The ending of John 20 certainly sounds like it was once intended to wrap up John's Gospel.
This is not the first time I have encountered the idea that Johns Gospel precedes the synoptic ones. Isn't this a popular idea in evangelical circles?
Nope! Evangelicals generally consider John the last Gospel due it is high Christology, but don't recognize the edited history of the Gospel.
More on the gematria of 153 fish. Scholars generally take the unusual specificity of the number as a sign of gematria. In both Greek and Hebrew each letter of the alphabet also stands for a number. The numerical equivalent of "Pella" is 146, plus the 7 disciples in the boat =153. This gematria designates the union of the church of Pella and the Jerusalem church that occurred around 63 AD, when the Jerusalem church is inspired by a prophetic oracle to flee to Pella to escape the pending Roman siege. Why Pella? Because it is a Decapolis sanctuary city and Jesus has His greatest ministry success in the Decapolis. So Pella had the potential for a safe support system from nearby Jesus' followers.
Pella is 17 miles south of the Sea of Galilee, 2 miles east of the Jordan, and across from Samaria, a fact that explains the unique interest in Samaritan Christians in John 4 and the bizarre charge that Jesus is in fact a Samaritan (John 8:48). Samaritans often migrated across the Jordan to nearby Pella.
Two other details point to a Pellan locale for the Community of the Fourth Gospel:
(1) Pellan Christians also use gematria to symbolize their status as true or spiritual Israel (see the Ascents of James).
(2) Early 2nd century Pellans use the term "Paraclete" to refer to the Holy Spirit and "Paraclete is the preferred designation for the Holy Spirit in the Fourth Gospel. A Pellan locale also explains the cryptic designation of the Evangelist's source as "the disciple whom Jesus loved," but it would take far too long to lay out the massive evidence for this claim.
