The New Testament contains four canonical Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. When we look at how Matthew begins and how John ends, we will notice a particular use of numbers in Matthew 1 and John 21.
Matthew 1 contains a genealogy (Matt. 1:1-17), and it’s divided into three sections (vv. 2-6a, vv. 6b-11, vv. 12-16). After these sections are complete, Matthew summarizes and counts: “So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations” (1:17).
Matthew is emphasizing the number 14, and we should wonder why. The answer derives from a way of encoding words, a method called gematria, where each letter of an alphabet has an understood number. When the letters of a word—or name—are added up, the resulting number is the sum of the word through gematria. The number 14 is the sum of David’s name in Hebrew.
ד ו ד
4 6 4
The reason for the clever use of David’s name has to do with the purpose of the genealogy in Matthew 1. The writer introduces it with v. 1: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David…” There is a Davidic shadow over the genealogy. David’s name is then mentioned twice in v. 6, and the remaining names after v. 6 are all descendants of David. Jesus is the promised son of David (1:1, 17). Since Matthew is introducing the story of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Davidic hope, a strategic layout with the number 14 is the way he chose to do it.
If we jump from the opening of the First Gospel to the end of the Fourth Gospel, we will notice that the Four Gospels are bracketed by numbers. In John 21, the risen Jesus is at the shore while his disciples were in a boat fishing. Jesus told them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught” (John 21:10). They hauled in a net of 153 fish (21:11).
The specificity of the catch has fascinated interpreters over the centuries, though some readers have been content to say, “We shouldn’t understand that number to mean anything other than demonstrating a huge catch of fish.” There are other ways, however, to communicate a huge catch. In Luke 5:9, the disciples “were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken” (Luke 5:9).
Why the detail in John 21:10 that the net contained 153 large fish? It’s not even a rounded number—“more than 100” or “150.” It’s so specific. 153. I think the number itself is significant, and the significance is discernible through gematria.
Less than a year ago, Ian Paul wrote an article1 connecting the number 153 to Ezekiel 47:9-10: “And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From En-gedi to En-eglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea.”
The number 153 is triangular, the sum of the numbers 1 through 17. And from Ezekiel 47:10, the following sums are found when you add up Hebrew letters:
Gedi = 17
Eglaim = 153
These sums are fascinating. Now consider the context of the verses. It is a fishing context! The language in Ezekiel 47:10 is that fishermen will be beside the sea, nets will be spread, and many kinds of fish will be caught. In John 21, the scene involves the sea and the shore, a net is cast, and many fish are caught.
The 153 literal fish probably symbolize the gospel going to the nations. In Matthew 4:19, Jesus told his disciples, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” The point wouldn’t be actual fish. The fish are people, sinners in need of a Savior. The mission of the disciples would be catching people, and Jesus would grant them success. In John 21, the enormous catch of fish once again reinforces the disciple-making mission that aims at the nations.
Ian Paul’s article: https://www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/153-fish-three-loves-and-one-call-to-follow-in-john-21/ See also Richard Bauckham’s book The Testimony of the Beloved Disciple, ch. 13.