The Men Who Caught 153 Fishes – 153x in the Gospels

Summary

In the Bible, a miraculous catch of 153 fishes is detailed in the last chapter of the Gospels (John 21:1-14). Verse 11 has sparked curiosity in millions of Christians throughout the history of the church as to why the specific number of fishes is recorded. (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. John 21:11).

This peculiar number has puzzled Christians for centuries. Why was it recorded so specifically, decades after the event? What did the Holy Ghost intend to reveal?

The fishermen who catch these 153 fishes are listed out in verse 2. (There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. John 21:2) While there are 7 fishers in total, only 5 of them are identified. When we look at the principle names of these fishers who catch the 153 fishes (Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James, and John), we find exactly 153 pure mentions in the Gospels.

In the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)
Peter | Peter’s = 97x
Thomas = 11x
Nathanael = 6x
James = 19x
John = 20x
(Note: There are no possessive mentions in the Gospels of Thomas, Nathanael, James, or John.)

Total (97 + 11 + 6 + 19 + 20) = 153 pure mentions of Peter* + Thomas* + Nathanael* + James* + John* in the Gospels (All the fishermen who caught the 153 fishes)

Pure mentions are when look-alike mentions (called “antimentions”) are removed from the count. With this particular search, we removed the following 93 antimentions:

– James the less (8x)
– James, half-brother of Jesus (2x)
– John(‘s), the Baptist (83x)

There are no antimentions of Peter, Thomas, or Nathanael (nobody else goes by those names).

In the Scriptures

The significance of catching fish in the Gospels is made abundantly clear by Christ himself.

Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. Mark 1:14-17

Jesus goes through the region of Galilee preaching the gospel and then tells Peter and his brother to come after him and he will make them fishers of men. Jesus was already fishing for men. Now it was time for his disciples to join him. The illustration of “fishing for men” is quite clear when you think about it plainly: the gospel is fishing a man out of darkness and into the glorious light of Jesus Christ. Have you ever noticed that both miraculous catches in the Bible proceed a night of catching nothing? Christ waited until the light of morning/day to manifest his miracles, to give us this beautiful picture of catching men out of the darkness of sin and death.

The first miraculous catch is detailed in Luke 5, where Jesus gives his disciples the miraculous catch in the daytime, after a catchless night:

And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.  Luke 5:3-5

Note that this miraculous catch would have occurred during the day because the disciples were washing their nets and Jesus was “fishing for men” (teaching a crowd of people from Simon Peter’s boat) shortly beforehand in verses 1-3.

The second miraculous catch is the 153-catch in John 21, when Jesus waits until morning to give his disciples the miraculous catch. He could have helped them at any time he chose in the night, while they were out there struggling. But the Lord waited until the rising of the sun.

Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore… John 21:3-4

Have you ever been caught by the gospel net? If not, I hope these words sink down into your heart: Christ died for your sins and cancelled your guilt on the cross with his own blood.

Have you ever been lifted up out of sin and darkness into the brightness of the Son of God? If not, Jesus said you will die in your sins. And you will descend into greater darkness.

You may be thinking- well if you lift me up out of the water, then I’ll die.

Yes — and that’s exactly the point.

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Romans 6:6-7

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

When we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ by faith alone, we are lifted up out of those waters of darkness, sin, and death, and made into a new creature in Christ Jesus.

He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. Psalm 18:16

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17

If you haven’t believed, why wait? As David once said, “…there is but a step between me and death.” (1 Samuel 20:3).

Come before the Prince of Life as the sinner you are (1 John 1:8,10), and call upon him from a sincere heart. “Lord, save me. Wash away all my sins in your precious blood.” And remember, there is no prayer nor “formula” that can save you.

Only the Son of God himself can save you.

Reach out to him.

Probability & Statistics

What are the chances of this happening randomly? Finding the fishers who caught the 153 fishes exactly 153 times in the Gospels is either a miracle, a conspiracy, or a coincidence. It begs the question: what are the chances that this group of names perfectly produces 153x in the Gospels? Does this sort of thing happen often?

To test whether this sort of pattern happens often, brother Michael Schutt coded a simple program called NetCount. The tool simulates thousands of random groupings of names from the Gospels and adds up their total mentions, using real textual data (pure mentions in the KJB). After many trials, we found no other natural group — that is, a group of names that are clearly associated or belong together — that sums to exactly 153 mentions. As shown in this video starting at timestamp 26:25, there is about a 1 in 1800 chance for a random group of names to produce a sum of 153 mentions. And every group that does hit that number consists of random, unrelated names — what we would call false positives.

Have you ever rolled dice? Of course you have. Now, imagine rolling a die with 1800 sides instead of 6.

There’s only 1 winning side on that 1800-sided die.

And imagine that even if you land on the winning number, there’s a 99% chance it’s meaningless (because it’s a false positive!). That’s a frustrating game.

So here’s the mind boggling part: besides the names of the fishermen in the boat summing up to 153 pure mentions in the Gospels, the only other coherent / natural group of names (a true positive) that total up to 153 pure mentions in the Gospels are in the exact same verse: the first 3 names that appear in John 21:2 (Simon* + Peter* + Thomas* = 153x in the Gospels).

Obviously, Simon and Peter are the same person. Nevertheless, these are the first three names that appear in the list of the 153 fishermen.

There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. John 21:2

They are not randomly chosen from the group. They are the very first ones on the list.

Thus, the following is true in the King James Bible:

• The principle names of the fishermen (John 21:2), Peter(‘s) + Thomas + Nathanael + James + John = 153x in the Gospels (Pure)
• The first three names that appear (John 21:2), Simon(‘s) + Peter(‘s) + Thomas = 153x in the Gospels (Pure)

So here’s how this game of dice played out in the King James Bible: whenever the 1800-sided die was rolled in any other verse of the Gospels, it failed to produce the winning number. Even when it was rolled multiple times per verse, for all the times when there are 3+ names mentioned. But when that same 1800-sided die was rolled here in John 21:2, it was a winner, not once, but twice. How could we explain that away as random chance?

At minimum, we’re looking at:

(1/1800) × (1/1800) = 1 in 3,240,000 

And that doesn’t factor in how many false positives occur (groups that hit 153 but aren’t meaningful). Nor does it account for how many total groupings are possible in the Gospels.

Conclusion

The catch of 153 fishes has always been a mystery to the church. There are many abstract calculations and interesting ideas that have surfaced over time, but none so greatly reveal the mind of God as this. We see a strange number recorded in scriptures, and we see a perfect alignment with that number in the most in-context way possible. The names of the fishermen — in the very passage where they catch 153 fishes — occur exactly 153 times in the gospels. It’s clear that these men were caught by Jesus.

The logical and faithful response to seeing all this is simple: God has purposefully cared after every detail in his own book.

For a closer analysis of the 153 fishes, check out the video on YouTube called 153 Fishes: Blatant Evidence the Bible is from God.

References

Visual Chart: The 153 Fishes / Main Pattern in Middle

Figma: 153 Fishes

Video: 153 Fishes: Blatant Evidence the Bible is from God