The extreme value of fish as an article of food (our Lord seems to recognise it as sharing with bread the claim to be considered as a prime neces sary of life, see St. Matt. vii. 9, to) imparted to the destruction of fish the character of a Divine judgment (see Is. 1. 2 ; Hosea iv. 3 ; Zeph. 3, comp. with Exod. vii. 18, 21 ; Ps. cv. 29 ; and Is. xix. 8). How fish is destroyed, largely in the way of God's judgment, is stated by Dr. E. Pococke on IIosea iv. 3, where he collects many conjectures of the learned, to which may be added the more obvious cause of death by a'isease,* such as the case mentioned by 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. Certain waters are well known to be fatal to life. The instance of the Dead Sea, the very contrast t of the other Jordan lakes so full of life, is well described by the Rabbi J. Schwarz (Descriptive Geography of Palestine, PP. 41-45), and by Dr. Stanley (Sin. and Palest., pp. 290-294), and more fully by De Saulcy (Dead Sea and Bible Lana's [passind). But there are other waters equally fatal to fish life though less known, such as the lake 'called Canoudan in Armenia ( u...) Avicenna, i.q. ityovav, without /ifi), and that which /Elian in his Hist. Animal., iii. 38, thus mentions :
Iv
This mode of fishing prevailed in Palestine, and is a prominent feature of the piscatorial associations in the Gospel history to the very last (see St. John xxi. 6, 8, I I). It is certainly less chamcteristic of Egyptian fishing of which we have frequent men tion in the O. T. The instruments therein em ployed, were the rI71] (LXX. ayido-rpov, comp. St.
Matt. xvii. 27), angiing-hook, for smaller fish ; Is. xix. 8 ; Hab. 15. These hooks were (for dis guise) made to resemble thorns [on the principle of the fly-fishing instruments, though not in the same manner ; for the Egyptians, neither anciently nor now, seem to have put winged insects on their hooks to attract their prey ; Wilkinson, iii. 54], and were thence called nron, Amos 2 (from their resem blance to thorns,' Gesenius, Lex. s. v.) ; and (in the case of the larger sort) riZt:', A.V. barbed irons' ; Job xli. 7 [xl. 31]. Another name for these thorn-like instruments was nin, Amos iv. 2 [a generic word, judging from the LXX., 67rXa]. nin was either a hook or a ring put through the nostrils of fish to let them down again alive into the water (Gesenius); or (it may be) a crook by which fishes were suspended to ton, poles, and carried home after being caught (such' as is shewn in plate 344 [from a tomb near the Pyramids] in Wilkinson, iii. 56). The word is used in Job xli. 2 [Hebr. Bib. xl. 26] with 01:)t!„ a cord of rushes (0"Xeiros). Rosenmiiller, loc., applies these two words to the binding of larger fish to the bank of , the river until wanted, after they are captured, and. I
quotes Bruce for instances of such a practice in modern Egyptian fishing. Though we have so many terms for the hook, it is doubtful whether any have come down to us denoting the line; and nil, though the most nearly connected with pisca , torial employment, hardly express our notion of a line far angling (see Gesemus, s.zrzi.) ; while u:In and 9,np (thread, twine) are never used in Scrip ture for fishing purposes. The large fish-spear, or harpoon, used for destroying the crocodile and hip.
popotamus was called ti4r1 99V (job 7 [Hebr.
Bib. xl. 311 comp. with Wilkinson, iii. 72, 73). 96V means a cymbal or any clanging instrument, and. this seems to have led to the belief of fishes being attracted and caught by musical sounds ; stories of such, including Arion and the dolphin, are collected by J. G. Schelhom in his Dissertation on the ni of Yob cligolini, Thes. xxix. 329, etc.) 'The Egyptian fishermen used the net ; it was of a long form, like the common drag-net, with wooden floats on the upper, and leads on the lower side ; though sometimes let down from a boat, those ',Nilo pulled it generally stood on the shore and landed the fish on a shelving bank' (Wilkin son ii. 21). This net is mentioned in Is. xix. 8, under the name niin=. It is, however, doubtful whether this be anything more than a frame, some. what between a basket and a net, resembling the lana'ing net represented in Wilkinson, iii. 55. The Mishna (vi. 76, 116) describes it by the word ppN, ;num, corbzIr piscatoria, a basket. Maillet (Epist. ix.) expressly says that nets for fishing are not used in Egypt.' If this be so, the usage has much altered since the times which -Wilkinson has de scribed. Frames for fishing attached to stakes driven into the bottom were prohibited in the lake of Tiberias, because they are an impediment to boats' (Talmudic Gloss, quoted by Lightfoot, flora Hebr. on Matt. iv. 18). No such prohibition existed in Eopt, where wicker traps, now as an ciently, are placed at the mouths of canals, by which means a great quantity of fish is caught (Rawlinson, Herod. ii. 232, note). The custom of drying fish is frequently represented in the sculp tures of Upper and Lower Egypt (p. 127, note) On the west side of Jerusalem was the fish-gate, which is mentioned in Neh. iii. 3, and three other passages. This probably derived its name from a fish-market there. According to Aristotle (Hist. A 711.171. Viii. 19) comp. with St. Luke v. 5, the night was the best time for fishing operations : &Ma rcovrat AcciXLcrra oi irpo Otou dvaroXijs /cal Aura rip Szirriv—' before sunrise and after sunset.'— P. H.
FL..kCH or FLACIUS, surnamed ILLYRICUS, a celebrated theologian of the t6th century, was born at Albona in Istria, A.D. 1520, and died at Frankfurt on the IVIaine, 1575. In 1539 he went to Basel, where he was greatly aided in his studies by Simon Grynaeus and others. From Basel he repaired to Tiibingen in 154o. In 1541 he went to Wittenberg, and heard there Luther and Melanc thon. In 1544 he was appointed professor of IIebrew at Wittenberg. In consequence of the war he was obliged to fly to Brunswick, but he returned and resumed his functions in /540. Having differed with Melancthon, he left Witten berg, and established himself at 'Magdeburg, where he soon found himself at the head of the rigid Lutherans. In 1557 he was appointed professor of theology at Jena. In 1562, being deprived of his place, and ordered to leave the states of the Duke of Weimar, lie retired to Ratisbon. In 1566 he was invited to Antwerp, along with others, to take the direction of the evangelical church newly formed there ; but as it was soon persecuted, he was obliged to flee to Strasburg. Thence he withdrew to Frankfurt, where he died. Flacius was a learned theologian ; but, like most of the rigidly orthodox, fiery, bitter, and intolerant in spirit. He wrote a great deal : most of it was con troversial. The only works of his that belong to our department are, Clavis Scripturee Sacra, Bale, 1567, folio ; Glossa col/Vend/aria in Nov= Testa mentum, Bale, 157o, folio ; Ecclesiastic-a Historia, integnsm ecclesiae Christi ideam strunduni sinsulas centurias perspicuo ordine complectens, Bale, 1559 '574, folio, 13 vols.—This is the celebrated work known as the Magdeburg centuries. Flacius was assisted by various others in its composition. Baronius's Annales ecclesiastic/ (1588-1607) were undertaken to refute it. See Twesten's Matthias Fltrezus Illyricus, eine Vorleszing, 1844.—S. D.
FLAG. [AcHu.]