FISH ; FISHES ; FISHING. — Various and interesting are the statements of ichthyological facts scattered throughout the Scriptures. We propose to collect these, not in the order of their occu'rrence, but in a method which seenis to us best to illustrate the Biblical aspect of the subject. The creation of fish is described in Gen. i. 20-22 as occupying a prominent portion of the divine work of the fifth day. This account is remarkable for the terms employed by the sacred historian. There is an absence, not only of all specific names of fishes, which was to be expected in the narrative of a general fact like the creation, but also of all eeneric phrases, such as are usually employed, even in Scripture, to designate the animal tribes which inhabit the sea. This absence, however, is com pensated by the use of language, simple but most effective, which, while it pictures to the mind the grand event with a vividness whiela no translation can express, is yet singularly consistent with scien tific accuracy. God said, Let the w-aters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that bath life.' This is but a faint, though not an incorrect rendering of the original, Et, rt; non Iriv)4 rpri (verse 20). The neuter verb tnci combines - ..,.
the ideas of swarming and creeping, and is here accompanied with its cognate noun, to add inten sity to the meaning ; so that the Almighty's fiat impregnated the waters and made them teem and move with the writhing [` wriggling' is the expres sive old word of Holland, Plinie xxxii. 2] swarms of beings endowed with life [literally, the soul of life].' " In the next verse follows the creative act, ' God created great whales and every living creature that moveth,' etc. Here occur the same terms, with the exception of the word which expresses the motion of the creatures [rpn'ir:i. palpitans, moll tans ; Rosenrniillerl, again without any specific or generic phrases ; but we notice two important points in the statement : ) A distinction between the gnat whales [tT9Lori in?,?nri] and the other aquatic animals. This distinction is not only
compatible with the simple classification of the Jewish zoologists (either David or Solomon [comp. t Kings iv. 33], or probably some later writer in Psalm civ. 25) intogreat and small animals of the sea but makes room for, and anticipates the more elaborate characteristics of modern science, which distinguishes between (ex. gr.) the warm-blooded viviparous whale and other cetaceans ; and the cold-blooded oviparous shark and other fishes, properly so called. (2.) The provision made to keep the myriads which crowd the deep specifically distinct amid their multitudinous association. The command of God, that aquatic animals should generate 'after their hinds' [criL,th, i.e., pro variis eorum speciehus, according to Gesenius, who in cludes the idea, likewise, of form in the word ; Thes. 77S], is as a wall that separates their natures. Nor does that Word of the Lord return to Him void ;' It still keeps unmixed the species which haunt the waters as purely and potentially as when first spoken. This perpetuity is the effect.of the blessing which the Creator originally pronounced on this part of His work. God blessed them, saying : Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas ' (verse 22). In the brief but effica cious paranomasia, I -I, lies the germ of that fertility which has made the. vast realm of waters instinct with life." In the next passage which bears on our subject, we first meet with the generic word, fish [n411.i.
In verses 26, 28, the Almighty confers on man his supremacy over animate nature; one of the express prerogatives of that dignity is dominion over the fish of the sea.'—This was renewed to Noah, Gen. ix. 2. St. James seems also to speak of it in his epistle, when, in chap. iii. 7, Ile refers to man's subjugation of things in the sea' Placa cbOcrts . . . evaNiwv Sap4erat Kat Salaaarat rf (15inict av9-punrivv] as a prerogative still unrevoked.