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Seeing a Christian fish on the bumper of a car as seen in the picture to the left has become a common sight. The fish is now recognized for being a symbol of Christian faith. People use the sign to proclaim that they are a believer of Jesus Christ. However, that was not the case before the Christians adopted the symbol and created the meaning for it that we know today. The symbol has pagan roots and was the most unlikely symbol to be a part of the Christian faith. The symbol had several different meanings over the centuries, including reincarnation,
fertility, sexuality and connections to Greek goddess'.
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The “Christian
fish” is called an Ichthy, which is a Greek word for fish. However, the first
century Christians put their own meaning on the word. They made an acronym of
the word; connecting the saying, Iesous
Christos Theou Yious Soter which translates to Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.
Not only did the meaning of the fish have significant meaning but the symbol
alone had biblical beliefs. The actual fish symbol most likely came from the
parable of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with two fish and five loaves. There is also
evidence the idea of the symbol came from Jesus calling his disciples “fishers
of men”. Nevertheless, the symbol was incredibly clever because the fish had
roots of pagan beliefs. Therefore it was not suspicious to see the symbol because of the pagan meaning it was connected
with.
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While
Christians were being persecuted, they would use the Ichthy to mark meeting places
and tombs. Being a Christian in the early church era was extremely dangerous and they could be murdered for there beliefs if they were found out. Therefore, using the Ichthy was a secretive way for Christians to be able to have meeting places only known to believers and be able to congregate without persecutors finding them. Along with this, Christians would use the symbol to distinguish between enemies and fellow believers when traveling. One person would draw half of the fish
in the dirt and if the other person was a Christian they would finish drawing
the other half. Although the fish is not used the same way it used to be, many
Christians will put the fish as a bumper sticker or wear it as jewelry to
represent their faith in the 21st century.
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