From Tangle to Covenant—Peter, the Bridegroom, and the Magdalene

For centuries, Peter has been cast as the rough fisherman whose nets overflowed at Jesus’ command.

But what if the “153 fish” was never a fish or numerous fish at all? What if the number was not about the size of the catch at all, but about the Fish itself — marked with a sacred number?

What if that number pointed to the Magdalene — the womb of life — and to Peter himself, not as a fisherman, but perhaps a bard, an entertainer some thought was magical… and as the Bridegroom?

It was morning on the Sea of Tiberias. The air still held the heaviness of night. Peter’s net — his network of fellow workers, his “hands” — hung limp and empty, sagging with the weight of failure. Making a living by the sea was hard. Entertaining fishers and working stiffs was no easier. The men and women toiled in darkness, and after expenses and taxes, nothing was left to take home.

Then a voice from the shore — a voice Peter knew yet dared not name — called out, “Cast your net on the right side of the boat.”

The net Peter held and lifted up with the help of his lead hands was tangled into a giant ball—like the legendary Gordian Knot… tightly woven, defying anyone to untangle it. Yet that old Alektor — people claimed was divine — thought he could simply use his sword.

Wisdom is indeed vindicated by her children who know that the number given — 153 — to the big fish that swallowed Jonah adds to the tangled net Peter and his hands struggled with in the dark… as they worked and lived by the sea.

In the dark, living down by the Sea — without having a priestly education — Peter had seen and heard how the boat builders and the sailors and bards and even the athletes of old Greece and Rome could toss a ball and have it land on the right side of the court… or boat. He knew how the priestly class bragged about how the Teacher of Israel had fashioned a Golden Lamp Stand by hammering gold into the shape of the Amygdala… and how they kept her behind the curtain in the Holy of Holies, so that only the priests could share her light with the common people such as him and his pals.

As Peter worked in the dark, people were waiting for him to toss this tangled net — that he and his hands held as if it were their mother’s last breath — on the right side of the boat.

The net was the gospel story itself, knotted with interpretations the priestly had long guarded as sacred, held and held as though letting go would be a sin.

He could hear voices in the boat and in the pubs, arguing and complaining.

The mathematicians had long ago declared the 153 as the Vesica Piscis — the mother of all life — and proclaimed the flower of life, created from this ratio of 153/265, as sacred geometry.

So the question may be welling up in you, even as you read this post: What good will it do if I see and hear Peter affirm his love for Jesus? Will that make a difference in my life? Will that put food on my table?

And yet, when Peter heard that voice from the shore urging him to cast his net on the right side of the boat, he knew it was more than fishing advice — it was a summons to take up the robe of the Bridegroom. He remembered the old songs and stories that told how the Greek letters spelling “The Magdalene” carried the value 153. And like any schoolchild, he knew that adding the numbers 1 through 17 would give the same total — the number marked on the great fish of covenant and repentance.

So is it any wonder that in the seventeenth verse, the author of John has Peter and his Bride speak their love?

A love named three times — not as a formula, but as a restoration.

A love spoken in the dawning light, reminding their followers to honour their father and mother so that they would live long in the land.

And those still fishing in the dark, hoping for a catch that they can sell, will say:

“Oh, that is merely a coincidence. Everyone knows that Peter’s love for Jesus was strictly platonic.”