According to John 21:11, at a manifestation of the glorified Jesus "Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three."
This figure, equal to the sum of all natural numbers up to 17, and a case of the formula n(n+1)/2 for n=17, was one of the favorites of the followers of Pythagoras. And that is not the only coincidence. There is a story about Pythagoras told by Porphyry "that demonstrates His remarkable powers. Pythagoras, in His travels, apparently one day came across some fishermen who were drawing up their nets which were filled with fish. Pythagoras told the fishermen that He could tell them the exact number of fish they had caught, which the fishermen thought to be an impossible task, given how many were caught in the nets. The fishermen said that if He was right they would do anything He said. They counted all the fish and Pythagoras was totally accurate in His estimate. He then ordered the fishermen to return the fish to the sea and for some mystical reason none of them died. Pythagoras paid the fishermen for the price of the fish and left for Crotona. Incidents like this caused Pythagoras’ fame to spread.”
Thank you for this valuable resource!
Glad you found it helpful Hugh! Thanks for the kind words.
According to John 21:11, at a manifestation of the glorified Jesus "Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three."
This figure, equal to the sum of all natural numbers up to 17, and a case of the formula n(n+1)/2 for n=17, was one of the favorites of the followers of Pythagoras. And that is not the only coincidence. There is a story about Pythagoras told by Porphyry "that demonstrates His remarkable powers. Pythagoras, in His travels, apparently one day came across some fishermen who were drawing up their nets which were filled with fish. Pythagoras told the fishermen that He could tell them the exact number of fish they had caught, which the fishermen thought to be an impossible task, given how many were caught in the nets. The fishermen said that if He was right they would do anything He said. They counted all the fish and Pythagoras was totally accurate in His estimate. He then ordered the fishermen to return the fish to the sea and for some mystical reason none of them died. Pythagoras paid the fishermen for the price of the fish and left for Crotona. Incidents like this caused Pythagoras’ fame to spread.”
https://lekshmanan954.wordpress.com/2016/07/14/story-behind-153-a-fascinating-number
http://www.greatdreams.com/numbers/jerry/153.htm
http://richardstheoryofeverything.blogspot.com/2009/05/153-fishes.html
https://www.defendingthebride.com/ss/fish/recon.html
https://urthona2.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/153-or-so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish
We should not be in a rush to ignore the pagan parallels with the four gospels.