John 21:9-11

“ When therefore they were come to land, they see a fire of coals there, and a fish laid thereon and bread. 10. Jesus says to them, Bring of the fish which you have just taken. 11. Simon Peter went up on the boat and drew the net to land, full of great fishes, a hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not broken. ”

If this draught of fishes is for the disciples the symbol and pledge of the success of their preaching, the meal is undoubtedly the emblem of the spiritual and temporal assistance on which they may count on the part of their glorified Lord, as long as this work shall continue. Grotius, Olshausen and others have thought that in contrast with the sea which represents the field of labor, the land and the meal represent heaven, from whence Jesus aids the believers, and where He receives them after death. We are more naturally led to the first sense by the preceding question: “You have, then, nothing to eat?”

The word ἀνθρακία, coal-fire, is found only here and in the story of the denial of St. Peter, and this in John only (John 18:18; Mark and Luke have πῦρ and φῶς).

The singular ὀψάριον, roasted fish, is taken by Luthardt, Meyer, Weiss, in the collective sense: fish, as if there were several. They rest upon John 21:13. But in that place there is the article, which may have the generic sense. If there were several, why should Jesus request them to bring of their own? John 21:10 and John 6:9, where the plural is used, speak rather in favor of the singular sense of ὀψάριον. Only the narrative does not lay stress upon this; for in that case ἕν would have been necessary.

Whence came this bread and fish? Luthardt thinks of the ministry of angels; Baumleinand Weiss attribute the whole to the action of Peter. This disciple may, indeed, have kindled the fire; but whence could he have procured the bread and the fish? Lampe thinks that Jesus had procured these articles of food from some fishermen of the neighborhood; at all events, He did not create them; this procedure would be contrary to all the antecedents (John 2:7; John 6:9; comp. Vol. I., pp. 349, 350; Vol. II., p. 7). The words: it is the Lord, relieve us, undoubtedly, from the necessity of disturbing ourselves with this question (Luke 19:31).

The articles of food offered by Jesus must be made complete by the product of their own fishing. This detail would be absolutely incomprehensible, unless this whole scene had a symbolic sense. Jesus wishes to tell them that He will occupy Himself with their wants, but that their faithful labor must co-operate with His benediction and His aid; comp. Psalms 128:2: “ The fruit of thy labor thou shalt eat. ” He drew: of course, with the aid of his companions; but Peter was the one who directed.

The number one hundred and fifty-three has been made the text of the strangest commentaries. Cyril of Alexandria sees herein the emblem of God and the Church (100 representing the Gentiles, 50 the Jews, 3 the Trinity). Augustine gives himself to unheard-of subtleties (see Westcott, who enumerates a large number of other strange explanations, of Gregory the Great, Rupert of Deutz, etc.). Hengstenberg sees in this number an allusion to the 153,600 Canaanitish proselytes who were received into the theocracy in the time of Solomon (2Ch 2:17). According to an expression which is somewhat common at the present day among our critics, this number came from the idea accepted at that time among naturalists, that the total number of kinds of fishes is 153. Koestlin has, indeed, cited a passage from Jerome, which seems to prove the existence of this idea among the learned men of the period by a saying of a Cilician poet, named Oppian, a contemporary of Marcus Aurelius: “Those who have written on the species of animals,...and among them the very learned Oppian, the Cilician, say that there are 153 kinds of fish, which were all taken by the apostles, and of which none remained uncaught.”

This number would, therefore, be the symbol of the totality of the Gentile nations. Hilgenfeld, to complete this interpretation, holds that the fish and the bread which Jesus had previously prepared represent the Jewish people. But Strauss observes (Leben Jesu, 1864, p. 414) that Oppian does not himself indicate the total 153, but that he gives only a not very clear enumeration, the sum of which may as easily be a larger or smaller number as this number itself. Then the work of Oppian is later than that of John, and we are led by the sentence of Jerome himself to conclude that John's number has been taken advantage of for the purpose of this scientific fable. As to the idea of Hilgenfeld (Einl., p. 718), how can we suppose that a reasonable writer should have been willing to represent the Jewish people under the figure of a roasted fish and bread?

The mention of this number is no more surprising than that of the number of men who were fed and of baskets which were filled, after the multiplication of the loaves, in ch. 6. It is the simple fact recalled to mind to prove two things: 1. The richness of the draught of fishes; 2. The lively interest with which the apostles counted the fishes that were taken.

The fact that the net was unbroken is mentioned, perhaps, as a symbol of the special protection of the Lord given to the Church, and to all those whom it contains.