41.400 from Kana in Galilee. The sons of Zebedee, James and John, 24 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:45.879 and two other unnamed disciples were Korea fishermen. They had 25 00:01:45.879 --> 00:01:49.000 grown up on this lake. They knew where the Tilapia 26 00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:52.760 schooled near the rocky shallows at Tabga. They knew the 27 00:01:52.760 --> 00:01:57.079 sardine patterns along the northern inlets near Capernium. They knew 28 00:01:57.079 --> 00:02:00.159 the rhythms of the water the way a farmer knows soilill. 29 00:02:01.079 --> 00:02:08.639 And yet all night long they caught absolutely nothing. Now 30 00:02:08.680 --> 00:02:11.919 Here is the part that makes this scene so impossibly 31 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:15.800 loaded with meaning. These men had already seen the risen 32 00:02:15.919 --> 00:02:20.319 Jesus twice. They had watched him appear behind locked doors 33 00:02:20.360 --> 00:02:24.080 in Jerusalem only days before. They had seen the wounds 34 00:02:24.120 --> 00:02:27.039 in his hands and his side. They had heard Thomas, 35 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:30.840 the skeptic, the one who refused to believe without physical proof, 36 00:02:31.240 --> 00:02:34.719 fall to his knees and cry out, my Lord and 37 00:02:34.840 --> 00:02:38.000 my God. They had been told that they were being 38 00:02:38.120 --> 00:02:41.680 sent into the world the same way the Father had 39 00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:46.639 sent the son, commissioned, empowered, given a mission that would 40 00:02:46.719 --> 00:02:50.360 reshape the course of human history. And yet here they 41 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:54.479 were back on the water, back in the dark, doing 42 00:02:54.520 --> 00:02:57.159 the one thing they used to do before any of 43 00:02:57.199 --> 00:03:01.639 this started, fishing for sardine on the Sea of Tiberius. 44 00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:06.560 Peter had said to the others, simply, I am going fishing, 45 00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:10.319 and they had followed him, just like the old days, 46 00:03:10.919 --> 00:03:14.840 before the miracles, before the sermons on hillsides, and the 47 00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:18.159 walking on water and the raising of the dead, just 48 00:03:18.360 --> 00:03:22.319 men and nets and a boat in the dark. Think 49 00:03:22.360 --> 00:03:26.439 about what that means for a second. Peter, the man 50 00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:30.680 Jesus renamed from Simon, the man Jesus called the rock 51 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:33.960 on which he would build his church, the man who 52 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:39.400 was supposed to lead the apostles, establish congregations, preach to nations, 53 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:43.360 become the foundation of a movement that would eventually reach 54 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:47.280 every continent on earth. That man had gone back to 55 00:03:47.400 --> 00:03:50.840 his old job. He had seen the resurrection with his 56 00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:53.919 own eyes, and his response was to pick up a 57 00:03:53.919 --> 00:03:59.199 fishing net and row out into the dark. Why because 58 00:03:59.240 --> 00:04:02.840 the last real conversation Peter had with Jesus before the 59 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:07.599 crucifixion ended in the worst night of his entire life. 60 00:04:07.639 --> 00:04:10.800 And to understand the one hundred and fifty three fish, 61 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:14.719 you have to understand that night first. It happened in 62 00:04:14.759 --> 00:04:18.000 the courtyard of the High Priest's house in Jerusalem, on 63 00:04:18.120 --> 00:04:21.879 the night Jesus was arrested. The temple guards had come 64 00:04:21.920 --> 00:04:26.120 to the garden of Gethsemone with torches and weapons. Judas 65 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:30.519 had betrayed Jesus with a kiss. The disciples had scattered 66 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:34.720 into the darkness, but Peter followed at a distance. He 67 00:04:34.759 --> 00:04:38.480 could not bring himself to abandon Jesus completely, but he 68 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:41.680 could not bring himself to stand with him either, so 69 00:04:41.839 --> 00:04:47.040 he hovered at the edge, caught between loyalty and self preservation. 70 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:52.399 In the courtyard there was a charcoal fire. The servants 71 00:04:52.399 --> 00:04:56.079 and guards were warming themselves around it, and Peter sat 72 00:04:56.120 --> 00:04:59.399 among them, trying to blend in, trying to stay close 73 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:03.360 enough to hear what was happening inside without being noticed. 74 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:07.040 And then a servant girl looked at him by the 75 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:11.639 firelight and said, you were with him too, weren't you? 76 00:05:11.639 --> 00:05:16.079 You were with the Galilean And Peter said no. He 77 00:05:16.120 --> 00:05:18.759 looked her in the face and said, I do not 78 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:22.279 know what you were talking about. He moved away from 79 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:26.639 the fire toward the gateway, but someone else recognized him. 80 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:31.199 This man was with Jesus of Nazareth, and again Peter 81 00:05:31.360 --> 00:05:34.920 denied it. He swore an oath, I do not know 82 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:39.000 the man. And then about an hour later another person 83 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:42.759 pressed him, surely you are one of them. Your Galilean 84 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:46.519 accent gives you away, And this time Peter began to 85 00:05:46.600 --> 00:05:50.480 curse and swear violently, I do not know the man. 86 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:56.439 Three times by a charcoal fire in the cold, and 87 00:05:56.480 --> 00:06:01.240 then the rooster crowed, just as Jesus said predicted hours 88 00:06:01.319 --> 00:06:05.040 earlier at the Last Supper. Before the rooster crows, you 89 00:06:05.079 --> 00:06:08.720 will deny me three times. And the Gospel of Luke 90 00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:12.920 adds one devastating detail that the other gospels leave out. 91 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:17.439 At the exact moment the rooster crowed across the courtyard 92 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:21.360 through the crowd of guards and servants, Jesus turned and 93 00:06:21.439 --> 00:06:25.720 looked directly at Peter. Their eyes met, and Peter went 94 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:30.560 outside and wept bitterly. That was it. That was the 95 00:06:30.680 --> 00:06:34.480 last real moment between Peter and Jesus before the cross. 96 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:39.639 Not a heroic stand, not a declaration of faith, a 97 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:43.040 betrayal followed by a look that Peter would carry in 98 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:46.480 his chest like a piece of broken glass for the 99 00:06:46.519 --> 00:06:49.600 rest of his life, and the guilt of that moment 100 00:06:49.839 --> 00:06:53.560 was still there, still burning. On the morning we are 101 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:57.600 talking about, Peter did not feel like an apostle. He 102 00:06:57.680 --> 00:07:00.519 did not feel like a rock. He did not feel 103 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:04.120 like the leader of anything. He felt like a coward 104 00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:06.720 who had abandoned the person he loved most in the 105 00:07:06.759 --> 00:07:10.600 world at the moment it mattered most. So he went 106 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:14.319 back to the only identity he had left, the only 107 00:07:14.439 --> 00:07:17.519 version of himself that did not hurt to think about. 108 00:07:18.279 --> 00:07:21.079 He went fishing, the same thing he had been doing 109 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:25.040 on the very first day. Jesus found him three years earlier, 110 00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:29.600 standing in this same lake, washing his nets, as if 111 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:33.120 the calling had never happened, as if he could rowe 112 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:36.800 backward through time and become the person he was before 113 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:41.279 he ever heard that voice say follow me. And he 114 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:45.120 could not even catch a fish. That is the emotional 115 00:07:45.160 --> 00:07:50.079 set up of John chapter twenty one. A group of exhausted, confused, 116 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:54.800 grieving men pulling up empty nets in the dark, haunted 117 00:07:54.879 --> 00:07:58.279 by what they had done, paralyzed by what they were 118 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:02.720 supposed to become. And then, as the sky began to 119 00:08:02.800 --> 00:08:06.160 lighten over the eastern hills of the Golan Heights, a 120 00:08:06.199 --> 00:08:10.439 figure appeared on the shore line. The text says they 121 00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:14.519 did not recognize him at first, just a silhouette against 122 00:08:14.519 --> 00:08:19.399 the gray dawn. He called out to them across the water, children, 123 00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:23.519 do you have any fish? They answered no. And then 124 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:26.639 the stranger on the shore said something that made no 125 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:30.480 logical sense to a group of professional fishermen who had 126 00:08:30.519 --> 00:08:34.360 been working the water all night. Cast the net on 127 00:08:34.440 --> 00:08:37.120 the right side of the boat, and you will find 128 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:42.919 some the right side. In ancient Jewish tradition, the right 129 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:47.559 hand was the hand of power, favor, and blessing. When 130 00:08:47.679 --> 00:08:51.519 Jacob blessed his grandsons, he placed his right hand on 131 00:08:51.639 --> 00:08:54.799 the head of the one who would receive the greater inheritance. 132 00:08:55.720 --> 00:08:59.759 The righteous stand at God's right hand, the condemned stand 133 00:08:59.799 --> 00:09:03.080 at the left. In a fishing boat on the Sea 134 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:06.159 of Galilee, the instruction to cast the net on the 135 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:10.679 right side may have sounded like ordinary advice, but to 136 00:09:10.759 --> 00:09:14.759 anyone steeped in the symbolism of scripture, it carried a 137 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:20.720 second meaning. Cast your net toward blessing, cast it toward 138 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:25.519 the side of God's favor, and watch what happens. They 139 00:09:25.559 --> 00:09:30.039 had been fishing all night, They had tried everything they knew, 140 00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:33.960 they had nothing to show for it. But something about 141 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:37.960 that voice made them obey. Without argument. They threw the 142 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:41.639 net to the right side of the boat, and immediately 143 00:09:42.120 --> 00:09:46.960 the net filled with fish, so many fish, so suddenly 144 00:09:47.399 --> 00:09:50.919 that the net went taut and the boat listed, and 145 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:54.120 the muscles in their arms strained, and they could not 146 00:09:54.320 --> 00:09:58.960 haul it back aboard. John, the disciple Jesus loved, the 147 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:01.240 one who had leaned again against his chest at the 148 00:10:01.320 --> 00:10:05.120 last supper, turned to Peter and said four words that 149 00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:10.840 changed the entire morning. It is the Lord. John recognized 150 00:10:10.879 --> 00:10:14.759 it first because he had seen this before. Years earlier, 151 00:10:14.919 --> 00:10:18.080 on this same lake, Jesus had told Peter and the 152 00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:21.960 others to cast their nets after a fruitless night, and 153 00:10:22.039 --> 00:10:25.200 the catch had been so enormous that it nearly sank 154 00:10:25.399 --> 00:10:30.639 two boats. That was the miracle that started everything, The 155 00:10:30.679 --> 00:10:33.879 miracle that made Peter fall to his knees and say, 156 00:10:34.519 --> 00:10:37.960 depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. 157 00:10:38.919 --> 00:10:42.519 The miracle that made Jesus say, do not be afraid 158 00:10:43.279 --> 00:10:46.679 from now on you will be catching men. And Peter 159 00:10:46.840 --> 00:10:50.759 had left everything to follow him. Now it was happening again, 160 00:10:51.279 --> 00:10:55.960 the same lake, the same empty night, the same impossible catch, 161 00:10:56.679 --> 00:10:59.720 as if Jesus were saying, I called you once and 162 00:10:59.799 --> 00:11:06.240 you came. I am calling you again. And Peter, hearing 163 00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:12.000 those words, did something beautiful and irrational and perfectly in character. 164 00:11:12.679 --> 00:11:14.799 He did not wait for the boat to reach shore. 165 00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:19.039 He was stripped down for work, wearing only his undergarment. 166 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:22.960 He threw on his outer cloak and hurled himself into 167 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:27.159 the water, swimming and stumbling through the shallow surf, half 168 00:11:27.279 --> 00:11:30.639 drowning in his own clothes, racing toward the figure on 169 00:11:30.679 --> 00:11:33.200 the beach, like a man who had been holding his 170 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:39.679 breath for weeks and could finally finally exhale. Whatever fear 171 00:11:39.759 --> 00:11:43.720 he had, whatever shame, whatever voice in his head was 172 00:11:43.799 --> 00:11:47.200 telling him he had lost the right to approach Jesus, 173 00:11:47.679 --> 00:11:52.519 he ignored it. He just went. The other disciples followed 174 00:11:52.519 --> 00:11:55.919 in the boat, dragging the enormous net of fish behind them. 175 00:11:56.399 --> 00:11:59.799 They were only about a hundred yards from shore. When 176 00:11:59.799 --> 00:12:03.480 they reached the beach, they found something they did not expect. 177 00:12:04.360 --> 00:12:09.240 Jesus had already built a fire. He was grilling fish 178 00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:13.320 and bread on the coals. Breakfast was ready. He was 179 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:17.240 not pacing the shoreline looking angry. He was not preparing 180 00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:21.320 a lecture. He was cooking. And here is a detail 181 00:12:21.399 --> 00:12:25.399 that most readers walk right past without realizing what they 182 00:12:25.399 --> 00:12:29.000 are looking at. The Greek word John uses for the 183 00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:33.360 fire on this beach is Anthrucian. It means a fire 184 00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:37.240 of charcoal, a specific type of fire, and this word 185 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:41.279 appears in the entire New Testament exactly twice, once here 186 00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:44.200 on the beach of the Sea of Galilee, at the 187 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:49.440 moment of Peter's restoration, and once before in John chapter eighteen, 188 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:54.639 in the courtyard of the High Priest, where Peter denied 189 00:12:54.919 --> 00:13:01.080 Jesus three times beside a charcoal fire that is not 190 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:04.399 an accident. John was an old man when he wrote 191 00:13:04.440 --> 00:13:08.960 this gospel, probably the last surviving apostle writing from Ephesus, 192 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:13.120 decades after the events he described. He chose his words 193 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:17.679 with extraordinary care, and he deliberately used the same rare 194 00:13:17.720 --> 00:13:21.799 Greek word to connect these two scenes like the front 195 00:13:21.799 --> 00:13:25.240 and back covers of a book, the fire of Peter's 196 00:13:25.320 --> 00:13:30.000 greatest failure and the fire of his restoration Jesus was 197 00:13:30.039 --> 00:13:35.039 not just cooking breakfast. He was recreating the exact sensory 198 00:13:35.159 --> 00:13:39.480 setting of Peter's worst moment, the smell of charcoal, the 199 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:43.200 warmth of coals, the gray light of early morning, so 200 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:46.080 that he could redeem it. He was building a new 201 00:13:46.120 --> 00:13:49.799 memory on top of an old wound. And then came 202 00:13:49.879 --> 00:13:54.559 the conversation that makes grown men cry. Jesus looked at 203 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:59.960 Peter and asked, Simon, son of John, do you love me? 204 00:14:00.159 --> 00:14:03.519 More than these noticed that he did not call him Peter. 205 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:07.960 He called him Simon, his old name, his name from 206 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:11.399 before the calling, as if to say, I am meeting 207 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:14.519 you where you are, not where you think you should be. 208 00:14:15.240 --> 00:14:21.679 Peter answered yes. Jesus said, feed my lambs. He asked again, Simon, 209 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:25.200 son of John, do you love me? Peter said yes. Again, 210 00:14:25.679 --> 00:14:30.360 Jesus said tend my sheep, and then a third time, Simon, 211 00:14:30.840 --> 00:14:35.320 son of John, do you love me? And Peter was grieved. 212 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:39.039 The text says he was hurt that Jesus asked a 213 00:14:39.120 --> 00:14:43.600 third time, not because the question was unfair, but because 214 00:14:43.639 --> 00:14:47.879 he understood what was happening. Three denials by a charcoal fire, 215 00:14:48.399 --> 00:14:53.639 Three confessions by a charcoal fire, Jesus was not punishing him, 216 00:14:54.120 --> 00:14:58.360 He was not interrogating him. He was suturing the wound. 217 00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:01.879 He was giving Peter the ants to overwrite the worst 218 00:15:01.960 --> 00:15:06.240 moment of his life with something new. Not just forgiveness 219 00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:12.039 spoken in the abstract, but forgiveness enacted, felt, lived through 220 00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:15.279 in the body, in the smell of smoke, in the 221 00:15:15.320 --> 00:15:18.440 sound of a voice asking a question, you get to 222 00:15:18.519 --> 00:15:22.720 answer differently this time. And there is a detail buried 223 00:15:22.759 --> 00:15:27.639 in the original Greek that most English translations flatten. The 224 00:15:27.679 --> 00:15:31.320 first two times Jesus asked the question, he used the 225 00:15:31.399 --> 00:15:36.240 Greek word agapao. It is the word for unconditional, self 226 00:15:36.279 --> 00:15:43.279 sacrificing love, the highest kind. But Peter each time answered 227 00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:48.039 with a different word, pileo, the word for deep affection, 228 00:15:48.600 --> 00:15:51.360 for friendship, for the kind of love you know you 229 00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:55.799 can actually deliver. Peter was not reaching for the highest shelf. 230 00:15:56.200 --> 00:15:58.879 He was being honest about where he stood. And the 231 00:15:58.919 --> 00:16:03.799 third time something shifted. Jesus did not ask with agapaw again. 232 00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:09.000 He came down. He used phileo, Peter's word as if 233 00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:12.080 to say, I am not asking you to be perfect. 234 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:15.919 I am asking you to be honest, and honest is enough. 235 00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:21.720 Do you love me? Yes? Lord? Feed my lambs. Do 236 00:16:21.799 --> 00:16:26.679 you love me? Yes? Lord? Tend my sheep? Do you 237 00:16:26.759 --> 00:16:31.600 love me? Lord? You know everything? You know that I 238 00:16:31.679 --> 00:16:37.440 love you? Feed my sheep. Three questions to undo, three denials, 239 00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:41.799 a charcoal fire to heal, a charcoal fire, a full 240 00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:45.360 net to replace an empty one, and a restored man 241 00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:48.840 standing on a beach at dawn, being told that his 242 00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:53.600 failure did not disqualify him, that his calling was still intact, 243 00:16:54.200 --> 00:16:58.200 that his story was not over. And this is the scene, 244 00:16:58.639 --> 00:17:02.399 this specific scene in which the one hundred and fifty 245 00:17:02.440 --> 00:17:06.599 three fish appear. This is not a random fishing trip 246 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:10.920 mentioned in passing between other events. This is the emotional 247 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:19.759 and theological climax of the Fourth Gospel, a scene about failure, forgiveness, shame, restoration, identity, 248 00:17:20.039 --> 00:17:24.559 and calling. And somewhere woven into the fabric of this scene, 249 00:17:24.599 --> 00:17:28.240 like a golden thread through dark cloth, is a precise 250 00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:31.680 count of fish that the author considered important enough to 251 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:36.279 preserve for all time. Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged 252 00:17:36.279 --> 00:17:39.880 the net ashore. It was full of large fish, one 253 00:17:39.960 --> 00:17:43.119 hundred and fifty three, and though there were so many, 254 00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:47.880 the net was not torn. So What does one hundred 255 00:17:47.880 --> 00:17:52.160 and fifty three mean, and why in a gospel that 256 00:17:52.319 --> 00:17:56.839 normally deals in poetry and metaphor and symbolism, did John 257 00:17:56.960 --> 00:18:02.079 suddenly write down an exact number. The most straightforward answer 258 00:18:02.519 --> 00:18:06.440 is the one many modern scholars give. John wrote it 259 00:18:06.519 --> 00:18:12.079 down because it happened. Peter counted the fish. Fishermen always 260 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:15.599 count their catch. It is one of the oldest habits 261 00:18:15.599 --> 00:18:19.039 of the trade. You pull the net ashore, you sought 262 00:18:19.079 --> 00:18:22.880 them by size, you count them for division. The number 263 00:18:23.079 --> 00:18:26.640 was one hundred and fifty three, and John, who was there, 264 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:31.000 who saw the fish, who probably helped count them, recorded 265 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:36.599 the detail. Because eye witnesses remember oddly specific things, the 266 00:18:36.680 --> 00:18:40.000 number of steps to the upper room, the color of 267 00:18:40.039 --> 00:18:45.279 the sky at daybreak. The exact count. Nobody invents one 268 00:18:45.400 --> 00:18:48.680 hundred and fifty three. If you were making it up, 269 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:53.359 you would say about a hundred and fifty or more 270 00:18:53.440 --> 00:18:57.519 fish than they could hold. The sheer unroundness of the 271 00:18:57.640 --> 00:19:01.799 number is, in its own way, a fingerprint of authenticity. 272 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:05.880 There is a scholar named Raymond Brown, one of the 273 00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:10.160 most respected New Testament scholars of the twentieth century, who 274 00:19:10.200 --> 00:19:13.799 spent years studying the number, and in a moment of 275 00:19:13.839 --> 00:19:17.920 academic honesty that is genuinely funny. He admitted that he 276 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:20.200 once had a dream in which he met the beloved 277 00:19:20.240 --> 00:19:24.200 Disciple and asked him why one hundred and fifty three, 278 00:19:24.839 --> 00:19:29.559 and the disciple answered, because that is how many there were. 279 00:19:30.519 --> 00:19:33.519 Brown woke up thinking that might actually be the best 280 00:19:33.559 --> 00:19:37.680 answer anyone had ever given. But the early Church fathers 281 00:19:37.720 --> 00:19:41.480 were not satisfied with simplicity. And when you start digging 282 00:19:41.519 --> 00:19:45.359 into what they found, you understand why scholars have been 283 00:19:45.359 --> 00:19:49.920 circling this number like moths around a flame for twenty centuries. 284 00:19:50.960 --> 00:19:55.880 The first major theological interpretation came from Jerome. If you 285 00:19:55.960 --> 00:20:00.079 do not recognize that name, you need to. Jerome was 286 00:20:00.119 --> 00:20:04.160 born around three forty seven a d. He was raised 287 00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:08.119 in Strident, educated in Rome, and spent much of his 288 00:20:08.200 --> 00:20:12.319 adult life in a cave in Bethlehem, surrounded by manuscripts. 289 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:17.920 He learned Hebrew from Jewish rabbis. He mastered Greek, Aramaic, 290 00:20:18.039 --> 00:20:23.039 and Latin. He translated the entire Bible into Latin, creating 291 00:20:23.079 --> 00:20:26.759 the Vulgate, the standard Bible of the Western Church for 292 00:20:26.880 --> 00:20:31.279 over a thousand years. Jerome was not a casual reader 293 00:20:31.319 --> 00:20:36.000 of scripture. He was arguably the most linguistically gifted biblical 294 00:20:36.039 --> 00:20:40.960 scholar the ancient world ever produced. When Jerome looked at 295 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:44.400 the one hundred and fifty three fish, he connected them 296 00:20:44.440 --> 00:20:47.839 to a prophecy in the Old Testament that reframes the 297 00:20:48.039 --> 00:20:52.759 entire miracle. Ezekiel chapter forty seven, one of the most 298 00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:57.039 vivid and strange prophetic visions in all of Scripture. In 299 00:20:57.079 --> 00:21:01.359 this passage, the prophet Ezekiel is sported in a vision 300 00:21:01.400 --> 00:21:04.599 to the Restored Temple, and from the threshold of that 301 00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:08.519 temple he sees a river of living water flowing eastward. 302 00:21:09.079 --> 00:21:13.519 An angelic guide leads Ezekiel into the water. First it 303 00:21:13.559 --> 00:21:18.119 reaches his ankles, then his knees, then his waste, and 304 00:21:18.200 --> 00:21:20.880 then the river becomes a torrent so deep and so 305 00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:25.160 powerful that no one can cross it. And this river 306 00:21:25.279 --> 00:21:29.359 flows east through the desert of the Araba, down through 307 00:21:29.440 --> 00:21:34.000 the Rift Valley, until it reaches the Dead Sea. Now, 308 00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:36.680 the Dead Sea sits at the lowest point on the 309 00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:40.440 surface of the Earth, more than fourteen hundred feet below 310 00:21:40.519 --> 00:21:44.359 sea level. It is nearly ten times saltier than the ocean. 311 00:21:44.839 --> 00:21:49.839 Nothing lives in it, no fish, no plants, no algae. 312 00:21:49.880 --> 00:21:54.160 It is by every biological measure dead, and that is 313 00:21:54.279 --> 00:21:58.440 precisely the point of Ezekiel's prophecy, because when the living 314 00:21:58.519 --> 00:22:02.680 water from the temple reaches the dead sea, the impossible happens. 315 00:22:03.160 --> 00:22:07.480 The salt water becomes fresh, and the sea that could 316 00:22:07.519 --> 00:22:12.480 sustain no life at all begins teeming with fish. Ezekiel 317 00:22:12.599 --> 00:22:18.000 records this, fishermen will stand beside it, from Engeddi to Eneglame. 318 00:22:18.279 --> 00:22:20.559 There will be a place for the spreading of nets. 319 00:22:21.079 --> 00:22:24.119 Their fish will be, according to their kinds, like the 320 00:22:24.160 --> 00:22:29.480 fish of the great sea, very many. Jerome saw a 321 00:22:29.559 --> 00:22:35.000 direct line from Ezekiel forty seven to John twenty one. Jesus, 322 00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:37.920 who called himself the source of living water in John 323 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:41.200 chapter seven, was standing on the shore of a sea 324 00:22:41.920 --> 00:22:46.319 his disciples. The fishermen were spreading their nets, and the 325 00:22:46.359 --> 00:22:49.640 massive catch of fish represented the nations of the world 326 00:22:50.039 --> 00:22:53.359 being gathered into the Kingdom of God, the dead sea 327 00:22:53.400 --> 00:22:56.559 of humanity brought to life by the living water of 328 00:22:56.599 --> 00:23:01.839 the Gospel. And Jerome added one crucial detail. He cited 329 00:23:01.880 --> 00:23:06.559 the ancient Greek zoological tradition, claiming that naturalists of the 330 00:23:06.599 --> 00:23:11.160 ancient world had cataloged one hundred and fifty three distinct 331 00:23:11.279 --> 00:23:15.960 species of fish in the known seas. If that was true, 332 00:23:16.599 --> 00:23:19.680 then the miraculous catch was not just a large number 333 00:23:19.720 --> 00:23:23.680 of fish, it was one of every kind, a complete 334 00:23:23.720 --> 00:23:29.480 set the entire created world, every nation and people and language, 335 00:23:29.880 --> 00:23:35.039 gathered into a single net, and the net held. Modern 336 00:23:35.079 --> 00:23:40.279 scholars have debated whether ancient zoologists actually listed exactly one 337 00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:44.480 hundred and fifty three species. The surviving works of the 338 00:23:44.519 --> 00:23:49.240 Greek naturalist Opian do not confirm that precise number, and 339 00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:51.759 Jerome may have been drawing on a tradition that has 340 00:23:51.799 --> 00:23:55.720 since been lost to history, but the theological architecture of 341 00:23:55.759 --> 00:24:00.720 his argument is staggering. Regardless of the zoology, Rome saw 342 00:24:00.880 --> 00:24:05.039 in one hundred and fifty three a symbol of universality 343 00:24:05.480 --> 00:24:10.279 and completeness, a god whose reach extends to every corner 344 00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:15.200 of creation, missing nothing, leaving no species of human experience 345 00:24:15.279 --> 00:24:18.599 outside the net of mercy. And if that were the 346 00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:22.839 only layer, this number would already deserve a video. But 347 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:26.319 what comes next made people sit up in their chairs. 348 00:24:27.160 --> 00:24:31.319 Around the same time as Jerome, across North Africa, another 349 00:24:31.480 --> 00:24:35.519 intellectual giant was studying the same number through a completely 350 00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:41.720 different lens. Augustine of Hippo born three fifty four, a 351 00:24:42.119 --> 00:24:48.640 d converted after years of philosophical searching, eventually became the 352 00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:53.480 Bishop of Hippo Regius in modern day Algeria, and arguably 353 00:24:53.839 --> 00:24:59.279 the most influential Christian thinker outside the Apostles themselves. His 354 00:24:59.400 --> 00:25:04.839 writings shaped Western theology, philosophy, and political theory for the 355 00:25:04.880 --> 00:25:10.240 next fifteen centuries. Augustine was not interested in fish species. 356 00:25:10.759 --> 00:25:14.039 He was interested in numbers, and what he noticed has 357 00:25:14.079 --> 00:25:18.160 been echoing through scholarship for sixteen hundred years. One hundred 358 00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:22.839 fifty three is a triangular number that means if you 359 00:25:22.880 --> 00:25:26.799 add every whole number from one to seventeen, one plus 360 00:25:26.799 --> 00:25:30.839 two plus three plus four all the way up to seventeen, 361 00:25:31.440 --> 00:25:35.720 the total is exactly one hundred and fifty three. If 362 00:25:35.759 --> 00:25:38.599 you arranged one hundred fifty three dots on a page, 363 00:25:39.079 --> 00:25:42.039 one on the first row, two on the second, three 364 00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:46.039 on the third, continuing through to seventeen, they would form 365 00:25:46.079 --> 00:25:52.240 a perfect equilateral triangle seventeen rows one hundred fifty three points, 366 00:25:52.759 --> 00:25:57.440 a flawless geometric shape. In the ancient world, this was 367 00:25:57.519 --> 00:26:03.599 not trivia. Triangular numbers were considered sacred the Pythagoreans, the 368 00:26:03.599 --> 00:26:08.200 Greek philosophical and mathematical school founded by Pythagoras in the 369 00:26:08.240 --> 00:26:14.640 sixth century BC, revered triangular numbers as expressions of divine order. 370 00:26:15.359 --> 00:26:20.200 Their central symbol, the Tetractys, was itself a triangular arrangement 371 00:26:20.279 --> 00:26:25.119 of ten dots. Initiates swore their most sacred oaths by it, 372 00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:29.559 by him who handed down to our generation the Tetractys 373 00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:35.759 the source and root of everlasting nature. For the Pythagoreans, 374 00:26:36.160 --> 00:26:40.359 numbers were not just counting tools. They were the architecture 375 00:26:40.400 --> 00:26:44.400 of reality, and a triangular number was a number that 376 00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:49.599 had achieved its perfect geometric form. Augustine then looked at 377 00:26:49.640 --> 00:26:53.799 the base of the triangle seventeen and broke it down further. 378 00:26:54.519 --> 00:26:58.920 Ten plus seven Ten the number of the commandments God 379 00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:04.480 gave Moses on Sinai, the foundation of divine law. Seven 380 00:27:04.759 --> 00:27:07.920 the number of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The 381 00:27:08.039 --> 00:27:11.720 number of creation since God rested on the seventh Day, 382 00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:16.839 the number of completeness and perfection in the Jewish symbolic vocabulary, 383 00:27:17.400 --> 00:27:21.359 appearing more than seven hundred times across the Hebrew Bible, 384 00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:26.119 so one hundred and fifty three, as the triangulation of 385 00:27:26.200 --> 00:27:31.319 seventeen encoded, the total union of law and Grace, the 386 00:27:31.400 --> 00:27:36.759 Ten Commandments and the Sevenfold Spirit, Moses and the Holy Spirit, 387 00:27:37.160 --> 00:27:41.599 the Old Covenant and the New encoded in a single number, 388 00:27:42.119 --> 00:27:45.880 caught in a single net. And there is more. The 389 00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:51.039 fifth century theologian Cyril of Alexandria offered yet another reading. 390 00:27:51.640 --> 00:27:55.279 He broke one hundred and fifty three into three components, 391 00:27:55.799 --> 00:28:01.079 one hundred representing the fullness of the Gentile nations, fifty 392 00:28:01.680 --> 00:28:07.160 representing the faithful remnant of Israel, and three representing the 393 00:28:07.240 --> 00:28:12.880 Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, the complete gathering of 394 00:28:12.920 --> 00:28:17.039 all peoples, Jewish and Gentile, held together in the embrace 395 00:28:17.119 --> 00:28:23.960 of the Triune God. Three theologians, three frameworks, all pointing 396 00:28:24.079 --> 00:28:31.079 toward the same conclusion, completeness, totality, everyone in the net. 397 00:28:31.759 --> 00:28:34.079 If you are finding this as deep as I think 398 00:28:34.119 --> 00:28:38.960 you are, hit subscribe. We break down biblical mysteries like 399 00:28:39.039 --> 00:28:42.359 this every single week. But we are not done with 400 00:28:42.440 --> 00:28:46.799 the mathematics, not even close. One hundred and fifty three 401 00:28:46.960 --> 00:28:51.839