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So Simon Peter ... hauled the net ashore,
full of large fish, 153 of them.
And although there were so many,
the net was not torn. - John 21:11

153 is for Total Victory

John 21

818 words long.

Published on 2024-03-30

This number is different from the others. It poses a great riddle which took weeks to unravel. All other numbers in this section of the website were described in the chapter "To Number Our Days" in Peace, like Solomon Never Knew. This number was instead explored in Plague, Precept, Prophet, Peace in the chapter "Answering Habakkuk". The pages in this section are derived, mostly verbatim, from that chapter.

For almost two thousand years, Christians have proposed meanings for the one hundred fifty-three (153) fish caught by the disciples. It was not just a miracle, it was a miracle with a number attached! That has fueled rampant speculation. These pages will travel outwards from John's gospel to related passages in order to define the meaning of one hundred fifty-three and its role in prophecy. From this inquiry we shall conclude that 153 means:

  • Total Victory
  • The Fear of God
  • Hope amidst war
  • Judgment for the Wicked
  • Forgiveness for the Righteous
  • Power and Authority for the Righteous

Here are links to the many articles in this subsection:

  1. Connections to other books The scope of inquiry is given. The riddle is connected to Genesis, Psalms 34 and 119, Jeremiah 32, Habakkuk, John 21, Matthew 13, and Revelation 9.
  2. Defining 153 Noah's Flood is shown to have lasted precisely 153 days.
  3. Fear 153 is connected to the Fear of the Lord through Psalms 24 and 119, Luke 12 and 2 Kings 17.
  4. Hope Jeremiah connects a related victory number, seventeen (17), to hope. Then the themes of John 21 are connected to Habakkuk.
  5. Habakkuk: Part 1 Analysis of Habakkuk 1:1-4. Habakkuk puts questions to God.
  6. Habakkuk: Part 2 Analysis of Habakkuk 1:5-11. God doubles down: the bitter and hasty Chaldeans are coming.
  7. Habakkuk: Part 3 Analysis of Habakkuk 1:12-2:1. Habakkuk complains with three threes about innocent people caught in a cruel net.
  8. Habakkuk: Part 4 Analysis of Habakkuk 2:2-5. God offers a fourfold assurance to the faithful.
  9. Habakkuk: Part 5 Analysis of Habakkuk 2:6-20. Five woes are pronounced against lawbreakers.
  10. Habakkuk: Part 6 Analysis of Habakkuk 3:1-16. Prophecy of God's coming six-ply war against the wicked.
  11. Habakkuk: Part 7 Analysis of Habakkuk 3:17-19. Six laments over a barren harvest and a seventh praise of God in faith.
  12. The Fifth Trumpet of Revelation The Revelation 9 Plague of Locusts lasts 153 Years.
  13. Habakkuk's War Revisits the sixth section of Habakkuk with a final insight into God's battle plan.

Given that there is no direct connection between the number 153 and Habakkuk, you may be puzzled why it is featured prominently in the pages above. One hundred fifty-three (153) is a triangular number. So is twenty-eight (28), equaling 1+2+3+4+5+6+7. Habakkuk is rigorously constructed in seven sections, with each section focusing on the next number in the series. Thus Habakkuk has designed his prophecy to conform to a triangular number, proving that such numbers played a part in Jewish prophecy.

The seventeenth triangular number is 153. Thus it is curious that the seventeenth verses of the three chapters in Habakkuk have something to say about the victory of good over evil. In the first chapter, Habakkuk wonders whether wicked empires will always be victorious:

Is he then to keep on emptying his net

and mercilessly killing nations forever?
- Habakkuk 1:17

Then in the second chapter, a woe is pronounced against the violent, to declare a future day for their defeat:

The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,

as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them,

for the blood of man and violence to the earth,

to cities and all who dwell in them.
- Habakkuk 2:17

Finally, in the third chapter, the seventeenth verse begins a hymn of faith that God's word will be fulfilled, though no evidence can yet be seen that it will be so:

Though the fig tree should not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail

and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold

and there be no herd in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my strength;

he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

- Habakkuk 3:17-19

The Lord will one day march out to do battle and all the faithful shall then reap their abundant harvest.

It will be a Total Victory.

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