Tabgha (Peter’s Chapel)

Tabgha (seven springs), was located along the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Tradition establishes that this is the site of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish. Nearby, is the site which marks Peter’s encounter with the risen Christ as recorded in John 21:1-19. 

In Jerusalem outside Caiaphas’s palace, in the courtyard at night, as Peter warmed himself up by the charcoal fire, he denied Jesus three times. In John 21 by the charcoal fire, sharing breakfast, Peter was asked by Jesus three times if he loved Him. Only twice this fire is mentioned in the New Testament. When Peter got back to the shore and saw the charcoal fire, he remembered his previous denial of the Savior. 

When Jesus calls Peter “son of Jonah”, he’s preparing his heart to share the good news among the other nations as Jonah did. Jesus said to Peter, “Feed my sheep.” Earlier, at Caesarea Philippi, at the very center of Pagan worship near the gates of hell, Peter answered Jesus’s question, “Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am” (Matthew 16:13) with, “you are the Christ, the son of the living God”. Then Jesus said, “blessed are you, Simon bar-Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven.”

At Joppa, Simon Peter lodged many days in the home of Simon the tanner (Acts 9:43), it was there that Peter received his vision from the Lord on the housetop (Acts 10:9-23). Three times he was trying to avoid touching “the unclean meat”, but the voice spoke to him, “what God has cleansed you must not call common”. Peter came to the realization that God is the Lord of all people, Jews and non-Jews. It was previously at Joppa that Jonah boarded a ship headed for Tarshish, instead of obeying God and going to Nineveh (Jonah 1:3), which eventually he did. God is telling Peter not to escape and he is sending him to the Gentiles to carry the good news, as Jonah was called to do. 

Peter was in the boat with Thomas, Nathanael of Cana, the sons of Zebedee and two others of his disciples, trying to catch fish all night but they caught nothing. In the morning, as Jesus stood on the seashore and told them to, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat”, they came up with a great catch – exactly 153 fish. Why this specific number? Usually, numbers in the Bible have a meaning.   

The numeric value of number 153 is: I AM GOD.  In Hebrew, this phrase is, “Ani Elohim.”  See below for the numeric value of the Hebrew letters in this phrase