153 fish

Lanolin · Mar 28, 2020

Just wondering what the significance of this number is in the Bible, when the disciples went fishing and caught this many?
Does it represent the number of tribes or peoples or tongues or nations do you think?

according to some estimates there are about 197 nations in the world or different countries...

CharliRenee · Mar 28, 2020

Hmmmm, I do not know. Looks forward to your responses.

azamzimtoti · Mar 28, 2020

I think it's another overblown fishing story - "it was this <- - - - - - - - - - - - - - > big, honest.

Pemican · Mar 28, 2020

It was 153 large fish. The disciples were so impressed that they took a count. No other significance to the number is suggested by the passage.

Various miracles were involved: a single big catch after a night of no fish at all; the net did not break; Peter is commanded to drag the net to shore, which he does single handed, even though the other 6 disciples could not row the net to shore.

JamOn · Mar 28, 2020

Pemican said:

And it seems they didn’t quite recognize Him because they didn’t dare ask, that’s a interesting statement as well.

Lightskin · Mar 28, 2020

Lanolin said:

153: 1 from 5 x 3 = 12 tribes of Israel.

MessageOfTheCross · Mar 28, 2020

In Luke 5:6 symbolically speaking, the net broke then because the Holy Spirit had not yet come; with the Holy Spirit, the net won't break (John 21:11).

The exact number is given by the Holy Spirit for purpose and reason; the Disciples were to be fishers of men, not of fish per se; consequently, the number given of the fish portrays the fact that each soul is precious in the sight of God, and numbered accordingly.

JSM

Brandnewday · Mar 28, 2020

I cheated and looked it up. http://www.gods-word-first.org/number153.html
Biblical meaning of 153
In the bible the symbolic meaning of the number 153 represents blessings and abundance in complete spiritual order from divine revelation and applied wisdom that is divinely established. We live in a universe made of energy, the code for which, the language if you will, is based on math.

Back in the day if a fisherman had caught 153 fish I'd say that would fit the definition of a blessing of abundant food for himself and all in his village. The fish probably aren't on the same page with that.

posthuman · Mar 28, 2020

Lanolin said:

in 2 Kings 2 there are 3 captains of 50 who are sent to Elijah to bring him to Ahaziah. this is just before Elijah ascends.

3 sets of 50 soldiers plus 1 captain of each set = 153

the first two order Elijah, saying, man of God come down. Elijah says if he is truly a man of God, let fire come down - and it does. they are slain by God.
the third captain pleads for mercy, and God tells Elijah to go with him. they are spared.

Nehemiah6 · Mar 28, 2020

Lanolin said:

Since the apostles were commissioned to be fishers of men (and were temporarily distracted), that number represents the ideal number of believers within a true Bible church. If each church had an ideal number of seven elders, then each one would take personal oversight of about 22 believers. Mega-churches cannot accomplish what smaller churches can. And if the numbers exceed 150, then a separate gathering would be ideal.

posthuman · Mar 28, 2020

Brandnewday said:

who says this is the 'Biblical meaning' ?
why do they say this? what's the evidence that this is the meaning?
can we trust this source?

i know this is true:

so

a number calculated this way is called a 'triangular number'
so what's the 'Biblical meaning' of the triangular numbers?
what's the meaning of the 17th triangular number?
what's the meaning of 17, and what does it mean to sum the integers less than it?

posthuman · Mar 28, 2020

Brandnewday said:

yes

show me the math, please

Brandnewday · Mar 28, 2020

posthuman said:

You know that picture you put up there is true? So does Bing. https://www.bing.com/images/search?...46&ccid=UBDNQk5N&exph=46&expw=506&vt=2&sim=11

Who says? The people at the link I posted from their site.

Brandnewday · Mar 28, 2020

posthuman said:

Ask the people that wrote what I posted with their link attached.
You think God is a mathematician? What's the square root of eternal salvation?

posthuman · Mar 28, 2020

posthuman said:

where else is 153 in the scripture?

a good way to study is find everywhere the thing is in scripture, set them all before you, and look for connections. look for Christ; look for how they are connected in speaking of Him

posthuman · Mar 28, 2020

Brandnewday said:

not sure that doing an image search that doesn't get any actual matches counts for much..?

i created the pictures just now using an online LaTeX-friendly word processing site, here:
https://latex.codecogs.com/eqneditor/editor.php
this, along with another site that lets me copy-paste common mathematical symbols directly, is what i typically use when i talk about math in the forum.

i proved this formula when i was 10 years old. it's 'common knowledge'
would you like to see a proof? for general N ? obviously you can just plug 1 + 2 + ... + 16 + 17 into a calculator for yourself.
i'd be happy to give one

probably by induction - it's easy

17 is prime. it is the 7th prime number.
there is no known formula for calculating the Nth prime number. finding one is kind of an 'holy grail' for number theory.
17 = 10 + 7
7 & 10 are numbers found a lot in scripture.

does that give insight?

JamOn · Mar 28, 2020

posthuman said:

Thought this to be a tad interesting just on the 153 part, the number is quite bigger than 153 but the first three numbers is 153 when these are added up = 153,300

1 kings 5
15Solomon had 70,000 porters and 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, 16not including his 3,300 foremen who supervised the workers.

posthuman · Mar 28, 2020

Brandnewday said:

i suspect that the people who wrote the site you got that from do not actually know or do very much math at all.
i keep my fingers crossed hoping one day someone will pop up with a question like this who does study math, and can have a legitimate discussion about it, justifying what they say are the correlating meanings attached with numbers and how the relationships between numbers & various operators & other algebraic properties translate to spiritual understanding.

Brandnewday said:

absolutely God is a mathematician. He is the Mathematician -- He created it. man doesn't 'imagine math' -- we discover it; it exists and we seek it out, and find it.

Brandnewday said:

are you asking for a measure? the square root of infinity is infinity.

eternal life is to know Christ; to know God. resultant of square root operation on a thing is that which when multiplied by itself results in the thing. we need to define 'multiplication' operator before we can answer this - but knowledge of Him is gained only by Him Himself ((ex. Luke 10:22)) so He Himself is the Root and the Branch -- He is Unit, the Identity operator. for justification see Zechariah 14:9 for example: God is one. 1

so either ∞ or 1 lol!!
look, i don't know if you meant that to be a serious question? but to seriously answer it we need to work out what space the question is phrased in and what are the details of a valid sigma-algebra in which we can work. then we need to agree on a defined measure.

i take math seriously -- what you're asking isn't a simple question.

posthuman · Mar 28, 2020

Nehemiah6 said:

ok, where in scripture do we have a 'church' consisting of 153 people?

anywhere at all?

can you go through the NT and find a group of believers numbering exactly 153, anywhere, even once?

so where does this interpretation come from? and why don't you include the disciples in the boat & also Christ on the shore in this calculation? i.e. why not 1 Lord + 11 disciples + 153 fish = 165 people or 164 if you don't count Jesus as being 'part of the congregation' ?

your interpretation really feels like it was pulled out of thin air, and i'd like to see it justified, if that's even possible.

posthuman · Mar 28, 2020

Nehemiah6 said:

how do you justify seven elders when there were 11 apostles?
which apostles are you ditching?
or you assume the elders are among the 'caught' not among the 'fishers of men' ?

153 fish

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