So Simon Peter went aboard and pulled the net to shore. It was ¹  full of large fish, one hundred fifty-three, ²  but although there were so many, the net was not torn.

biblegateway Joh 21:11

Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not torn.

So Simon Peter got up and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish--153 of them. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.

So Simon Peter got into [the boat] and hauled the net to the land, full of large fish—one hundred fifty-three—and [although there] were so many, the net was not torn.

biblegateway Joh 21:11

Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn.

So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn.

bibleoremus Joh 21:11

So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn.

Simon Peter went on board and hauled the net to land; it was full of big fish, a hundred and fifty-three in all; and yet, many as they were, the net was not torn.

biblegateway Joh 21:11

Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land, full of large fish, one hundred and fifty–three; and although there were so many, the net was not broken.

Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.

biblegateway Joh 21:11

So Simon Peter went aboard and pulled the net to shore. It was ¹  full of large fish, one hundred fifty-three, ²  but although there were so many, the net was not torn.

¹ tn The words “It was” are not in the Greek text. Here a new sentence was begun in the translation in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences. For this reason the words “It was” had to be supplied.

² sn Here the author makes two further points about the catch of fish: (1) there were one hundred fifty-three large fish in the net, and (2) even with so many, the net was not torn. Many symbolic interpretations have been proposed for both points (unity, especially, in the case of the second), but the reader is given no explicit clarification in the text itself. It seems better not to speculate here, but to see these details as indicative of an eyewitness account. Both are the sort of thing that would remain in the mind of a person who had witnessed them firsthand. For a summary of the symbolic interpretations proposed for the number of fish in the net, see R. E. Brown (John [AB], 2:1074-75), where a number are discussed at length. Perhaps the reader is simply to understand this as the abundance which results from obedience to Jesus, much as with the amount of wine generated in the water jars in Cana at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry (2:6).