Fish

Fish (דָּג, dag, so called from its great fecundity; Gr. ἰχθὐς, Ge 9:2; Nu 11:22; Jon 2:1,10; Mt 7:10; Mt 14:17; Mt 15:34; Lu 5:6; Joh 21:6,8,11). The Hebrews recognised fish as one of the great divisions of the animal kingdom, and, as such, give them a place in the account of the creation (Genesis i,-21, 28; 'where, however, they are included under the general terms שֶׁרֶוֹ, she'rets, swarm, and רֹמֶשֶׂת, romneseth, creeping thing, i.e. destitute of legs; and as distinguished from the larger inhabitants of the deep, תִּנַּינִים, tanninim'), as well as in other passages where an exhaustive description of living creatures is intended (Ge 9:2; Ex 20:4; De 4:18; 1Ki 4:33). They do not, however, appear to have acquired any intimate knowledge of this branch' of natural history. Although they were acquainted with some of the names given by the Egyptians to the different species. (for Josephus, War, iii, 10, 8, compares one found, in the Sea of Galilee to the coracinus), they did not adopt a similar method of distinguishing them ; nor was any classification attempted beyond the broad divisions of clean and unclean,. great and small. The former was established by the Mosaic law (Le 11:9-10), which pronounced unclean such fish as were devoid of fins and scales: these were and are regarded as unwholesome food in Egypt (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. iii, 58, 59), so much so that one of the laws of El-Hakim prohibited the sale, or even the capture of them (Lane, Modern Egyptians, i, 136, note; De Sacy, Chrestomathie Arabe, 2d ed. i, 98). This distinction is probably referred to in the terms σαπρά (esui nona ido.nea, Schleusner's Lex. s.v.; Trench, On Parables, p. 137) and καλά (Mt 13:48). This law of Moses may have given rise to some casuistry, as many fishes have scales, which, though imperceptible when first caught, are very apparent after the skin is in the least dried. Maimonides, with less reason, sees in the Levitical distinctions of fins and scales among fishes "marks whereby the more noble and excellent species might be distinguished from those that were inferior" (Townley's sTore Noevochi.in, p. 305). In no ordinance of the laws of Moses do we find fishes prescribed as religious offerings. In this respect, as well as many others, these laws were opposed to the heathen rituals, which appointed fish-offerings to various' deities. Besides the lepidotus, the oxyrhincus, the phagrus (eel, "fron its unwholesome qualities not eaten by the ancient Egyptians," Wilkinson, v, 251), latus, and nceotes were held sacred in various parts of ancient Egypt (Clem. Alex., Plutarch, Strabo, Athenaeus, are the authorities referred to by Sir G.Wilkinson, v, 125). In the Ordinances of Menu, ch. v (on Diet, Purification, etc.), sees. 15, 16, "the twice-born man is commanded diligently 'to abstain from fish; yet the two fishes called pathina (sheat- fish, Silurus pelorius) and rohila (rohi-fish, Cyprinus denwiculatus) imay be eaten by the guests, when offered at a repast. in honor of the gods or manes; and so may the rajiva (a large fish, Cyprinus Niloticus), the sinhatunzda, and the sasalca (probably shrimps and prawns) of every species" (Sir W. Jones's Laws of JlMenit, by Haughton, p. 146). Similarly in the heathen observances of other nations'; thus Apua [queryj Anchovy] Veneri erat sacra.; Concha [perhaps 'Pearl' oyster] Veneri stat; Mullus Diane ; pisces omnes Neptuno; Thunnus Neptunio." (Beyer, Addit. ad Seldeni Syntag. de Diis Syriis; Ugolini Thesaur. 33:338. 'Vossius, in Hoffmanni Lexicon, iii, 771, has a much longer list of fourteen fishes, "a veteribus pro Diis habiti." Consecrated fishes were kept in reservoirs, with-rings of gold, or silver, or brass attached to them. So Sir J.Chardin in Harmer, iii, 58.) It was perhaps as an image of fecundity that the fish was selected as an object of idolatry: the-worship of it was widely spread, from Egypt (Wilkinson, iii, 58) to Assyria (Layard, Nineveh, ii, 467), and even India (Baur, Mythologie, ii, 58). -Among the Philistines, Dagon (=littlefish) was represented by a figure half man and half fish (1Sa 5:4). On this account the worship of fish is expressly prohibited (De 4:18). See DAGON. The form of a fish (Notius Poseidon) was, from remote ages, a type of protective dominion, which the symbolizing spirit of the ancients caused to pass into Christianity, as appears from Eusebius (Life of Constantine) and St. Augustine (De Civitate Dei). On the walls of the oldest catacombs of Rome the representation of the ΙΧΘΥΣ is frequently discernible, and always interpreted as an emblem of the Saviour.

Taking fishes in the scientific sense of "oviparous, vertebrated, cold- blooded animals, breathing water by means of gills or branchice, and generally provided with fins," none are mentioned by name throughout the 0. T. and N.T.; but, regarded in the popular and inexact sense of aquatic animals, inhabitants more or less of the water, we meet with eleven instances which require some notice here. -