The Political Meaning of a Cipher—John 21:11

Abstract

The mystery of the one-hundred and fifty-three fish in John 21 has been discussed for centuries. Unlike previous religious or theological readings based on ancient gematria, the claim of this article is that the number 153 yields its mysterious secret in political terms. This approach to the cipher, together with Weberian and other social interpretive lenses, helps to unpack the political significance of chapter 21, its link to Petrine tradition and the tradition history of the Gospel of John, additional connections between the Johannine redactor and Thomas Christianity in Egypt, and the significance of John 21 more generally for understanding political orientations in early Christianity.