Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

402 ROD NOT EMPLOYED—REASONSTo account for this absence of direct mention of the Rodin the Bible various reasons have been adduced.The first : in the only two passages, Isaiah xix. 8, andHabakkuk i. 15, where the word " angle " occurs, and inMatthew xvii. 27, " cast a hook," and in Amos iv. 2, as contendedby Mr. Breslar, its use is certainly implied. The vaHdityof this claim remains a question (A) for Hebrew scholars, and(B) for practical fishermen.From the point of view of the latter, the "casting,"" taking," etc., in the above passages can be and probably wereaccompHshed by a hand-Hne (with or without a weight attachedto insure greater length of throw) almost as easily and aseffectually as if a Rod were employed. As a matter of fact,for taking good-sized fish some of our professional sea-fishermenprefer the hand-line to that of the Rod.The words in Matthew xvii. 27, " go thou to the sea andcast a hook " do not either in the Greek or EngHsh stronglysuggest, much less necessarily imply, a Rod. To a professionalfisherman of the Sea of Tiberias Hke Peter, the more natural,probably the only known method of casting would be by ahand-line.Turning now to the Hebrew passages, Isaiah xix. 8, " Thefishers shall also lament, and all they that cast angle in theNile {A.V., brooks) shall mourn;" Habakkuk i. 15, "Hetaketh up all of them with the angle, he catcheth them in hisnet, and gathereth them in his drag;" Job xU. i, "Canstthou draw out leviathan with a fish-hook ? " in all these wefind the same Hebrew word hakkdh.The R.V. in the first two renders it " angle," and in Job" fish-hook ;" in the Greek version ajKiarpov, which in theSeptuagint is the usual and in the New Testament (Matt. xvii.27) the only word for hook, occurs in all three passages.Whence or from which word can the Rod be implied, oreven in fairness claimed ? In Isaiah, it is answered, from theJehovah from the Book of Esther." This is hardly helpful: let us grantthat the omission of a name from a short book like Esther was an accident.How can this be " like " the omission of all mention of or allusion to the Rodin the vast literature of the Old and New Testaments and of the Talmud,especially when we find in all three numerous passages deaUng with fishingand the tackle employed for fishing ?