I would be the first to admit I am no fisherman. Actually, when asked, I usually reply “I do not want to destroy my batting average.” For, you see, many years ago, standing on the shore of the Long Island sound, I made two casts of a borrowed rod and caught two fish. How can you beat that? So I have very rarely fished since. (I must explain there was a shoal of Blues (or bluefish) in a feeding frenzy where I cast my lure.) And this is my own only fish story — although I have heard many more, some of which were probably true.
And who can help being fascinated by fish? They are strange. blank-eyed, silent, enigmatic and slippery creatures from another world — hard to grasp both literally and figuratively. Theirs is a world hidden and dark and deep, so different from our dwelling in the transparent medium of air. Fish, in all their sizes and shapes, come to us as emissaries from beyond, ambassadors of another existence.
And there is something unique about fish. In Gen 7:14, Noah invites onto the ark “every wild animal of every kind, and all domestic animals of every kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every bird of every kind— every bird, every winged creature.” And in Gen 8:17, after the flood has ceased, Noah and his family emerge from the ark with “birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
These passages and their wording, of course, mimic the account in Genesis of the creation of the world and all its creatures. That is, they mimic it with a single exception. Gen 1:20-23 notes the creation of birds and also of “the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm.”
But on Noah’s ark there is no aquarium. Alone among “all flesh,” the fish are left to fend for themselves. While fish are not always spared the effects of God’s judgment in the Bible, they are uniquely equipped to survive the judgment of the flood. Under this judgment they not only survived but thrived.
So it is that in the earliest chapters of the Bible fish become a sign of salvation, able to pass through judgment unscathed. Later, in the tale of Jonah, a fish scoops up the embattled prophet and carries him to safety. So a fish bears another along to his salvation.
Fish in the Gospels
Fish are mentioned and given symbolic meaning several times in the Gospels. Several of Jesus’ twelve Apostles were fishermen. He commissions them with the words “I will make you fishers of men”.
At the feeding of the five thousand, a boy is brought to Jesus with “five small loaves and two fish”. The question is asked, “But what are they, among so many?” Jesus multiplies the loaves and fish to feed the multitude.
In Matt 13:47-50, the Parable of Drawing in the Net, Jesus compares God’s decision on who will reign on earth, or be destroyed in the furnace of fire at the end of this dispensation, to fishers sorting out their catch, keeping the good fish and throwing the bad fish away.
In John 21:11, it is related that the disciples fished all night but caught nothing. Jesus instructed them to cast the nets on the other side of the boat, and they drew in 153 fish. (Thus generating a lasting controversy on the symbology of 153!)
Another use of fish in Christ’s life may be found in the words of Matt 17:24-27, in which, upon being asked if his Teacher does not pay the temple (two-drachma) tax, Simon Peter answers, “Yes.” Christ tells Peter to go to the water and cast a line. He says that a coin sufficient for the tax will be found in the fish’s mouth. Peter does as told and finds the coin.
ICHTHYS
So the fishy resonances resound throughout scripture. Then they splash well beyond the pages of Scripture. The early church made the fish a symbol of baptism, implicitly recognizing how fish survive the waters of judgment. Soon enough, it was noticed in the Greek word for fish an acronym — ICHTHYS (ΙXΘΥΣ) which is derived from:
- Iota (i) is the first letter of Iēsous (Iησοbq), Greek for “Jesus”.
- Chi (ch) is the first letter of Christos (XρLσrrόq), Greek for “anointed”.
- Theta (th) is the first letter of Theou (Θεο$), Greek for “God’s”, the genitive case of Θεóq, Theos, Greek for “God”.
- Ypsilon (y) is the first letter of (h)yios (Υ1όq), Greek for “Son” (the initial “h” was pronounced in classical Greek but has long been silent).
- Sigma (s) is the first letter of sōter (Σωrrήρ), Greek for “Savior”.
Thus this becomes, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior,” which made Jesus himself represented by a fish. So in a figure, the fish becomes Jesus, the first-born of all creation, the Jonah-fish bearing all who hear and obey him to salvation. So it is that he whose body we partake of at our memorial service, in symbol he swallows us up, carrying us through chaotic seas to a distant realm we cannot attain on our own.
The Use of the Fish Symbol1
The ICHTHYS is seen in 1st-century catacombs in Rome, and according to tradition, ancient Christians, during their persecution by the Roman Empire in the first few centuries after Christ, used the fish symbol to mark meeting places and tombs, or to distinguish friends from foes. When a Christian met a stranger in the road, the Christian sometimes drew one arc of the simple fish outline in the dirt. If the stranger drew the other arc, both believers knew they were in good company. (It is not certain the use of the fish symbol is totally based on the acronym.) Its use died out after the so-called Catholic Church began to dominate the landscape under Emperor Constantine.
However, it would be no bad thing if, like the faithful of former days, we all carried constantly around in our minds this image of the fish, this word which spells it, and these saving truths which it symbolizes. They are the essential source of that peace which the world cannot give but which Jesus promised to “his own”. The inmost heart of the Christian Gospel is represented both in the personal name of Jesus and in the title sōter, Savior. This word appears in Luke’s record of the angelic announcement to the shepherds: “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Savior from what? “Thou shalt call his name Jesus”, said the angel to Joseph, “for he shall save his people from their sins” (Luke 2:11; Matt. 1:21).
In the second title of the ICHTHYS symbolism, the word christos is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew mashiah, meaning “anointed”. Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed of God, foretold in the Old Testament as the one who should come in the fullness of God’s time to deliver and rule the people of God. To John in Patmos it was given to see in vision the fulfillment of this prophecy: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15). The preaching of Jesus as Christ, as Messiah, the Lord’s anointed, and of his coming again as king to reign over a renewed and purified earth — this also is central to the message of the Christian Gospel: “These (things) are written”, says John concerning the testimony of his Gospel, “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (20:31).
This last quotation also gives to Jesus the third title associated with the word ICHTHYS: Son of God. This is the most striking of the titles which Jesus claimed for himself and which were given him by the early church. In it are involved two profound Christian truths. The first is the ultimate truth of all, that God, out of His love for men, gave His own true Son to be the means of their deliverance from sin: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1John 4:10). The second truth involved in the title is the supreme status and absolute authority of the one who could justly claim it and be referred to by it.
The use of the fish symbol was revived, as far as I can tell, in the 1960’s, primarily in Evangelical circles. Thus you often see it on bumper stickers, and sometimes as a pendant — but rarely with the Greek letters included. Thus most people recognize it as a symbol of Christianity, but know nothing of its origin, or its use in the 1st Century Church. It is a pity that its association with a set of beliefs we cannot share inhibits its use among our body!
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One