The extreme value of fish as an article of food [when cooked, or otherwise prepared as a relish, 6-^d- Giov, lit. sauce] (our Lord seems to recognise this as sharing with bread the claim to be considered as a prime necessary of life, see Matt, vii, 9, 10) imparted to the destruction offish the character of a divine judg- ment (see Isa. 1, 2; Hosea iv, 3; Zeph. i, 3; compare with Exod. vii, 18, 21 ; Psa. cv, 29 ; and Isa. xix, 8). This would especially be the case in Egj'pt, where the abundance of fish in the Nile, and the lakes and ca- nals (Strabo, xvii, p. 823 ; Diod. i, 36, 43, 52 ; Herod, ii, f 3, 149), rendered it one of the staple commodities of food (Numb, xi, 5 ; comp. Wilkinson, iii, 62). How fish is destroyed, largely in the way of God's judg- ment, is stated by Dr. E. Pococke on Hosea iv, 3, where he collects many conjectures of the learned, to which maj- be added the more obvious cause of death by disease, such as the case mentioned bj' Welsted (Travels in Arabia, i, 310) of the destruction of vast quantities of the fish of Oman by an epidemic, which recurred nearly every five years. St. John {Travels in Valley of the Nile, ii, 240) describes a vast destruction of fish from cold. Aristotle {Hist. Anini. viii, 19) men- tions certain symptoms of disease among fish as known to skilful fishermen ; but he denies that epidemics such as affect men and cattle fall upon them. In the next section he mentions the mullein plant (vcrhascum, ttXo- l-ioc) as poisonous to fresh-water and other fish. Cer- tain waters are well known to be fatal to life. The instance of the Dead Sea, the very contrast of the other Jordan lakes so full of life, is well described hy Schwarz {Descriptive Geography of Palestine, p. 41-45), and by Stanley {Sinai and Palestine, p. 290-294), and more fully by De Saulcy {Dead Sea, passim). Con- trast tlie present condition of this Sea of Death with the vitality which is predicted of it in the vision of Ezekiel (xlvii, 9, 10). Its healed waters and renova- ted fish ''exceeding manj'," and "the fishers which shall stand on it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim," and "the places on its coast to spread forth nets" — all these features are in vivid opposition to the present condition of "the Asphaltic lake." Of like remark- able import is 2 Esdr. v, 7, -where the writer, among the signs of the times to come, predicts, "The Sodomitish sea shall cast out fish." For ancient testimonies of the death which reigns over this lake, see St. Jerome on Ezekiel, lib. xiv ; Tacitus, Hist, v, 6 ; Diod. Sic. ii, 48, and xix, 98 ; and the Nubian Geographer, iii, 5, as quoted by Bochart, IJieroz. i, 40. But there are other waters equalh' fatal to fish life, though less known, such as the lake called Canondan (Avicenha, i. q. oyo- vov, tcithout life), in Armenia, and that which .^Elian (Ilist. Animal, iii, 38) mentions (r) Ii iv <bivi<p Xi^vtj
and was graven or painted as a secret sign upon mon- uments of all kinds. We do not speak, of course, of the fish introduced into arabesque ornamentation, or into the scenes drawn from the New Testament, nor of those cases where it was used upon tombs to indicate the calling of the deceased, but of those cases where it was used independenth', and manifesth' in a purely symbolical sense. Numberless examples are extant of its being thus used on tombstones, rings, seals, and amulets. It manifesth^ had two significations, some- times referring to Christ, and sometimes to the Chris- tian Church.
I. Referring to Christ, it was in familiar use as early as the 2d century. Its significance was drawn from the fact that the letters of Ix^vc, the Greek word for fish, form the initials of the acrostic 'Ir](jovg,XpiffT6c, Oeoi', Yioc, 'S.wTt'ip {Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour'). The complete acrostic is found upon but one monu- ment, a tombstone. It is explained in the wi'itings of St. Augustine. Sometimes the entire word was used ; in other cases there were but parts of it. The figure of a fish was verj^ frequently cut or painted to repre- sent the Saviour. Fishes of glass or of bronze were often hung upon the necks of believers as amulets. Seals and rings often had other sj'mbols also, as the anchor, the cross, and the A L2. The fish M-as espe- cially used on baptismal fonts and on the walls of bap- tisteries. A ship resting on a fish was used to indicate that Christ supports the Church.
II. The fish represents the Christian in all artistic presentations of those parages where the apostles are spoken of as fishers of men. The fish, attached to a hook and line, with or without a fisherman, always re- fers to the Christian, as do those representations of a number of fishes on pavements of churches, and on those tombstones where funeral inscriptions, as inpace, are added. Often two fishes are given, one on each side of an anchor or a cross. Many interpretations are given of this, the best established being the one that considers them as referring to the Jews and Gentiles, though much weight is attached to the interpretation which considers the two fishes to allude to the two cov- enants, the Jewish and the Christian. Tlie baptiste- ries were therefore sometimes cnUed piscina'. Tertul- lian speaks of Christians as accustomed to please them- selves with the name pisciculi, " fishes," to denote that they were born again into Clirist's religion \>y water, lie says, Kos pisciculi secundum ixSvi'-, nostrum Jesum Christum, in aqua nascimur {De Bapt. ch. i).