Ichthys

Background

Ichthys (ΙΧΘΥΣ) is the Greek word for "fish." Its five letters correspond to the initial letters of the words in the phrase "Iēsous Christos Theou Huios Sōtēr" (Ἰησοῦς Χριστός Θεοῦ Υἱός Σωτήρ), meaning "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior." A word formed in this way from the initial letters of other words is called an acrostic. A single short word thus contains a confession of faith in Jesus Christ.

The fish also had natural connections to the biblical narrative. Several of Jesus' disciples were fishermen, and Jesus called them to be "fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19). The miracle of the five loaves and two fish and the accounts of the risen Jesus eating fish with His disciples (Luke 24:42–43; John 21) are likewise associated with fish.

Development

• Late 2nd to 3rd century: Images of fish appear in wall paintings and on tombstones in the catacombs (underground cemeteries) of Rome. Fish were sometimes depicted together with baskets of bread, which some scholars interpret as a reference to the Eucharist.
• Late 2nd century: An inscription attributed to Abercius, bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor, contains the expression "fish from the spring," which is interpreted as referring to Christ.
• Around 200: Tertullian of Carthage wrote in On Baptism, "We little fishes, after the example of our Ichthys Jesus Christ, are born in water," thereby linking the fish to baptism.
• Same period: Clement of Alexandria listed the fish, along with the dove, the ship, the anchor, and other images, among the designs suitable for Christians to engrave on their signet rings.
• Early 5th century: Augustine, in Book 18 of The City of God, discussed an acrostic found in the Sibylline Oracles and explained that its initial letters form the word ichthys.

A widely circulated story holds that during times of persecution Christians identified one another by drawing a semicircle in the ground, but no ancient sources have been found to support it.

Results and Influence

After Christianity gained official recognition in the Roman Empire in the 4th century, the cross and the Chi-Rho (☧), formed by superimposing the first two letters of the name Christ, came into wider use, and the fish symbol gradually fell out of use. In the modern era the symbol attracted renewed attention. It is reported to have spread widely on car emblems, necklaces, and Christian merchandise, particularly through the Christian youth movements in the United States during the 1970s.

In Korean churches as well, the ichthys is commonly used, regardless of denomination, on church logos, bulletin designs, car decals, and the signs of Christian-owned shops. The word "ΙΧΘΥΣ" or "JESUS" is often written inside the fish.

Assessment

The ichthys is widely accepted across denominational lines as a symbol that concisely expresses the confession of faith of the early church. Within Protestantism, too, there is virtually no doctrinal dispute over the symbol. However, some point out that because fish imagery existed in various pre-Christian cultures, not every fish found in archaeological material can be regarded as a Christian symbol. Some critics also argue that as the symbol is consumed as decoration or merchandise, its original confessional meaning becomes obscured.