Peter in 153 verses – Fisher of the Jews

Summary

In the King James Bible, Peter is mentioned in 153 verses.

That is- “Peter” in singular form (not counting possessive mentions with an apostrophe “Peter’s”). Neither are any other names of Peter such as Cephas, Simon, or “A stone” included in this search. It’s simply a search for the word “Peter.” It should also be noted that no other person in the entire Bible has the name “Peter” – therefore no antimentions exist in the count.

In the Scriptures

153 is an inspired number in scriptures – manifest in John 21:11 as the number of fish that were caught in the second miraculous catch, the very last miracle performed by Jesus in the gospel accounts.

Who drew up the net of 153 fishes to land? Peter himself.

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

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: 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: Jesus waits until morning to give his disciples the miraculous catch:

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

Confirmations

The 153rd chapter of the New Testament (1Cor 4) goes perfectly along with the picture of fishing men out of darkness into the light of Christ, as it states:

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 4:3-6

With even greater confirmation, we find only one other person in the entire Bible who is mentioned in 153 verses: Paul. In the entire Bible, “Paul” is mentioned in 153 verses without the possessive forms, just as we see with “Peter“. This has massive significance! While the gospel to the Jews was committed to Peter, the gospel to the Gentiles was committed unto Paul. We know that with certainty because under inspiration of the Holy Ghost, we find the 153rd mention of “Peter” in Galatians 2:7, which reads: But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; (153rd mention of Peter). 

This verse (Galatians 2:7) is quite literally telling us the gospels to the uncircumcision (the Gentiles) was committed unto Paul as the gospel to of the circumcision (the Jews) was committed unto Peter. The chief fishers of men. Peter is the fisher of the Jews; Paul is the fisher of the Gentiles. Look at the key word separating those two statements in Gal 2:7: “as” … “as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter”. Paul is telling the Galatians that the gospel was committed unto him “as“… or “just like” it was committed unto Peter! The fact that both “chief fishers of men” of both Jews and Gentiles are found in 153 verses each is staggering to say the least. Anybody who knows the Bible must consider this with all diligence. If there were 9 or 10 men mentioned in 153 verses, it would be more understandable to consider it random chance. But again, these are the only 2 men mentioned in 153 verses in the Bible.