As the Israelites are innumerable, even so are the fishes ; as the Israelites will never die out on the earth, the fishes will never die out in their element. Only the son of a man named "Fish" could lead Israel into the Land of Promise, namely Joshuah ben Nun (=Fish), a descendant of Joseph
Robert Eisler wrote:
This coincidence is intentionally emphasised by the version of the Targum Onkelos, where the blessing is rendered : " May they be multiplied even as the fishes of the sea." On this version alone rests the Rabbinic theory that the Israelites as descendants of Joseph are protected for ever against the ' evil eye,' because Jacob has called them ' fishes of the sea ' ; for as the fishes are covered by the water (= the Law) and therefore proof against the evil eye, even so are the Israelites protected against every such influence.
Cp. J. Citron. 7zo-27. The descent from Joseph is mentioned here, because the Messiah, the re-born Joshuah, or in the Greek version Jesus, will again be a ' ben-Joseph ' ; in order to lead Israel into the Messianic Blessed Land, he will also have to be a ' ben-Nun,' a ' Son of Fish ' or quite as bar-nasha, ' son of man,' is in many places equivalent to the simple word ' man,' as ben-bahar is ' an ox,' ben-zo'n ' a sheep ' a 'Fish ' himself. This is beyond doubt the ultimate reason why Jesus the Nazarene is called the ' Fish ' in the early Christian mystery-language. Indeed the very Greek form lesous for Joshuah' is only chosen in order to imitate by the mystic psephos 888, obtained through ' this spelling (cp. above, p. 120 note), the equally peculiar Hebrew gematria. of Jehoshuah ben-Nun 555, and thus to make the name of the future Messiah really "a name which is above all names" (Phil. 2p). Cp. Arch. Bel. Wiss. xvi. 303.
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