Below is the basic criteria I used for including people in my list of 153.
- Blessed by Jesus
- Blessed by a miracle of Jesus
- Supported the ministry of Jesus
- Played a pivotal role in His ministry
- An example of faith
- Part of a lesson Jesus was teaching
- Proved that Jesus had authority
- Has to be included in one of the 4 Gospels
In each case a specific number of people are mentioned so this rules out the feeding of the 5,000 as the text mentions this an estimate of the number of people nor does it include women and children. This also rules out instances where a large number of people are healed but no number is mentioned. Many more people were healed or blessed by Jesus than are mentioned in the Gospels (John 20:30, 21:25), so it is impossible to list or count everyone.
There are many instances in the Bible where the Holy Spirit inspired the author to estimate a number. In Acts 25:6 we are told that Festus remained in Jerusalem 8 or 10 days. If this can be estimated, then why is the number 153 recorded? There are other instances of estimating as well: Acts 1:15 we are told that there were about 120 people there; Acts 2:41 mentions that about 3,000 souls were saved; John 2:6 has the size of the wine jars as being 20 or 30 gallons.
On the other hand there are other instances of specific numbers. Genisis 14:14 mentions that Abram lead out 318 of his trained men, and one commentary I found mentioned that the name Eliezer is numerically equal to 318. Eliezer is listed as the sole heir of Abram in Gen 15:2, but the numbers are spelled out in Gen 14:14. It’s hard to say exactly why 318 is mentioned there. In Esther 1:1 we see mentioned that there were 127 provinces. That could be to help affirm this account with ancient secular history. This could also be true in Acts 27:37 where 276 people were mentioned as being onboard the ship when Paul was shipwrecked. Maybe this was so people alive at the time could verify this story themselves.
But the 153 fish? How can that be confirmed with history?
153 Fish 