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.

819. (Verse 12) And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him. This signifies the connection [of reasonings] from the natural man with the sense of the letter of the Word, whereby the religion of faith separate is strengthened, is evident from the signification of the beast ascending out of the earth, which exercised all the power of the first beast before the dragon, as denoting confirmations from the sense of the letter of the Word in favour of faith separate from life, and thence the falsifications of truth (concerning which see above, n. 815); and from the signification of the first beast, as denoting reasonings from the natural man confirming the separation of faith from life (concerning which see above, n. 774); and from the signification of the dragon, before which this beast exercised all the power of the first beast; as denoting, in general, faith separated from the life of faith, which is charity. From these things it is evident that by this beast exercising all the power of the first beast before the dragon, is signified the connection of reasonings from the natural man with the sense of the letter of the Word, whereby the religion of faith separate is confirmed.

[2] The reason why the connection of reasonings from the natural man with the sense of the letter of the Word is here denoted is, that nothing false can ever be confirmed by the sense of the letter of the Word except by reasonings from the natural man. For the Word in the letter consists of appearances of truth, and also of correspondences; and both the latter and the former, in their bosom, that is, in their spiritual sense, contain genuine truths. When therefore any falsity is confirmed by the appearances of truth which correspond to genuine truths, then the Word is falsified; and there can be no falsification of the Word except by reasonings from the natural man. This is why the dragon, by which is signified the heretical dogma of faith alone, is further described by two beasts, by the first of which is described reasoning from the natural man in favour of faith separated from its life, which is charity; and by the other, confirmation from the sense of the letter of the Word, and thence its corroboration; also the falsification of truth. It is again evident therefore that by this beast exercising all the power of the first beast before the dragon, is signified the connection of reasonings from the natural man with the sense of the letter of the Word.

[3] But these things shall be illustrated by examples, as follows:

1. That the dogmatists who contend for faith alone, pay no attention to all those passages of the Word, where works, deeds, working, and doing, are mentioned; these, nevertheless, are so evident, that no contrary reasoning is possible. And yet they wrest those passages from their true meaning, and by means of reasoning bend and turn them away from real truth which is in the heavens, and which their spiritual sense contains. For they reason thus, saying that faith alone involves deeds and works, because those who are in faith are also in them, consequently, that faith produces them; when, nevertheless, faith without deeds or works is a dead faith, which can produce nothing. And if this is told them, they maintain that deeds are still present by a secret Divine operation, and yet they will not allow them to be a means of salvation; so that they can be present and not be present; as is evident from their justification by an instantaneous faith; and also in the hour of death, even although they may be evil.

2. Reasoning from the natural man maintains, that faith separated from the goods of life is also spiritual; when, nevertheless, the goods of love, give life to faith, and make it spiritual. For love is the very soul of faith, and love consists in doing; for what a man loves, that he wills, and what he wills, that he does. This the Lord also teaches in these words in John:

"He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; but he that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings" (14:21, 24).

It is therefore evident, that faith without works is not spiritual; for it is without its soul, and faith without its soul is a dead faith.

3. Reasoning from the natural man also maintains, that because a man cannot do good of himself, faith becomes the means of salvation.

4. Reasoning from the natural man also maintains, that those who are merely in faith are in God and in a state of grace, because nothing can condemn them. It is therefore believed by many that it is not necessary to live the Christian life, which is according to the Lord's precepts; and they say within themselves, why should I be intent upon works, when goods do not save, and evils do not condemn? I have faith that the Lord suffered upon the cross for the sins of the world, and delivered us from the condemnation of the law; what more is necessary?

5. Reasoning from the natural man maintains, that faith alone is like seed, from which are produced all kinds of salvation, as shrubs and trees from seed in gardens; when, nevertheless, in faith alone there is no seed of life, except from the spiritual life of man.

6. All these things, moreover, are reasonings from the natural man, which are taught by the learned dogmatists of this religious persuasion concerning the progressions to justification by faith alone; as, for example, that the trust of that faith is to be acquired from the Word, from preaching, and from the authority of teachers, without intellectual sight; and that if the understanding enters, it renders the faith unspiritual. When, nevertheless, as soon as the intellectual sight is excluded, man is blind; and before a man that is blind falsities may be confirmed equally as truths, indeed falsities in preference to truths, because with him the fallacies which cause darkness are more esteemed than the truths themselves, which are in light. Close the understanding, give play to reasonings, and bring forth confirmations from the sense of the letter of the Word, and you may prove whatever you wish, especially in theological matters, which rise up into the interiors of the rational mind.

The reason why they are called reasonings from the natural man is, that the natural man is in the delights of the love of self and of the world; and these delights, when they predominate, cause a man to believe such things only as agree therewith; and these, in themselves, are falsities. They also induce darkness in everything spiritual, so that a man shuns heavenly light, and thence rejects all enlightenment of the understanding. The reason is, that the natural man separated from the spiritual, regards himself alone and the world, and not the Lord and heaven; and consequently he is conjoined to hell, whence all falsities come, which can never be dissipated except by the rule of heavenly love, and by genuine truths from that love. This is why they are called reasonings from the natural man, and why reasonings from the natural man falsify the Word; for the Word without such reasonings from the natural man cannot be falsified.