422 FORBIDDEN FISH— NETTING— F/F^i?/^ 



from a commentator, whose very lateness of date is betokened 

 by his employment of the Persian word, parasang. 



In deahng with the Talmud, we must always bear in mind 

 that a large part was written as late as between (say) 250 and 

 550 A.D., and by men dwelUng mostly at a distance from the 

 Holy Land, who not infrequently show themselves unfamiliar 

 with or ignoring the conditions of the earher days. 



In early times, possibly because of the small coast-hne and 

 poor harbours which Palestine possessed on the Mediterranean, 

 little or no reference to fishing on the coast crops up. Later, a 

 considerable trade in fish, salted or pickled, was carried on by 

 the Syrians (some writers even claim a monopoly in such fish 

 for the Phoenicians) at Jerusalem, 1 where undoubtedly in the 

 northern part of the city a market gave its name to the neigh- 

 bouring Fish-Gate. 



Perhaps to avoid a similar monopoly, definite and strictly 

 enforced prices were periodically fixed by the authorities of the 

 town of Tiberias. By the time of Our Lord thriving fisheries 

 had grown up on the coast, especially in the neighbourhood 

 of Acre, so thriving indeed that the equivalent (in later Hebrew) 

 for " carrying coals to Newcastle " or y\avK 'ABrivat^e, became 

 " taking fish to Acco." On the Sea of Galilee in especial did 

 the industry prosper ; one town seems to have been built up 

 by — it certainly derived its name, Taricheae — from the trade 

 of salting fish. 



Four ways of preparing fish were according to custom 2 

 — pickled, roasted, baked, or boiled ; with the latter, eggs were 

 permissible. 



The absence of vivaria till a very late period presents 

 another instance of the lack in the ancient of the alertness so 

 typical of the modern Jew. It is hard to deduce why Israel 

 neglected to borrow from Egypt an institution yielding so 

 valuable and lucrative a supply of food. If the spirit of sport, 

 which was one of the attractions of these ponds to the Egyptian 

 gentry, did not appeal in Palestine, the advantages of a ready 

 store, during the hot weather, of fresh fish would surely have 



' Nehemiah xiii. 13-16. 

 2 Talmud, Ned. 20''. 



