422 FORBIDDEN FISH—NETTING—VIVARIA 
from a commentator, whose very lateness of date is betokened 
by his employment of the Persian word, parasang. 
In dealing 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 dwelling mostly at a distance from the 
Holy Land, who not infrequently show themselves unfamiliar 
with or ignoring the conditions of the earlier days. 
In early times, possibly because of the small coast-line 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 Phcenicians) at Jerusalem,! 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 yAad«’ ’APhvate, 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, Tarichee—from the trade 
of salting fish. 
Four ways of preparing fish were according to custom ? 
—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 
1 Nehemiah xiii. 13-16. 
2 Talmud, Ned. 20%, 
