410 ROD NOT EMPLOYED— REASONS 



Sea-fishing was out of the question, for with the doubtful 

 exception of a small bit of the GaHlsean coast — probably not 

 held continuously — no part of the Mediterranean sea-shore 

 belonged to Israel during the Monarchy, while the climate 

 and intense heat of the Valley of the Jordan, the only real 

 river, kept its inhabitants apart from the dwellers on the 

 mountains. 



But contra : even if the majority were Simple Simons, 

 the numerous references (about 74) in the Bible to fishes, 

 fishing, and fishing implements indicate a wide, if perhaps 

 impersonal, knowledge of the practice. The fact that the larger 

 number of these were used as metaphors or similes evidences 

 a more than local knowledge of fishing, because for a metaphor 

 or simile to be telling it usually must, as do the Homeric, 

 appeal to a well-known, common, and long-established custom 

 or craft. 



B. Although fishing apparently prevailed always in the 

 Sea of Galilee, it must be remembered that practically the 

 whole literature of the Old Testament emanates from central and 

 southern Palestine, and (as is the case with Egyptian hterature 

 as regards Deltaic conditions) contains but scant allusion to 

 life among the Northern Tribes. Hence possibly the silence 

 about the Rod, which may nevertheless have been employed. 



C. The Old Testament stories, although some belong to the 

 same period as the Homeric, are told in a manner very different 

 from the latter. Every picture is sketched with the fewest 

 strokes, and accordingly details are, have to be, taken for 

 granted. Thus, although the majority of the people subsisted 

 largely on milk, there is not one reference to milking. 



But contra : this omission seems to me hardly on all fours 

 with that of the Rod. The word milk, when not expressly 

 limited, e.g. " of thy bosom," or used metaphorically, signifies 

 solely the lacteal Hquid extruded from the teats of an animal, 

 and so impHes milking or a previous act of extrusion, whereas 

 the word fishing connotes no single method of taking fish, 

 as the Old Testament in its mention of the implements, Spear, 

 Hook and Line, and Nets, demonstrates. Then again Job xxi. 

 24 (R.V. margin), " his milk-pails are full of milk," and Judges 



