Jesus saith to them: Bring hither of the fishes which you have now caught.
λεγει αυτοις ο ιησους ενεγκατε απο των οψαριων ων επιασατε νυν
12 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Christ commands them to bring part of the fish, in order to show that what they saw was not an apparition. Here, however, it is not said that He Himself ate with them. But Luke says elsewhere concerning Him, “And He took it and ate before them” (Lk 24:43), and that He ate with them (Acts 10:41). How this happened, we cannot say. Undoubtedly it took place in some wondrous manner, not because His nature still had need, but by condescension, for the proof of the Resurrection.
He commands them to bring some of the fish they had caught, in order to show that what they saw was not an apparition. Here it is not said that He ate with them, but Luke says that He both ate with them (Lk 24:30, 43). How He ate, we cannot explain, for this took place in an extraordinary way. It was not because His nature needed food, but it was an act of condescension, to prove the Resurrection.
After this the disciples catch a great multitude, again strengthened by His divine beckonings in their ability to attain what they seek. Peter draws out the net. From this one may also see that the labor of the holy Apostles will not be in vain. For to Him who commanded them to fish, they presented the multitude caught. In the fish this multitude is designated by the number one hundred and fifty-three. The hundred, as it seems to me, and I think rightly, points to the fullness of the Gentiles. For the most complete number, one hundred, is formed from ten tens. Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said that the sheep belonging to Him were one hundred (Mt 18:12), signifying by this the perfection of the number of rational creatures.
He also affirmed that the best soil bears a hundredfold, pointing by this to perfection in the fruit-bearing of a pious soul. The fifty brings to mind, as it were, the remnant of the Israelites according to the election of grace. For fifty is half of one hundred and does not possess perfection in number. The three may contain, as in a single number, a reference to the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity. To the glory and unceasing blessing of the Trinity, the life of those caught through faith is ascribed and understood. For God is in all believers, having near Himself, with respect to sanctification, those persuaded by the preaching of the Gospel.
In the mystical sense, the fish roasted on the fire is Christ who accepted sufferings. He is the bread that came down from heaven (Jn 6:41). The Church is united into His body, so that she may become a participant in eternal blessedness. Therefore it is said, “Bring some of the fish which you have now caught.” Thus, having this hope, through the very number seven of the disciples, by which the universal Church is indicated here, we may become communicants of this great mystery and obtain that very blessedness.
He says this because He knew that the disciples had caught fish. Earlier Jesus Christ had said, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find,” also because He knew that they would catch fish. Still, the Lord commanded them to do this so that the event itself would not seem some apparition. He also did it so that the disciples would marvel even more when they saw that very many fish had been caught, that the fish were very large, and yet the net had not broken.
All of them, seized with amazement, had forgotten the fish they had caught. Therefore the Lord says to them, “Bring some of the fish which you have now caught.” By this He returns them to their concern, so that they might bring their catch to shore and measure it. Thus no one could say that the multitude of fish merely appeared to them kata phantasian.
When the apostles returned to Galilee, which they had left for so long with the Lord's final journey to Jerusalem, the Lord first appeared to them there on the Lake of Gennesaret. The circumstances were like those under which, about three years earlier, four of them, Peter and Andrew, James and John, had been called to apostolic ministry, leaving their home and ordinary occupations. Peter, or more strictly Simon Peter, as he is mostly called in this account, and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, went to the Lake of Gennesaret to fish. With them were Thomas, Nathanael, and two other unnamed disciples. As then, their fishing was unsuccessful. They caught nothing.
Toward morning someone from the shore asked whether they had anything edible, not bread, but what is added to bread at table, here fish. The disciples answered, "No." Then the One standing on the shore advised them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat and promised success. The success was extraordinary. Seven men could not draw in the nets because of the multitude of fish. Later they counted twenty-two large fish for each brother, except one. This success in fishing probably reminded John of their former miraculous catch. He guessed that the Lord Himself was on the shore and immediately told the others of this thought. As soon as Simon Peter heard it, he threw himself into the water, so as to draw nearer to Jesus more quickly, or so that He might not withdraw from them. The others also arrived there at once. On the shore, it was no longer they who offered Him refreshment or a meal from their catch, but He Himself. He distributes bread and fish to them. If the fishing foretold to the disciples the action of their preaching, then the drawing of the catch to the feet of Jesus was a foreshadowing. It showed how their action in this ministry must end, and what successes they were to expect. The meal of Jesus signified the reward from Him in His kingdom, or the supper in the kingdom of heaven. Thus this supper recalled the Last Supper in Jerusalem before the Passion. But it also had a further special relation to those events.
The account of the appearance of Jesus Christ to the apostles on the Sea of Tiberias forms an addition in John's Gospel, for immediately before this the Evangelist had concluded the history of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. One cannot fail to see what this addition to the Gospel means. The appearance at the Sea of Tiberias, besides restoring Peter to apostolic dignity, had a special significance for the Evangelist John himself. During this appearance the Lord partly indicated his future destiny. By the will of the Lord, he was to outlive all the apostles. "If I will that he remain till I come," Jesus Christ said to Peter, in answer to his question about John's destiny.
Already among the disciples of Jesus Christ this conditional expression was understood to mean that this disciple would not die. When the Evangelist John wrote his Gospel, and at that time he was about ninety years old, it could well be that some Christians remembered those words of Jesus Christ about His beloved disciple and thought he truly would not die. Therefore the Evangelist John explains with particular care that those words of the Lord must be understood conditionally (21:22-23). Moreover, in the prediction to Peter of the destiny awaiting him as preacher and confessor of Christ, the destiny of all Christ's followers is also foreshadowed. It shows their relation to the unbelieving world, in the midst of which the Gospel of the kingdom of God will be preached. The time of this appearance cannot be precisely determined. In general, it belongs to the time when the apostles, by the command of Jesus Christ, returned from Jerusalem to Galilee. It was the third appearance among the appearances to many disciples, the first being 20:19 and the second 20:26. The purpose of this appearance was the restoration of the Apostle Peter, who had denied Christ three times, to his apostolic dignity. Therefore the Risen One appears not just anywhere, but precisely on the Sea of Galilee. He appears precisely while the apostles are fishing, and after a miraculous catch at Christ's word. All this was meant to remind Peter and his companions of the history of their calling to follow Jesus. Then they had been promised that one day they would become fishers of men (Lk 5:1ff.). As the fishing figuratively pointed the apostles to their preaching labors, which would succeed with Christ's help, so the meal afterward arranged by Christ could point its participants to the enjoyment of the blessings of eternal life. This would be their reward for faithful and zealous service to the Gospel. It may also have had significance that the Lord prepared this meal by means of fire. This fire was to remind Peter of the fire in the high priest's courtyard, near which he had denied Christ.
When all had gathered, Jesus said, “Bring some of the fish which you have now caught.” Simon Peter went with the other Apostles and drew the net to land, full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three of them. Seeing in this abundant catch an unquestionable miracle, the Evangelist says, “And although there were so many, the net was not torn.”
On the shore a fire had been laid, bread had been brought out, and fish was baking on the glowing coals. This is a scene still often seen on the shores of the Lake of Galilee. Christ, standing nearby, commanded them to bring more fish, from those they had now caught. Simon immediately went and helped draw the net to the shore. And He in whom they all recognized the Lord, though His voice and appearance so overwhelmed them with fear and reverence that they did not dare ask Him, said to them, "Come and dine." He distributed fish and bread to them, as once before in Galilee.
“Bring some of the fish”: the Loving One wishes them to taste from their own labors together with the fish that He Himself had prepared for them in a way unknown to them. At the same time, He wishes “to show that what they saw was not an apparition” (Theophylact).
The Lord commands them to draw out the net and bring the fish they had caught, so that they might serve the needs of the disciples. Naturally, seeing the Lord, the disciples forgot their trade and their catch.
But the Lord willed that His earthly gifts, which rewarded honest labor, should benefit those who labored. The catch of fish was a sign that revealed the Lord’s power at the beginning of His ministry, when Peter and Andrew, James and John were called.
The catch of fish is also used as a parable in Mt 13:47. It is natural that, on the Lake of Galilee, the sign of the wondrous catch at the Lord’s word should have the same meaning He Himself gave it.
He gave this meaning both in the parable and at the calling of Peter, namely, the catching of men.
In the parable, however, the dragnet represents the final event in the life of the earth and its rational inhabitants. Then eternal righteousness will forever separate the good from the evil, and earthly life in its present form will cease forever.
The two signs of the catch of fish, given by the Lord at the beginning of His ministry and after His Resurrection on the Lake of Galilee, concern the present life of men on earth. They are closely connected, though not identical in circumstance or inward meaning.
The first catch of fish on the Lake of Galilee, or Gennesaret, occurred when the Lord was in Simon’s boat; see Lk 5:1-11. It filled Simon with dread, and he said to the Lord: “Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
Then the Lord said to him: “Do not fear; from now on you will catch men.” This first catch of fish, by the Lord’s command, signified the Church of God being built.
The Lord Himself is still in the boat upon the sea. The boats, filled with fish, are in danger; see Lk 5:7. The fishermen are afraid, but afterward, at the Lord’s word, they leave everything and follow the Lord.
In the catch of the present chapter of John, after the Lord’s Resurrection, He is not on the sea, in the boat, among the disciples. He is on the shore and calls them to Himself.
The disciples are alone on the sea of life. Yet, strong by His word, they cast the net, catch a multitude of fish, and draw them to the shore, to a safe place.
During the night, which signifies the time preceding the Lord’s appearance, their fishing was fruitless. Only the life-giving word of the Lord gives strength and fruitfulness to their labors.
Peter throws himself into the sea in order to reach more quickly the shore where the Lord is. This signifies “by what death Peter would glorify God” (Jn 21:19).
John remains in the boat, quietly sailing toward the same shore where the Lord stands. Until his own arrival at the shore, he drags the net in which the caught fish are enclosed.
The first catch on the Lake of Galilee signifies the beginning of that great work whose completion we see figuratively in the second catch. This is the work of preaching the Gospel and saving the human race.
It begins during the Lord’s ministry on earth and continues after His Resurrection. In this latter catch we see the activity of the fully established Church of Christ.
She draws souls saved from the sea of life to the feet of the Savior, who awaits them with love.
The number of fish caught in the net also held the attention of religious thinkers. Thus St. Cyril of Alexandria, and after him Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, point out that the number 153, resolved into three elements, 100 + 50 + 3, has symbolic meaning.
The number one hundred signifies the fullness of the Gentile world, which was the most numerous in the Lord’s time. Moreover, the Lord Himself used the number one hundred in the parables to express fullness.
It gives the idea of the whole, of everything, as for example in the parable of the hundred sheep in Mt 18:2. The number fifty represents that remnant of Israel which, according to the prophet’s expression, will be saved; see Is 10:22 and Rom 9:27.
The number three is the sanctification of the preceding numbers. It is the sacred number of the Holy Trinity, by whose power salvation is accomplished.
The Latin Fathers of the Church, Blessed Augustine and Gregory the Dialogist, pope of Rome, go still further in their symbolism of the number 153.
St. Augustine says that ten is the number of the law. Seven is the number of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, without whose grace the law does not give life, but kills. The number 10 + 7 = 17 gives life.
Augustine says that the sum of the series of numbers from one to seventeen is precisely 153. Thus this number is the symbol of all those who have been counted worthy of salvation.
Gregory the Dialogist, pope of Rome, develops Blessed Augustine’s thought further. Life in the Old Testament was entirely governed by the Ten Commandments. Life in the New Testament is governed by the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore the whole life and activity of men is governed by the numbers 10 + 7 = 17. But our life and activity are sanctified only by faith in the Holy Trinity.
Seventeen multiplied by three gives the number fifty-one. This represents the rest of the jubilee year (Lev 25:8-12), which is attained even in this present life by souls devoted to God.
Multiplying this number fifty-one again by three, the number of the Most Holy Trinity, we obtain the number 153. It expresses the immeasurable sum, known only to God, of souls that have attained and will attain eternal blessedness.
Such is the symbolism of the number 153, according to pious religious thinkers. Yet most important of all is the meaning of the catch itself, as a symbol and prophecy concerning the Church of Christ being established.
Greek text, 11 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS