Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land,

full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three;

and although there were so many,

the net was not torn. John, 21,11

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of the Hundred and fifty-three fish                                            

 

 

On a Hebrew reading of the 153 fish

 

 ק     נ      ג

 

   

The number 153, which is mentioned in the Gospel of John as the number of fish caught at the nocturnal fishing on Lake Tiberias appears as significant as it is mysterious.

 

Also the richness of its mathematical relations - it yields, e.g., the addition series or the triangular number of the seventeen, which is mentioned in the Mosaic writings quite often, and it represents the

first Armstrong number  - cannot explain the peculiar way of its mention: it stands alone, without further indication of measure as is the case with other numbers.

It is mentioned without any further arithmetical or narrative context; it appears like a statement that contains an important but hidden meaning.

 

The work traces the meaning of the number on the basis of the Hebrew etymology.

In the process, a hitherto unknown relation of this number to the

story of camel and eye of a needle in the other three Gospels is revealed.

 

 

Owing to a lack of perception of Hebrew as a background and context of the New Testament texts, the pictorial significance, which in Hebrew philology is inherent in each letter, has been ignored in the long history of the interpretation of this number although its application reveals an essential verbal statement. 

  

Written in the Hebrew notation, in which the numbers, above all in the religious context, are designated with the characters of the letter series, the spelling of the number 153 by means of the signs is ק – qoph = 100,  נ – nun = 50,  ג – gimel = 3 ,  ק נ ג. 

  

In the Hebrew tradition, these letters contain the images of camel, fish and eye of a needle, gimel =ג, nun = נ und qoph = ק. 

  

The constellation of camel and eye of a needle, known from the other three gospels, appears here supplemented by a third element, the fish, the nun – נ .

In the mystical tradition of Judaism, the sign nun in turn stands for the individuation of man. 

  

The reasons for this and why, in the number 153, the story of camel and eye of a needle, which deals with the question of possession and detachment, is supplemented by the nun is the subject of the book Of the Hundred and Fifty-Three Fish. 

  

The letter nun - נ, which occupies a key position in the number, refers to the identity of the essence, arising out of the inherent. 

  

The symbol of the fish for Christ, which is usually explained with the Greek acrostic Ichthys = fish, formed by Iesus Christos Theou Hyios Soter  -  Jesus Christ, Son of God, Redeemer, actually goes back to an older Hebrew meaning of the fish. 

 

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