24
362 THE SECOND MIRACULOUS
It was upon the sea of Galilee that this appearance of Christ to his
disciples, with the miracle which accompanied it, took place. Doubtless
there is a significance to be found in the words, " Jesus showed,^' or
manifested, " himself .^^ asChrysostom long ago observed, — no other than
this, that his body after the resurrection was only visible by a distinct
act of his will. From that time the disciples did not, as before, see
Jesus, but Jesus appeared unto or was seen by them. It is not for nothing
that the language is changed, or that in language of this kind ajl his
appearances after the resurrection are related. (Luke xxiv. 34 ; Acts
xiii. 31 ; 1 Cor. xv. 5, 6, 7, 8.*) It is the same with angels and all
heavenly manifestations; men do not see them, as though it lay in their
will to do so or not ; such language would be inappropriate : but they
appear to men; (Judg. vi. 12;. xiii. 3, 10, 21; Matt. xvii. 3; Luke i.
11 ; xxii. 43 ; Acts ii. 3 ; vii. 2 ; xvi. 9 ; xxvi. 16 ;) are only visible to
those for whose sakes they are vouchsafed, and to whom they are willing
to show themselves. f Those to whom this manifestation was vouchsafed
were Simon Peter and Thomas and Nathanael, James and John, and
two other disciples that are not named. It makes something for the
current opinion that the Nathanael of St. John, is the Bartholomew of
the other Evangelists, thus to find him named not after, but in the midst
of, some of the very chiefest apostles. Who were the two unnamed
disciples cannot, of course, be known. They too were not improbably
that besides these, there are six instances of its use in his Gospel alone, (vii. 30, 32,
44; viii. 20 ; x. 39 ; xi. 57,) to which may be added Rev. xix. 20. Again, 1\kvco
(ver. 6, 11) is one of his words (vi. 44 ; xii. 32 ; xviii. 20,) being found else but once.
The double djjifiv at the beginning of a sentence (ver. 18), is exclusively St. Jolin's,
occurring twenty-five times in his Gospel, but never elsewhere. The appellation of
Thomas, Gcj/^as & \F.yonhoi AiSvixos, (ver. 21, cf. xi. 16 ; xx. 24) is also exclusively his.
Compare, too, ver. 19 with xii. 23 and xviii. 32 ; the use also of 6f
the parallel use at vi. 11. ' Oipapiov, too, and ttuAiv Sevrcpav (ver. 16), belong only to
him (iv. 54) : and the narrator interposing words of his own, as a comment on and
explanation of the Lord's words (ver. 19), is quite after the favorite mamier of St.
John. (ii. 21 ; vi. 6 ; vii. 39.) And of these peculiarities many more might be
adduced.
* 'Eipafipoiacv tavrop (see John ii. 11) is here := dJipOrj in the passages quoted above,
wl^h might easily be multiplied.
t Thus Ambrose on the appearing of the angel to Zacharias (Exp. in Luc, 1. 2,
c. 24) : Benfe apparuisse dicitur ei, qui eum repente conspexit. Et hoc specialiter aut
de Angelis aut de Deo Scriptura divina tenere consuevit; ut quod non potest praevideri,
apparere dicatur. . . . Non enim similiter sensibilia videntur, et is in cujus voluntate
situm est videri, et cujus naturae est non videri, voluntatis videri. Nam si non vult,
non videtur : si vult, videtur. These are Chrysostom's words : 'Ev tu> t'nrtXv i(pavipb>acv
kavTiH, TovTO SriKoX, on ei jifi fjdeXc, /cat airof lat'Tov Sia ovyKaraSaaiv e
Tov adJjtaTOi livTOi cupOapTOV
DRAUGHT OF FISHES. 363
apostles, disciples in the most eminent sense of the word ;* Lightfoot
supposes that they were Andrew and Philip.
Peter's declaration that he will go to fish, is not, as has been
strangely supposed, a declaration that he has lost his hope in Jesus as the
Messiah, renounced his apostleship, and therefore returns to his old
occupations, there being no nobler work for him in store. But it was
quite in the wise manner of the Jewish teachers, to have a manual trade
that they might fall back on in the time of need, and thus not be de-
pendent on their scholars for support ; what good service Paul's skill in
making tents did him is well known ; probably also they found it health-
ful to their own minds, to have some outward occupation for which to
exchange at times their spiritual employments. The words themselves,
" / go a-Jishing," are not merely a declaration of his intention, but a
summons to his friends to accompany him, if they are so minded ;
whereupon they declare their readiness ; " We also go wUh thee."
During all the night, though that is ever accounted the opportunest time
for fishing, they caught nothing. When at early dawn the risen Lord
stood upon the shore, they did not at first recognize him. Nor even
when he addressed them as " Children," did they know that it was he,
— the mighty change which had passed upon him at his resurrection had
so left him at once the same and yet another. (Cf. John xx. 14, 15.)
When they acknowledged in reply to his question, " Have ye any meat V'
the ill success which had attended their labors of the night, he bade
them cast in their net on the right side of the ship, promising that it
should not be in vain. And they, though taking it even now but for
the counsel of a kind and, it might be, a skilful stranger, were obedient
to his word : " They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw
it for the multitude of fishes."
As before, the Lord had made himself known in his higher char-
acter through a marvellous success of the like kind, so does he now ;
yet it is not Peter on the present occasion, but John, that first recognizes
in whose presence they are. Thereupon he " saith unto Peter, It is the
Lord." Both the apostles come wonderfully out in their proper cha-
racters : he of the eagle eye first detects the presence of the Beloved,
and then Peter, the foremost ever in act, as John is profoundest in specu-
lation, unable to wait till the ship should be brought to land, throws
himself into the sea that he may find himself the sooner at the feet of
his Lord.f He was before " naked," stripped, that is, for labor, wear-
* St. John does not know the word aTr6(JTo\oi as a term for the twelve. He uses it
but once, (xiii. 16,) and then generally for one that is outsent.
t ChrySOStom : 'S2j it iKiyvuo-av avrov, TtaXiv to. iStojuara twv oUtiwv tTTLSciKvvvTai
364 THE SECOND MIRACULOUS
ing only the tunic, or garment close to the skin, and having put off his
upper and superfluous garments :* for the word " naked'' means no more,
and is continually used in this sense ; but now he girded himself with
his fisher's coat,t as counting it unseemly to appear without it in the
presence of his Lord. Some have supposed that he walked on the sea ;
but we have no warrant to multiply miracles, and the words, " cast him-
self into the sea," do not look like this. Rather, he swam and waded
to the shore.:}: The distance was not more than about " two hundred
cubits,"^ that is, about one hundred yards. The other disciples followed
rpSKiov ol iiaOjfTai Jlcrpos xal 'loiavvrji' b ftiv yitp Oepfidrepo;, b 61 vipn^oTcpo; ^V koI b /xtj/
o^VTCpns tjv, b <5i iiopaTiK(x>Tcpoi.
* The word is of continual use in this sense. Thus Virgil gives this advice to the
ploughman, Nudus ara, (cf. Matt. xxiv. 18,) which he has borrowed from Hesiod, who
will have him yu/^csf airdpciv, yufivdv ri I3oo)tciv. So, too, Cincinnatus was found
" naked" at the plough, when he was called to be Dictator, and sent for his toga that
he might present himself before the Senate (Pliny, H. N., 1. 18, c. 4) ; and Plutarch
says of Phocion, that, in the country and with the army, he went always without
sandals and " naked," {dw-rroSriros del xal yu/^i/dj cPdSi^ev) : and Grotius quotes from
Eusebius a yet apter passage than any of these, in which one says, hftiv yu^vdj h tZ
\tvu) iadfifidrt. The Athenian jest that the Spartans showed to foreigners their virgins
naked is to be taken with these limitations — with only the chiton or himation.
(Mueller's Dorians, 1. 4, c. 2, § 3.) Cf 1 Sam. xix. 24 ; Isai. xx. 3 ; at the last of
which passages the Deist Tindal, in his ignorance, scofTs, as though God had com-
manded an indecency, but which both are to be explained in the same manner. (See
Deyling's Obss. Sac, v. 4, p. 888, seq., and the Diet, of Gr. and Eom. Antt., s. v.
Nudus.)
t This seems to me the meaning ; in Deyling's words {Obss. Sac, v. 4, p. 890) :
'KTCfiiTriv ad Christum iturus sibi circumjiciebat, ne minus honestus et modestus in
conspectum Domini veniret. Others, however, as Euthymius, explain the passage
differently — tliat this ivcvSvTris was the only garment which he had on ; but as regarded
even that, he was H^uotos, and so, in a manner, yu/ji/dj. But going to the Lord, he girt
it up ; whether for comeliness, or that it might not, being left loose, hinder him in
swimming. Thus Lampe. The matter would be clear, if we could know certainly
what the i^rcf^vTrts was. Yet the etymology plainly points out that it is not the under
garment or vest, worn close to the skin, which is rather vTroSiTrn, (see Passow, s. w.)
but rather that worn over all, as (1 Sam. xviii. 4), the robe which Jonathan gives to
David is called tuv iTreviirriv rdf ewavw (LXX.) This is certainly the simplest and pre-
ferable view of the words ; that Peter, being stripped before, now hastily threw his
upper garment over him, which yet he girt up, that it might not form an impediment
in swimming.
t Ambrose : Periculoso compendio religiosum maturavit obsequium.
§ Ovid's advice to the fisher is to keep this moderate distance :
Nee tamen in metlias pelagi te pergere sedes
Admoneam, vastique maris tentare profundum.
Inter utrumque loci melius moderabere finein, &o.
DRAUGHT OF FISHES. 365
more slowly, for they were encumbered with the net and its weight of
fishes, which they drew with them to land. There they find a fire
kindled, with fish laid on it, and bread. They are bidden to bring also
of their fish, and to unite them for the meal with those already preparing.*
Peter, again the foremost, drew up the net, which was fastened, no doubt,
to the ship, on the beach. The very number of the fish it contained,
"an hundred and fifty and three" is mentioned, with also the remarka-
ble circumstance, that although they were so many and so large — '^^ great
fishes,''^ — yet, differently from that former occasion, (Luke v. 6,) the net
was not broken by their weight, or by their eflx)rts to escape.
Now we can scarcely believe that all this happened, or that it was all
recorded in its minuteness and its details, without some meaning more
than lies upon the surface ; indeed, the whole is told with an emphasis
which will hardly allow us to rest content with such a supposition.
Rather here, as we have seen so often before, Christ is speaking to us
by his acts. Nor can I doubt that Augustine has rightly attributed in
more places than one a symbolical meaning to this miracle ;f and that,
whether or not we may consent to every detail of his interpretation,
yet in the outline and main features he has given the true one. He
brings this miraculous draught of fishes in comparison with the other
which fell out before the resurrection, and sees in that first, the figure
of the Church as it now is, and as it now gathers its members from the
world ; in this the figure of the Church as it shall be after the resur-
rection, with the great incoming, the great sea-harvest of souls, which
then shall find place.:}: Then on that first occasion the apostles were
* The abundance and the excellency of the fish in this lake has been often re-
marked. Thus Robinson {Biblical Kesearches,v. 2,p. 261) : "The lake is full of
fishes of various kinds," and he instances sturgeon, chub, and bream, adding, " We
had no difficulty in procuring an abundant supply for our evening and morning meal ;
and found them delicate and well flavored."
t Augustine (Serm. 248. c. 1): Nunquam hoc Dominus juberet, nisi aliquid
significare vellet, quod nobis nosse e.xpediret. Quid ergo pro magno potuit ad Jesum
Christum pertinere, si pisces caperentur aut si non caperentur ? Sed ilia piscatio,
nostra erat significatio.
t Augustine (fn Ev. Joh., Tract. 122): Sicut hoc loco qualiter in seculi fine
fiitura sit [Ecclesia], ita Dominus alia, piscatione significavit Ecclesiam qualiter nunc
sit. Quod autem illud fecit in initio praedicationis suae, hoc vero post resurrectionem
suam, hinc ostendit illam capturam piscium, bonos et males significare, quos nunc
habet Ecclesia ; istam vero tanlummodo bonos quos habebit in aeternum, completa in
fine hujus seculi resurrectione mortuorum. Denique ibi Jesus, non sicut hie in littore
stabat, quando jussit pisces capi, sed ascendens in unam navim .... di.xit ad Simo-
nem, Due in altum, et laxate retia vestra in capturam .... Ibi retia non mittuntur
ia dexteram, ne solos significent bonos, nee in sinistram, ne solos malos ; sed indiffe-
366 THE SECOND MIRACULOUS
not particularly bidden to cast the net to the rifrlit hand or to the left;
for, had he said to the right, it would have implied that none should be
taken but the good, — if to the left, that only the bad ; while yet in the
present mixed condition of the Church, both bad and good are inclosed
in the nets ; but now he says, " Cast the net on the right side of the ship,"
implying that now all who should be taken should be good.* Then the
nets were broken with the multitude of fishes, so that all were not
secured which once were within them ; — and what are the schisms and
divisions of the present condition of the Church, but rents and holes
through which numbers, that impatiently bear to be restrained in the
net, break away from it ? but now, in the end of time, '^for all there
were so many, yet- was not the net broken." Then the fish were
brought into the ship, which yet was itself still on the unquiet sea.
even as it is thus that men in the present lime who are taken for Christ,
are brought into the Church, still itself exposed to the world's tempests:
but now the nets are drawn up to land, to the safe and quiet shore of
eternity. f Then the ships were well nigh sunken with their burden, for
so is it with the ship of the Church, — encumbered with evil livers till it
well nigh makes shipwreck altogether: but nothing of a like kind is
mentioned here.:}: There it is merely mentioned that a great multitude
renter, Laxate, inquit, retia vestra in capturam, ut permixtos intelligamus bonos et
malos: hie autem inquit, Mittite in dextram navigii rate, ut significaret eos qui stabant
ad dexteram, solos bonos. Ibi rate propter significanda schismata rumpebatur : hfc
vero, quoniam tunc jam in ilia, summtl pace sanctorum nulla erunt schismata, pertinuit
ad Evangelistam dicere, Et cum tanti assent, id est, tarn magni, non est scissum rete ;
tanquam illud respicerat ubi scissum est, et in illius mali comparatione commendaret
hoc bonum. Of. Senn. 248 — 252 ; and also the Brev. Coll. con Donat., 1. 3 ; Qumst.
83, qu. 8 ; and Gregory the Great, {Horn, in Evang. 24) who altogether fallows the
exposition of Augustine, making indeed far more of Peter's part, especially of his
bringing of the net to land, which is easily to be accounted for, the idea of the Papacy
having in his time developed itself further.
* This, because the right hand is ever the hand of value ; thus, the sheep are
placed at the right hand. (Matt. xxv. 33.) Even the right eye, if needs is, shall be
plucked out, — the right hand cut off. (Matt. v. 29, 30.) Again, it is threatened that
even the right eye of the idol shepherd, the eye of spiritual understanding, shall be
utterly darkened. (Zech. xi. 17.) Ezekiel lies on his left side for Israel, but on his
right for Judah, (Ezek. iv. 4, 6 ;) and this because Judali with all its sins was not yet
an apostate Church. (Hos. xi. 12.) Cf Gen. xlviii. 17 ; 1 Kin. ii. 19 ; Acts vii. 55.
t Augustine {Senn. 251, c. S'l : In illiV piscatione non ad littus adtracta sunt retia :
sed ipsi pisces qui capti sunt, in naviculas fusi sunt. Hie autem traxerunt ad littus.
Spera fiiiem seculi. Grotius has a glimpse of the same thought, when upon the words,
"Jesus stood on the shore," (ver. 4,) he adds: Significans se per Resurrcctionem jam
esse in vado, ipsos in salo versari. Cf. Gregory the Great, Horn. 24 in Evang.
t Augustine {Serm. 249) : Implentur navigia duo propter populos duos de circum-
DRAUGHT OF FISHES. 367
were inclosed, but here a definite number, even as the number of the
elect is fixed and pre-ordained ;* and there, no doubt, small and great
fishes, for nothing to the contrary is said ; but here they are all "^recti,"
for so shall they all be that belong to that kingdom, being equal to the
angels. I
That which follows is obscure, and without the key which the sym-
bolical explanation supplies, would be obscurer yet. What is the mean-
ing of this meal which they found ready prepared for them on the shore,
with the Lord's invitation that they should come and share it ? It could
not be needful for him with his risen body, and as little for them, whose
dwellings were near at hand. But we must continue to see an under-
meaning, and a rich and deep one, in all this. As that large capture of
fish was to them the pledge and promise of a labor that should not be
in vain,t so the meal, when the labor was done, a meal of the Lord's
own preparing, and upon the shore, was the symbol of the great festival
in heaven with which, after their earthly toil was over, he would refresh
his servants, when he should cause them to sit down with Abraham,
and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom. And as they were bidden to bring
cisione et praeputio : et sic implentur, ut premantur et poene mergantur. Hoc quod
significat gemendum est. Turba turbavit Ecclesiam. Quam magnum numerum
fecerunt malfe viventes, prementes et gementes [pcsnfe mergentes?]. Sad propter pisces
bones non sunt mersa navigia.
* Augustine and others have very laborious calculations to show why this number
of fishes was exactly one hundred and fifty and three, and the mystery that is here.
But the significance is not in its being that particular number, for the number seems
chosen to exclude that, in this unlike the hundred and forty-four thousand (12x12,)
of the Apocalypse, (vii. 4 ;) but in its being a fixed and definite number at all ; just as
in Ezekiel's temple, (ch. 40, seq.,) each measurement is not, and cannot be made,
significant, but that it is all by measurement is most significant, — telling us, that here,
in the rearing of the spiritual temple, no caprice or wilfulness of men is to find room ,
but that all is laid down according to a pre-ordained purpose and will of God. To
number, as to measure and to weigh, is a Divine attribute. Compare Job xxviii. 25 ;
xxxviii. 5 ; Isai. xl. 12 ; and the noble debate in St. Augustine, {De Lib. Arhit., 1. 2
c. 11 — 16,) on all the works of wisdom being by number.
t Augustine Serm. 248, c. 3) ; Quis est enim ibi tunc parvus, quando erunt aequales
Angelis Dei"?
I Maldonatus : Missurus erat paulo post Christus discipulos suos in omnem terra -
rum orbem, quasi in altum ac latum mare, ut homines piscarentur. Poterant inscitiam,
poterant imbecillitatem suam excusare, se homines esse litterarum rudes, id est,
piscandi imperitos, paucos prseterea et infirmos, qui posse se tot tamque grandes
pisces capere, tot oratores, tot tantosque philosophos irretiie et a sententiS, dimovere ?
Voluit ergo Christus exemplo artis propriae docere id ipsos suis viribus sua,que industria.
facere nuUo mode posse, idque significat quod totam laborantes noctem nihil ceperant'
ipsius vero ope atque auxilio facillime facturos.
368 THE SECOND MIRACULOUS
of their fish to that meal, so should the souls which they had taken for
life be their crown and rejoicing in that day, should help and contribute
to their gladness then."*"
When the Evangelist tells us that at this meal ** none of the disciples
durst ask him, Who art thou ? knowing that it was the Lord y" this again
is difficult ; for if they knew, where was even the temptation to make
this inquiry? and yet it seems on the surface of the narration that they
were templed to ask such a question, and were only hindered by the
solemn fear and awe which was shed on them by his presence. But the
right meaning of the words, no doubt, is that none of them dared to show
so much of unbelief and uncertainty as would have been involved in
the question " Who art thou ?" There was shed over them sucli a mys-
terious awe, such a sense of the presence of their beloved Master, wit-
nessing for itself in the inmost depths of their spirits, that, unusual and
unlike as was his outward appearance to that whereunto their eyes were
accustomed, yet none of them durst ask for a clearer evidence that it
was he, even though it would have been a satisfaction to them to hear
from his own lips that it was indeed himself and no other. f
The most interesting conversation which follows hangs too closely
upon this miracle to be omitted ; in fact, as appears almost universally
the case with St. John, the miracle is not recorded so much for its own
sake, as for the sake of that which grows out of it. Here, after the
Lord has opened the eyes of his apostles to the greatness of their future
work, and given to them in type a prophetic glimpse both of their suc-
cessful labor and their abundant reward, he now declares to them the
one condition both of accomplishing this work, and inheriting this reward.
Love to Christ, and the unreserved yielding up of self to God — these
were the sole conditions, and all which follows is to teach this ; so that
the two portions of the chapter are intimately connected, and together
* Augustine {In Ev. Joh., Tract. 123) : Piscis assus, Christus est passus. Ipse est
et panis qui de coelo descendit. Hinc incorporatur Ecclesia ad participandam beati-
tudinem sempiternam. Ammonius: To, Acvtc dptcTeiaaTe, alviyfia e;^£t b Myo;, on utra
Tovi Trdcous SiaSl^crai roii; ayiuvs uvdiravai; Kal TpV(j>ti Kal dK6\aV(ns. Gregory the Great
(Horn. 24 in Evang.,) notes how the number who here feast with the Lord are seven,
the number of perfection and completion.
t Augustine {In Ev. Joh., Tract. 123) : Si ergo scicbant.quid opus erat ut interro-
garent? Si autem non opus erat, quare dictum est, non audebant ; quasi opus esset,
sed timore aliquo non auderent] Sensus ergo hie est: Tanta erat evidentia veritatia»
qua, Jesus ilhs discipulis apparebat, ut eorum non soliim negare, sed nee dubitare
quidem ullus auderet : quoniam si quisquam dubitaret, utique interrogare deberet. Sic
ergo dictum est, Nemo audebat eum interrogare, Tu quis es : ac si diceretur. Nemo
audebat dubitare quod ipse esset. Of Ghrysostom's striking words In Joh., Horn. 87.
DRAUGHT OF FISHES. 369
form a complete whole. When the meal was ended, " Jesus said nnlo
Siinon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?'' with
an evident allusion to Peter's boasting speech, " Though all men shall be
offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended," (Matt. xxvi. 33,)
as is proved by Peter's answer, wherein appealing to the Lord, the
Searcher of hearts, he affirms that indeed he loves him, but does not now
cast any slight by comparison on the love of his fellow-disciples.* The
main object of the Lord in his rejoinder, " Feed my sheep," " Feed my
lambs," is not to say, " Show then thy love in act," but rather, " I restore
to thee thy apostolic function ; this grace is thine,' that thou shalt yet be
a chief shepherd of my flock. "f It implies, therefore, the fullest for-
giveness of the past, since none but the forgiven could rightly declare
the forgiveness of God. The question, ^^ Lovest thou me?":}: is thrice
repeated, that by three solemn affirmations the apostle may efface his
three denials of his Lord.§ At last, upon the third repetition of the
* Augustine (Serm. 147, c. 2) : Non potuit dicere nisi, Amo te: non ausus est
dicere, plus his. Noluit iterum esse mendax. Suffecerat ei testimonium perhibere
cordi suo : non debuit esse judex cordis alieni.
t The other, doubtless, is the commonest view of the connection of the words.
Thus Augustine takes it a hundred times, as Serm. 146, c. 1 : Tamquam ei diceret,
Amas me 1 In hoc ostende quia amas me, Pasce oves meas. But the view expressed
in the text is that of Cyril, Chrysostom, Euthymius. Thus, too, Calvin : Nunc illi
tam libertas docendi qua,m auctoritas restituitur, quarum utramque amiserat snk culpa,.
t 'Ayami/ and ipiXdv are here so interchangeably used, that the Lord on his first
and second putting of the question to Peter says, dyanai /xe ; on the third, (piXeis. while
Peter every time answers with the latter word,