[1041] Goldschmidt’s Der Babylonische Talmud, vol. VI. p. 1005.
[1042] “The first fisherman has already bestowed labour on the fish, and regards them as his property.”
[1043] Zuckermann, a leading Jewish authority, in Das jüdische Maassystem, p. 31, gives, it is true, the following equivalents: 1 Parasang = 4 Mil. (Lat. mille = 30 Ris) (stadia)—8000 Hebrew cubits. Reckoning the cubit at, in round figures, 18 inches, we get a parasang of 4000 yards, or about 2¼ miles. Later authorities, however, are agreed that the Persian parasang was at least 3½ miles, or more.
[1044] Nehemiah xiii. 13-16.
[1045] Talmud, Ned. 20b.
[1046] Many hold that Deuteronomy was written not earlier than the seventh century, or even as late as 550 b.c., previous to which there had taken place a large influx of foreigners, especially from N.W. Mesopotamia and Babylon, where gods were represented by scores.
[1047] Egypt and Israel, pp. 60, 61. Objection to the use of images in Israel was not apparently general till the latter half of the eighth century B.C. Their existence may, perhaps, be explained by (A) the universal existence of such worship among the Canaanites, (B) the proportion of Israelites to Canaanites being about as small as that of the Normans to the Saxons in England.
[1048] Of the fate of this and other temples erected by Solomon we read in 2 Kings xxiii. 13, “and the high places which Solomon had builded for Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom, the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile,” i.e. King Josiah some three centuries and a half after.
[1049] For data on Atargatis and Derceto, and for various Syrian coins bearing fish, see J. B. Pitra, Spicilegium Solesmense, III. pp. 503-4 (Paris, 1855).
[1050] Ency. Bibl., p. 379.