Ichthus…you know, the simple fish symbol that you see on bumper stickers, necklaces, and t-shirts. It’s a symbol that people use to identify themselves as Christians. Christians in the early persecuted church began using this symbol to identify other believers. If two people met and were unsure about each other, one would draw an arc on the ground. If the other person drew the other arc to complete the fish then they would know that the other person was a believer.
This fish symbol is called the ichthus. This is a Greek word that means fish. This word is also an acrostic. (The Ch and Th each represent one letter in Greek.)
I: Iesous—Jesus
Ch: Christos—Christ
Th: Theou—God
U: Uiou—Son
S: Soter—Savior
You’ll find slightly different variations, but it’s basically Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.
Matthew 4:19 NASB And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
I used to teach art in a Christian school, and this was one of my favorite lessons! When we were doing a lettering or calligraphy unit, I would bring this up as Christian history/trivia that I thought they should be aware of. People frequently use the symbol, but they don’t understand what it means or why. I would draw the symbol on the board and ask what it was and what it had to do with Christianity. I loved to hear their guesses! They would pretty much all figure out that it was a fish, then proceed to list all the references to fish in both the old and the new testaments. I always ended by telling them the above information, confessing that “icthus” is the only Greek word I know! (Pretty much, at least!) But, now, on this blog, my knowledge will grow! Thanks, Gwen!
That sounds like a fun lesson. Thanks for sharing!