Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

400 ROD NOT EMPLOYED—REASONSof Hosts (Isaiah xix. i8) as the oath in these papyri is byYahu." 1After the destruction of Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes,the petition by Onias to Ptolemy Philometor for permission toerect a central temple for the benefit of the many thousandsof his compatriots resident in Egypt concludes the historicalevidence that I call as to the continuance of the Egyptian-Israelitish connection. Its survival for centuries after thebirth of our Lord is a matter of common knowledge.The existence of this connection rests not merely on historicalevidence. Recent excavations in Southern Palestine tell thesame tale, or even carry it still farther back, to pre-IsraeliteCanaan. Thus, after referring to the tale of Sinuh6 (c. 1970B.C.), Professor G. Barton writes, " There was apparentlyconsiderable trade with Egypt at this time. Men fromPalestine often went there for this purpose. Such traders arepictured in an Egyptian tomb of this period. Trade withEgypt is also shown to have existed by the discovery ofEgyptian scarabs of the time of the Middle Kingdom in theexcavations at Gaza, Jericho, and Megiddo. As Egypt wasnearer, and commerce with it easier, its art affects the artsof Palestine more than the art of Babylon." 2R. A. MacaUster 3 writes : " Meanwhile the oldest foreignciviUsation of whose influence definite relics have come tolight within the land of Palestine is that of Egypt under theXllth Dynasty." The assertion that " almost every spadefulof earth which is turned over in Southern Palestine brings tolight more evidence of Egyptian influence " seems hardly anexaggeration.*But, it may be asked, what has all this got to do withfishing ? Of itself and in itself apparently nothing.^ See p. 94, Flinders Petrie, Israel and Egypt, of which in this section Ifrequently avail myself. Inscriptions of c. XXVIth Dynasty, or c. 600 b.c.disclose that there was an actual priesthood dedicated to the god YHW,which word is clearly spelt out.- ArchcBology and the Bible, p. 109 (London, 1916).' The Civilisation of Palestine, p. 33.* The Biblical World, Feb., 1910, p. 105. Inscriptions of Sinai(pubUshed in 1913 by the Egypt Exploration Fund) furnish much evidenceas regards the intercourse between Egypt and Israel. For the trade betweenSolomon and Egypt, see i Kings x. 28, etc.