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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 August 2011
The theory that this number reflects the number of kinds of fish recognized in antiquity comes from Jerome, Comm. xiv in Ezechiel (Migne, PL 25, 474C). He says, “Writers on the nature and properties of animals, who have learned ‘fishing’ in either Latin or Greek (one of whom is the most learned poet Oppianus Cilix), say there are one hundred fifty-three species of fish.” It was customary in antiquity — and the practice has not come to an end — to generalize from single instances, and we shall not be far from the mark if we suspect that Jerome's only source for this statement is his understanding of Oppian. Jerome knew the work of Pliny on natural history, and Pliny (N. H. ix. 43) states that there are seventy-four species of fish, in addition to thirty varieties of Crustacea.
1 Note that according to John 21:13 the fish were presumably edible. Thusmany of the species listed in writers on fish are excluded. Josephus (Bell. iii. 508) tells us that in the lake of Gennesaret the species of fish were different as to taste and appearance from those found elsewhere. He gives no clues as to how many there were.
