Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

:4o6ROD NOT EMPLOYED—REASONSof, or the " cultural associations " in, a German work often defyprediction from its mere headings. Mainzer, in his Fischfang,serves to recall Person's lines, which are themselves but anadaptation of a Greek epigram, i" The Germans in GreekAre sadly to seek.Not five in five scoreBut ninety-five more.All save only Hermann,"And Hermann's a German !Lest my own conclusion—that neither in the Old or NewTestament is the imphed use of the Rod estabUshed—carrylittle weight, I subjoin the conclusions (stated in letters to me)arrived at by two well-known Hebrew scholars.The first comes from Professor A. R. S. Kennedy (thewriter of the article on Fishing in the EncyclopcBdia Bihlica) :" In short you are entirely justified, so far as evidence goes,in saying that the Jews did not use the Rod."The second comes from Dr. St. Clair Tisdall ": We find inthe Bible no proof of fishing with Rod and Une :on the contrarythe fact that no mention whatever, direct or indirect, of thefishing Rod occurs either in the Bible or (as far as my readinggoes) in the Talmud, makes it almost certain that the Rodwas not used by the Jews, At any rate the use of any suchinstrument is not implied in either Book."A second reason for the absence of the Rod may be thatof dates. The Jews, it might be urged, were not and couldnot be aware of Egyptian Angling, because it sprang upsubsequent to their Exodus from the country. The reply Ioffer involves, it is true, that bewildering factor, Egyptianchronology. But even if a thousand years are as nothing inthe sight of Manetho and many others, surely one epochcorrelates with another, and the shifting of one date automaticallyinvolves the shifting of others.1 In a letter to A. Dalziel, Sept. 3, 1803, Person states that these lineswere an effort made to English an epigram by an Etonian friend, in imitationof Phocylides's saw (Strabo, X. p. 487)Kal rSSi co/ci/A.i5oi/. Aepioi kukol, oux S /xiv, hs 5' ov,iravres, ir\r]v VlpoKKfuvs' Kal TlpoKKfr]? Aepios.