How can the united testimony of these names be explained except by acknowledging a Divine origin? even that of Him who afterwards foretold of the bruising of the Virgin's Son in the written Word; yea, of Him “who telleth the number of the stars and giveth them all their names.”
3. DELPHINUS (The Dolphin).
The Dead One Rising again.
This is a bright cluster of 18 stars, five of which are of the 3rd magnitude. It is easily distinguished by the four brightest, which are in the head.
It is always figured as a fish full of life, and always with the head upwards, just as the eagle is always with the head downwards. The great peculiar characteristic of the dolphin is its rising up, leaping, and springing out of the sea.
When we compare this with the dying goat and falling eagle, what conclusion can we come to but that we have here the filling in of the picture, and the completion of the whole truth set forth in Capricornus?
Jesus “died and rose again.” Apart from His resurrection His death is without result. In His conflict with the enemy it is only His coming again in glory which is shown forth. But here, in connection with His people, with the multitudes of His redeemed, Resurrection is the great and important truth. He is “the first-fruits of them that slept”; then He, too, is here represented as a fish. He who went down into the waters of death for His people; He who could say “All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me” (Ps. xlii. 7), He it is who rises up again from the dead, having died on account of the sins of His redeemed, and risen again on account of their justification (Rom. iv. 25).
This is the picture here. In the Persian planisphere there seems to be a fish and a stream of water. The Egyptian has a vessel pouring out water.
The ancient names connected with this constellation are Dalaph (Hebrew), pouring out of water; [pg 083] Dalaph (Arabic), coming quickly; Scalooin (Arabic), swift (as the flow of water); Rotaneb or Rotaneu (Syriac and Chaldee), swiftly running.