Question #69761. Asked by Allergic2Life.
Last updated Jun 24 2021.
"JEW-FISH. The jew-fish is a very good fish, and I judge so called by the English because it has scales and fins, therefore a clean fish, according to the Levitical law, and the Jews at Jamaica buy them and eat them very freely. It is a very large fish, shaped much like a cod but a great deal bigger; one will weigh three, or four, or five hundredweight. It has a large head, with great fins and scales, as big as an half-crown, answerable to the bigness of his body. It is very sweet meat, and commonly fat. This fish lives among the rocks; there are plenty of them in the West Indies, about Jamaica and the coast of Caracas; but chiefly in these seas, especially more westward."https://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/how-did-the-jewfish-get-its-name.63185/#post-671928