Fish as divine beings, divine fishermen, and dolphins in the sanctuary? Beginning with Jonah’s great fish, this episode follows fish and water imagery through the mighty warrior water of the Flood, the cultic ancient Near Eastern world, the Tabernacle, and the prophets. We peer into waters as places of life and judgment and see the fish as a creature adapted to a realm humans cannot inhabit, with Mesopotamian apkallu and fish imagery, Egyptian associations with fertility and protection, and the difficult tahash coverings of the Tabernacle all hitching a ride in the wake.
In the prophets, humans become the fish: vulnerable to capture, conquest, exile, and divine judgment. Habakkuk and Jeremiah use fishing imagery to demonstrate who actually controls history, and that prophetic background gives us important context when we come to the bank with Jesus who tells fishermen that they will become “fishers of men.”
Fish have far more than one biblical meaning. Biblical symbolism works through context. What kind of water are we in? Who belongs there? Who controls it? And who can safely cross its boundaries?
On This Rock Biblical Theology Community: https://on-this-rock.com/
Website: [genesismarksthespot.com](http://genesismarksthespot.com/)
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GenesisMarkstheSpot
Music credit: "Marble Machine" by Wintergatan
Link to Wintergatan’s website: https://wintergatan.net/
Link to the original Marble Machine video by Wintergatan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&ab_channel=Wintergatan
00:00:00 Fish in the Biblical Imagination
00:02:30 Jonah’s Fish as an Animate Ark
00:08:17 Water, Chaos, and the Flood
00:15:09 When the Waters “Prevail”
00:24:08 Fish and the Supernatural World
00:29:36 Fish Offerings and Ancient Mesopotamia
00:32:00 Egypt: Fish, Life, and Protection
00:35:34 Dolphins in Sacred Space
00:41:32 When Humans Become Fish
00:45:23 Jeremiah, Divine Fishers, and Judgment
01:03:48 From Prophetic Fishing to “Fishers of Men”
01:04:39 What Kind of Water Is the Fish Swimming In?
