FISH

דג , ἰχθὺς, Matt. vii, 10; xvii, 27; Luke v, 6; John xxi, 6, 8, 11, occurs very frequently. This appears to be the general name in Scripture of aquatic animals. Boothroyd, in the note upon Num. xi, 4, says, “I am inclined to think that the word בשר , here rendered flesh , denotes only the flesh of fish, as it certainly does in Lev. xi, 11; and indeed the next verse seems to support this explication: ‘We remember how freely we ate fish.’ It was then, particularly, the flesh of fish, for which they longed, which was more relishing than either the beef or mutton of those regions, which, unle when young, is dry and unpalatable. Of the great abundance and deliciousne of the fish of Egypt, all authors, ancient and modern, are agreed.” We have few Hebrew names, if any, for particular fishes. Moses says in general, Lev. xi, 9–12, that all sorts of river, lake, and sea fish, might be eaten, if they had scales and fins; others were unclean. St. Barnabas, in his epistle, cites, as from ancient authority, “You shall not eat of the lamprey, the many-feet, [polypes,] nor the cuttle fish.” Though fish was the common food of the Egyptians, yet we learn from Hero dot us and Chærem on, as quoted by Porphyry, that their priests abstained from fish of all sorts. Hence we may see how distre ing to the Egyptians was the infliction which turned the waters of the river into blood, and occasioned the death of the fish, Exod. vii, 18–21. Their sacred stream became so polluted as to be unfit for drink, for bathing, and for other uses of water to which they were superstitiously devoted, and themselves obliged to nauseate what was the usual food of the common people, and held sacred by the priests, Exod. ii, 5; vii, 15; viii, 20. In Ezekiel xxix, 4, the king of Egypt is compared to the crocodile: “I am against thee, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers in Egypt. I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish in thy rivers to stick to thy scales, and I will bring thee out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick to thy scales.” If the remora is as troublesome to the crocodile as it is to some other tenants of the water, it may here be referred to. Forskal mentions the echeneis neucrates [remora] at Gidda, there called kaml el kersh , “the louse of the shark,” because it often adheres very strongly to this fish; and Ha el quist says that it is found at Alexandria. The term, ἰχθὺς, a fish , was, at an early period of the Christian era, adopted as a symbolical word. It was formed from the initial letters of the Greek words, Ἰησοῦς Χριϛὸς, Θεοῦ Ὑιὸς, Σωτὴρ, “Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Saviour.” From the use of symbolical terms, the transition was easy to the adoption of symbolical representations, and it therefore soon became common for the Christians to have the letters of the word ιχθυς, or the figures of fishes, sculptured on their monuments for the dead, struck on their medals, engraved on their rings and seals, and even formed on the articles of domestic use. FITCHES, or VETCHES, a kind of tare. There are two words in Hebrew which our translators have rendered fitches , קצח and כסמת : the first occurs only in Isaiah xxviii, 25, 27, and must be the name of some kind of seed; but the interpreters differ much in explaining it. Jerom, Maim on ides, R. David Kimchi, and the rabbins understand it of the gith ; and rabbi Obdias de Bar tenor a expre ly says that its barbarous or vulgar name is ניילי . The gith was called by the Greeks μελάνθιον, and by the Latins nigella ; and is thus described by Ball ester: “It is a plant commonly met with in gardens, and grows to a cubit in height, and sometimes more, according to the richne of the soil. The leaves are small like those of fennel, the flower blue, which disappearing, the ovary shows itself on the top, like that of a poppy, furnished with little horns, oblong, divided by membranes into several partitions, or cells, in which are enclosed seeds of a very black colour, not unlike those of the leek, but of a very fragrant smell.” And A us on i us observes, that its pungency is equal to that of pepper:-- A Biblical and Theological Dictionary, by Richard Watson Est inter fruges morsu piper æquiparens git. Pliny says it is of use in bakehouses, pistrinis , and that it affords a grateful seasoning to the bread. The Jewish rabbins also mention the seeds among condiments, and mixed with bread. For this purpose it was probably used in the time of Isaiah; since the inhabitants of those countries, to this day, have a variety of rusks and biscuits, most of which are strewed on the top with the seeds of sesamum, coriander, and wild garden saffron. The other word rendered fitches in our translation of Ezek. iv, 9, is כסמת ; but in Exod. ix, 32, and Isaiah xxviii, 25, “rye.” In the latter place the Septuagint has ξέα, and in the two former ὀλύρα; and the Vulgate in Exodus, far , and in Isaiah and Ezekiel, vicia . Saadias, likewise, took it to be something of the leguminous kind, גלנאן , cicircula , (misprinted circula in the Polyglott version,) or, “a chickling.” Aquila has ζέα, and Theodotion, ὀλύρα. Onkelos and Targum have כונהיא and Syriac, כונחא , which are supposed to be the millet , or a species of it called panicum ; Persian, כורכדם , the spelt ; and this seems to be the most probable meaning of the Hebrew word; at least it has the greatest number of interpreters from Jerom to Celsius. There are not, however, wanting, who think it was rye; among whom R. D. Kimchi, followed by Luther, and our English translators: Dr. Geddes, too, has retained it, though he says that he is inclined to think that the spelt is preferable. Dr. Shaw thinks that this word may signify rice . Ha el quist, on the contrary, affirms that rice was brought into cultivation in Egypt under the Caliphs. This, however, may be doubted. One would think from the intercourse of ancient Egypt with Babylon and with India, that this country could not be ignorant of a grain so well suited to its climate.