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.

9715. 'From shittim wood' means righteousness. This is clear from the meaning of 'shittim wood' as the good of merit, and righteousness, which are the Lord's alone, dealt with in 9472, 9486. What righteousness and merit are, which are the Lord's alone, must be stated here and now. People think that the Lord earned merit and righteousness because He fulfilled all the requirements of the law and by His passion on the Cross saved the human race. But this is not what anyone should understand in the Word by the Lord's merit and righteousness. Rather they should understand by His merit and righteousness that He fought alone against all the hells and overcame them, and in so doing He restored to order everything in the hells and at the same time everything in the heavens. For each person has spirits from hell present with him, and angels from heaven; without them a person cannot lead any life at all. Unless the hells had been overcome by the Lord and the heavens restored to order no one could ever have been saved.

[2] Salvation could not have been won except through His Human, that is to say, except through conflicts with the hells, fought from His Human. And since the Lord did this by His own power, thus did it alone, to the Lord alone belong merit and righteousness. And for the same reason it is He alone who still conquers the hells with a person; for He who conquers them once conquers them for evermore. No one therefore has any merit or righteousness whatever; yet the Lord's merit and righteousness are his when he acknowledges that none is attributable to himself but all to the Lord. So it is that the Lord alone regenerates a person; for regenerating a person involves driving the hells away from him, consequently the evils and falsities which come from the hells, and implanting heaven in place of them, that is, forms of the good of love and the truths of faith since these constitute heaven. Through the conflicts engaged in repeatedly with the hells the Lord also glorified His Human, that is, made it Divine; for even as a person is regenerated by means of conflicts, which are temptations, so the Lord was glorified by means of conflicts, which were temptations. The glorification of the Lord's Human by His own power therefore is also merit and righteousness; for through this the person is saved because through it the Lord holds all the hells in subjection for evermore.

[3] The truth of all this is clear from places in the Word where the Lord's merit and righteousness are referred to, as in Isaiah,

Who is this who comes from Edom, with spattered clothes from Bozrah, marching in the vast numbers of His strength? I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Why are You red as to Your clothes, and Your clothes like his that treads in the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples not a man (vir) was with Me. Therefore I have trodden them in My anger, and trodden them down in My fury. Consequently their blood ¹ has been sprinkled on My clothes, and I have stained all My clothing. For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and the year of My redeemed had come. I looked around, but there was no helper, and I wondered, but there was no one to uphold; therefore My own arm brought salvation to Me, and My own fury sustained Me. And I trod down the peoples in My anger, and shed their blood onto the ground. ² Therefore He became the Saviour. Isaiah 63:1-8.

These words, it is well known, have regard to the Lord. His conflicts with the hells are described by the references to spattered clothes, redness as to His clothes, clothes like his that treads in the winepress, and to the day of vengeance. His victories over the hells and His placing them in subjection are described by the statements that He trod them in His anger, as a consequence of which their blood was sprinkled on His clothes, and that He trod down the peoples in fury ³ and shed their blood onto the ground. The Lord's doing these things by His own power is described by the statements that He trod the winepress alone and from the peoples not a man was with Him; that He looked around but there was no helper, He wondered but there was no one to uphold; and that His own arm brought salvation to Him. Salvation coming as a result of all this is described by the statements that He was marching in the vast numbers of His strength, mighty to save; that the year of His redeemed had come; and that therefore He became their Saviour.

[4] The fact that all these things are aspects of righteousness is even more plainly evident elsewhere in the same prophet,

He saw that there was no man (vir), and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness lifted Him up. Consequently He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head. He put on clothes of vengeance, and covered Himself with zeal as if with a cloak. Isaiah 59:16-17.

And in the same prophet,

My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, and My arms will judge the peoples. In Me the islands will hope, and on My arm they will trust. Isaiah 51:5.

'The arm' which brought salvation to Him and on which they will trust is His own power by which He placed the hells in subjection, 'arm' being power, see 4932, 7205. From this it is evident what righteousness is and what merit is, which are the Lord's alone.

[5] Something similar occurs elsewhere in the same prophet,

Who stirred up [One] from the East, [One] whom in righteousness He called to be His follower, gave the nations before Him, and caused Him to have dominion over kings? Isaiah 41:2.

In the same prophet,

I have caused My righteousness to draw near, it is not far off; My salvation will not delay. Isaiah 46:13.

In the same prophet,

Jehovah will clothe Me with the garments of salvation; with the robe of righteousness He has covered Me. Isaiah 61:10.

In David,

My mouth will tell of ⁴ Your righteousness, of Your salvation all the day; I cannot measure them. ⁵ I will make mention of Your righteousness, Yours alone. Do not forsake me, until I have declared Your arm, Your power; for Your righteousness [reaches] all the way to the highest, O You who have done great things. Psalms 71:15-16, 18-19, 24.

In Jeremiah,

Behold, the days are coming when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, who will reign as King, and will prosper, and execute judgement and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is His name which they will call Him, Jehovah our Righteousness. Jeremiah 23:5-6; 33:15-16.

And in Daniel,

Seventy weeks have been decreed to atone for iniquity, and to bring everlasting righteousness. ⁶ Daniel 9:24.

[6] The truth that righteousness and merit, which are the Lord's alone, consist in the Lord's subjection of the hells, His restoration of the heavens to order, and the glorification of His Human, and in the salvation that results from all this for the person who receives the Lord in love and faith, becomes clear from the places which have just been quoted. Yet people can have no understanding of this if they do not know that spirits from hell are present with a person and that from them evils and falsities come to him, and also that angels from heaven are present and that from them forms of good and truths come to him; if they do not know that a person's life is for this reason linked on one side to the hells and on the other to the heavens, that is, through the heavens to the Lord; and if they do not know that therefore no one could ever be saved unless the hells had been subdued and the heavens restored to order, and all things had accordingly been made subject to the Lord.

[7] From all this it may be seen why it should be that the good of merit that is the Lord's is the one and only good that reigns in the heavens, as stated above in 9486. For the good of merit now consists also in the everlasting subjection of the hells and the protection of true believers. This good is the good of the Lord's love; for it was from Divine Love that He engaged in conflict while in the world and was victorious. And it is from Divine Power in the Human acquired through that victory that, then and for evermore, on behalf of heaven and the Church and thus the entire human race, He fights alone, conquers, and so brings salvation. This then is the good of merit, which is called righteousness; for the work of righteousness consists in keeping the hells in check as they try to destroy the human race, and in protecting and saving those who are good and are true believers.

Regarding the Lord's conflicts or temptations when He was in the world, see 1663, 1668, 1690, 1691 (end), 1692, 1737, 1787, 1812, 1813, 1820, 2776, 2786, 2795, 2803, 2814, 2816, 4287, 7193, 8273.

The Lord fights alone for the human race against the hells, 1692 (end), 6574, 8159, 8172, 8175, 8176, 8273, 8969.

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