Near the end of the gospel of John, (in John 21:1-14), we find a story where, some days after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, seven of Jesus's disciples have travelled north from Jerusalem to the sea of Galilee. At Peter's suggestion they have all gone out in his boat to fish. They fish all night, but have no luck, and catch nothing. They are fairly close to the shore, and as the early morning light begins to grow they see a man standing by the water. He calls out to them, asking if they have caught anything. When they answer "no", he tells them, "try the other side of the boat". They give it a try. When they do, they catch so many fish that they can't haul the net into the boat; it's too heavy. So they row toward shore, dragging the net full of fish behind them.

As they're drawing closer to shore, they still haven't recognized that the man on the shore is Jesus. He has kindled a small, and is cooking fish. He invites them to have breakfast with Him, and at that point, John realizes that it is Jesus, and tells Peter. Peter grabs his cloak, belts it around himself to cover his nakedness, and jumps into the water to swim to shore.

This story has some interesting details to explore. The earlier stories of events that happened after the Lord's rising took place in or near Jerusalem, but this one is in Galilee. Five of these disciples are named, and at least four of the five were from Galilee, so they are at home. They were fishermen before Jesus called them to be disciples, so to go fishing is in their blood.

The five disciples named in the story are Simon (or Peter), the brothers James and John, Thomas, and Nathaniel. Two more who are not named, to make up the seven, and it would be reasonable to guess that they were Andrew, Peter's brother, and Philip, a friend of Nathaniel's - both of whom were also from Galilee.

The angels that Peter and John had seen at the sepulcher had told them that Jesus would meet them in Galilee on "the mountain". Perhaps these seven, being from Galilee, had hurried on ahead of the others.

Let's look at their names and see what the literal meaning is, and what they represent in a spiritual way.

- Simon was renamed by Jesus as ‘Peter', which in the Greek means a rock. In this case, the name means the firmest and most critical rock, or truth, of Christianity, i.e. that Jesus was from God.

- John means love or charity.

- James, John's brother, means the doing of charity.

- Nathaniel means a gift from God, and being a friend of Philip, I think it might be that the gift from God that he represents is the love of learning things that fill the understanding, our curiosity.

- Thomas, in Greek, means a twin, and since he is named right after Peter perhaps he has a similar representation. Peter believes in the Lord easily because of what he has seen and what the Lord has told him whereas Thomas believes, and believes just as strongly, but only after his doubts have been erased, after he has been shown.

The towns most mentioned in the stories that take place around the "Sea of Galilee" in the gospels are Bethsaida, Capernaum, Cana, and Nazareth. Bethsaida itself means "a place of fishing." The maps I have of the area are small scale and not all exactly the same, but the indication is that it is at the northern end of the lake or even on the upper Jordan river just before it runs into the lake. Capernaum and Magdala are on the northwestern shore and Cana and Nazareth are inland, but only four or five miles west of this corner of the lake. This area was where most of these disciples had been brought up, and fishing was a common occupation.

The name Galilee means "a circuit". The Word teaches us that Jesus taught in the towns all around the lake, so that a reading of all that Jesus taught and did in that country could be thought of as a "circuit" of His teachings.

The next detail of interest is that when the Lord suggests the other side of the boat and the result is a large catch of fish after a long night of nothing. This is reminiscent of the fishing incident given in Luke 5:4-7. Since the disciples are to become "fishers of men" (as in Matthew 4:19) and they are to persuade people into the knowledge and worship of the Lord, the Christ, it is perhaps a lesson that in their ministry they must always be guided by the Lord.

Then John realizes, and whispers to Peter, "it's the Lord" (John 21:7) and Peter quickly puts his cloak on and jumps in to get to shore faster. Why is it John that first realizes? John represents love and affection while Peter represents faith or truth. While truth is the means of acting, as Peter does, love is the means of connecting, which is what John did. And why did Peter need to grab his cloak and put it on? Clothing in the Word represents the truths about spiritual things that all people may have if they look for them. It is the particular truths that form Peter as a disciple, "Thou art the Christ" (Matthew 16:16-18) that he answers to the Lord, and this truth is the rock of the Christian church. Having this truth as part of himself is necessary to meet the Lord.

When they are all on shore, Jesus says to them to bring some of the fish they have caught, so Peter goes to the water and drags the full net up onto the sand and counts out the fish, one hundred and fifty three. Then Jesus invites them all to come and eat.

Now a strange comment is put into the story: "…none of the disciples durst ask him, 'who art thou?', knowing that it was the Lord." (John 21:12). It seems that they should have known. They had been following Him for several years. I wonder if this is a reminder that the Christian church has yet to understand the true reality of the Lord - was He God, or was He man? The Catholic church argued this for more than three hundred years, and the council that was supposed to decide came up with three separate persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all in one Godhead. Some of the Christian churches of today seem to focus on two, the Father, and a Son born from eternity, who apparently both rule together.

The New Christian Church understands that Jesus was born both God and man but that there was a slow but inevitable change going on during His lifetime. He was born with God, Jehovah, as His inmost, and a human heredity and body from Mary as a covering or cloak over this inmost. Mary was, you may recall, of the royal house of David, so her heredity was both strong and inclusive, and thus represented all that was connected to the Jewish form of worship. During Jesus' life (and starting early, though we don't know just how early), He put off things from Mary, and put on what was a corresponding Divine, from His inmost, in its place, until on Easter morning He was wholly divine, with all that came from His mother being dispersed and gone. There is only One God.

Why is it that in this little story the number of fishes that were caught in the net is mentioned, and why does it seem now so important that Peter took the time to count them as everyone waited? Something that has been revealed to the New Christian Church is that all the numbers used in the stories of the Word have a meaning that belongs to that number even outside the literal use in the story. The number 153 can be seen as the combination of 150 and 3, and both of these are strongly meaningful. Starting with the "three", there should be little doubt that it means something since it is used so often. Jesus rose on the third day. Also three is the number of things that, put together, make anything complete, the wish or desire to do it, the knowledge of how to do it, and the actual doing. This is true of any task - from baking a cake right up to the Lord's love, His wisdom, and His act put forth in creating the universe. One hundred and fifty is not so plain. I am aware of only two places it is used in the Word, and we are told that it means a total change, an ending of something and the beginning of something different. It is used here and in the story of the flood, at the end of Genesis 7 and in Genesis 8:3; "And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days." "… And the waters returned from off the earth continually; and after the end of the one hundred and fifty days the waters were abated." The use here is that it means the end of the Church called "Adam" and the start of the church called "Noah" (See on this website "The Churches", and for the meaning, see Arcana Coelestia 812, 846). In the story we are considering it means the end of the Church called Israel and the start of the Christian church, though that is probably complete a day or two later when the Lord meets with all of His disciples on the mountain and sends them out to preach and heal.

This first part of this story ends with all of the seven disciples on the shore with Jesus, and His giving to them a breakfast of bread and roasted fish. With this giving, perhaps they all fully realized who He was, as with the two disciples at Emmaus. The Gospel comments, "This is now the third time that Jesus showed Himself to his disciples after that He was risen from the dead.

77. I fell at his feet. That this signifies adoration from humiliation of heart on account of the Divine, is evident from the signification of falling at the feet, as being adoration from humiliation. The reason why it denotes humiliation of heart, is that the humiliation which comes from the heart on account of the Divine causes that prostration. Every kind of affection has corresponding gestures in the body, the body being led and falling into them as of itself whilst interiorly it is in the affection. Humiliation on account of man causes a bowing down, according to esteem; but humiliation on account of the Divine, causes a total prostration, especially when a man thinks that the Divine is the All as to power and wisdom, and himself comparatively nothing, or that from the Divine comes every good, and from himself nothing but evil. When man makes this acknowledgment from the heart, he then comes as it were out of himself, and falls upon his face; and when he is thus out of himself, he is also removed from his proprium, which in itself is mere evil; when the proprium, is removed, the Divine infills him, and raises him up; not that the Divine desires such humiliation for Himself, but because evil is then removed; and so far as evil is removed from a man, so far what is Divine inflows, for evil alone opposes. (An example of such humiliation may be seen in the small work, The Earths in the Universe 91.)

[2] The state of man when the Divine presence, removes his proprium, and afterwards infills him, is thus described in this verse: "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead; and he laid his right hand upon me, saying to me, Fear not." This state is further described in Daniel:

"I lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen. His face was as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as torches of fire, and his feet like the brightness of polished brass. I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me saw not the vision; but a great fear fell upon them, so that they fled. And there remained no strength in me; and I was in a deep sleep, and my faces upon the ground. And, behold, a hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands, and said, Fear not" (10:5-12).

This state is also described in Ezekiel, when he saw the cherubs, which signify the Lord as to providence:

When I saw the glory of Jehovah, "I fell upon my faces, and I heard a voice speaking, which said, Son of man, stand upon thy feet and I will speak to thee. And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, and I heard him that spake unto me" (1:28; 2:1, 2; 3:24).

The same was the case, also, when Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James, and John; concerning which it is thus written in Matthew:

"While Peter was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. And when the disciples heard these things, they fell upon their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, be not afraid. And when they lifted up their eyes they saw no man save Jesus only" (17:5-8).

From these passages it is clear that such is the nature of the presence of the Divine Human of the Lord with man, when in a state of humiliation of heart, that he falls upon his face, and by the touch of the Lord's hand is raised upon his feet. That it was the presence of the Lord as to the Divine Human which produced these effects is evident, for the Son of man who was in the midst of the seven lampstands thus appeared before John. That the Son of man is the Lord as to the Divine Human, may be seen above (n. 63). In the same way the Lord appeared before the disciples when He was transfigured, therefore also it is said, that when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one save Jesus only. That it was also the Lord as to the Divine Human, that was seen by Daniel and Ezekiel, is evident from the declaration of the Lord Himself,

That no one hath ever heard the voice of the Father or seen His form (John 5:37; 18).

That they also adored the Lord, when He was in the world, by falling upon the face at His feet, may be seen in Matthew 28:9; and in Mark 7:25; Luke 8:41, 17:15-18; and in John 11:32.