The use of the fish as a symbol ceased almost en- tirely with the death of Constantine the Great, tliough examples are found of it as late as the 5th or 6th cen- tury.— Rossi, De Christianis Monumentis IXGYN ear-
FISH
579
FISH
hlbentibus (Par. 1855) ; Martij^'iiv, Dictionnaire dts An- liqiiites Chretiennes (Paris, 1S65) ; Piper, Die christlkhe Kunst ; Becker, Die Darstelluncj Jesu Christi imter dem Bilde des Fisches (Breslau, 18(j(j, 8vo) ; Didron, Chris- tian Ico)iograj]hy, i, 314; Bingham, Orig. Kecks, bk. i, cb. i, § 2. (G. F. C.)
FISHING (5"''7, dig; uXavtiv). The copious siip- ])ly of fish in the waters of Palestine encouraf^ed the art or avocation of fisherj^, to which frequent allusions are made in the Bible : in the 0. T. these allusions are of a metaphorical character, descriptive either of the conversion (Jer. xvi, IG ; Ezek. xlvii, 10) or of the de- struction (Ezek. xxix, 3 sq. ; Eccl. ix, 12; Amos iv, 2 ; Hab. i, 14) of the enemies of God. In the N. T. the allusions are of a historical character for the most part (see Thomson, Land and Book., ii, 79), though the metaphorical application is still maintained in JMatt. xiii, 47 sq. It was from the fishing-nets that Jesus called his earliest disciples to "become fishers of men" (Mark i, lG-20) ; it was from a fishing-boat that he re- buked the winds and the waves (Matt, viii, 26) ; it was from a fishing-boat that he delivered his wondrous se- ries of prophetic parables of the kingdom of heaven (Matt, xiii); it was to a fishing-boat that he walked on the sea, and from it that Peter walked to him (Matt, xiv, 24-32) ; it was with fish (doubtless dried) as well as with bread that he twice miraculousl}' fed the mul- titude (Matt, xiv, 19 ; xv, 36) ; it was from the mouth of a fish, taken with a hook, that the tribute-stater was paid (Matt, xvi, 27) ; it was "a piece of broiled fish" tiiat he ate before his disciples on the day that he rose from the dead (Luke xxiv, 42, 43) ; and yet again, be- fore he ascended, he filled their net with "great fish- es, an hundred and fifty and three," while he himself prepared a "fire of coals," and " laid fish thereon," on which then he and they dined (John xxi, 1-14).
The most prevalent method of catching fish in nse among the Hebrews was by nets of various kinds and sizes. Four of these are mentioned : two in Hab. i, 15, 16, D'ifl (che''rem, Sept. di.i(pij3\7]aTf)OV : no doubt in v, 16 this word and ffayi']V7] have been by some means transposed ; verse 17 compared with verse 15 makes this evident), the casting-net, Matt.iVjlS (^SIktv- oi>), and Mark i, 16; and riTOS^ (^niikme reth, Sept. aay)'iv)f), the drag-net, a larger kind (see Matt, xiii, 48), requiring the use of a boat : the latter was prob- nbly most used on the Sea of Galilee, as the number of boats kept on it was very considerable (Josephus, War, iii, 10, 9). The third occurs Eccl. ix, 12, tTl'iap (mitstsoduh' , Sept. d[xrf)ij3\r]aTpov'), a casting-net. The fourth, rn^"i (re'sheth, Sept. Trayiv), a fowler's net as well as ajisher's. In Psa. xxxv, 7, 8, the m^"l, 7iet, is used with rill"^, a pit ("they have hid for me their net in a pit"): the allusion would seem to be to that mode of winter-fishing which Aristotle describes as practised by the Phoenicians (Hist. Animal, viii, 20). Net-fishing is still used on the lake of Tiberias (Dr. Pococke, Descrip. of the East, ii, 69). See Net. This mode of fishing prevailed in Palestine, and is a promi- nent feature of the piscatorial associations in the Gos- pel history to the very last (see John xxi, 6, 8, 11). It is certainly less characteristic of Egyptian fishing, of which we have frequent mention in the O. T. See Angling. The instruments therein employed were the nsn (chahhah' , Sept. nyicioTpoj', comp.Matt. xvii, 27), angling-hooh, for smaller fish ; Isa. xix, 8 ; Hab. i, 15. These hooks were (for disguise) made to resem- ble thorns (on the principle of the fly-fishing instru- ments, though not in the same manner ; for the Egj'p- tians, neither anciently nor now, seem to have put winged insects on their hooks to attract their prey ; Wilkinson, iii, 54), and were thence called m^D, si- roth', Amos iv, 2 (" fz'om their resemblance to thorns,'" Gesenius, Lex. s. v.) ; and (in the case of the larger
sort) nsp, suJckah', A.V. "barbed irons;" Job xH, 7 [xl, 31]. Another name for these thorn-like instru- ments was mS}I, tsinnoth' , Amos iv, 2 (a, generic word, judging from the Sept., OTrXa). mn, clio'ach, was either a hook or a ring put through the nostrils of fish to let them down again alive into the water (Geseni- us), or (it may be) a crook by which fishes were sus- pended to long ])oles, and carried home after being caught (such as is shown in plate 344 [from a tomb near the Pyramids] in Wilkinson, iii, 5G). The word is used in Job xli, 2 [xl, 26] with 'jl^'iX, agmon, a. cord of rushes (nxolvot;). Rosenmiiller, ad loc, applies these two words to the binding of larger fish to the bank of the river until wanted, after they are captured, aud quotes Bruce for instances of such a practice in modern Egj'ptian fishing. The rod was occasionalh- dispensed with (Wilkinson, iii, 53), aud is not men- tioned in the Bible : ground-bait alone was used, fly- fishing being unknown. Though we have so many terms for the hook, it is doubtful whetlier any have come down to us denoting the line; "jl^^SX and i'lS'j, though the most nearly connected with piscatorial em- plojmien*t, hardly express our notion of a lineybr ang- ling (see Gesenius, s. v.) ; while liW and P'TIS (thread, twine) arejiever used in Scripture for fishing purposes. See Hook. The large fish-spear or harpoon used for destroying the crocodile and hippopotamus was called Di;^ h:ih'S (Job xli, 7 [xl, 31] ; comp. with Wilkin- son, iii, 72, 73). P^3S means a cymbal or any clang-