How not to do Hermeneutics, Lesson 101, Numerology. I preached on 2 Kings 1 this morning. One of my seminarians told me about an explanation of the three groups of 50 plus one captain each in a contemporary writer, well-known in some of our circles. He was trying to explain why John bothers to tell us the number of fish caught in John 21 = 153. The 2Kings 1 incident explains it because there was a total of 153 soldiers and captains. The last group of 50 was spared because of their captains intercession to Elijah. So our High Priest intercedes for us and not all of the fish are lost. You see it, right? Maybe the reason John records the number of fish as 153 is simply because he was there that morning and was so amazed that he counted the catch! But that explanation does not provide nearly the blessing of the other explanation. I think.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 22:25:49 +0000