origin of the christian fish symbol

8/20/2019 Origin of the Christian Fish Symbol

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Origin of the"Christian" FishSymbol

Most symbols that people use have a storybehind them and are used to make astatement. Some of the most famous arethe so-called Christian symbols such as thecross and the fish. Whilst they provide auseful mean of identification, all of theseare carnal and nowadays usedpromiscuously by everybody, thus it is best

for us to avoid using them. Moreover theyall have a precedent story of paganism, athing we Christian must avoid, even if somesays the pagan origins have now been lostin history. The wearing or keeping suchsymbols has the tendency to bringveneration to them and thus returning topaganism. Besides, what saith the Word ofGod: God is a spirit, and the ones

Origin of the "Christian" Fish Symbol

ttp://www.albatrus.org/english/religions/pagan/origin_fish_symbol.htm (1 de 8)12/10/2014 13:48:28

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worshiping Him must worship in spirit andtruth. (John 4:24)

Here are some tidbits concerning thisancient symbol:

When threatened by Romans in the

first centuries after Christ, Christiansused the fish mark meeting placesand tombs, or to distinguish friendsfrom foes. According to one ancientstory, when a Christian met astranger in the road, the Christiansometimes drew one arc of thesimple fish outline in the dirt. If thestranger drew the other arc, bothbelievers knew they were in goodcompany.

Greeks, Romans, and many otherpagans used the fish symbol beforeChristians. Hence the fish, unlike,say, the cross, attracted littlesuspicion, making it a perfect secretsymbol for persecuted believers. Sothe early Christians made practicaluse of this symbol for practical

convenience. It is somewhat similarto the use in our days of bumper-sticker and business-card practice tobe recognised by strangers, althoughwe are not yet under persecution.

As early as the first century,Christians made an acrostic from thisword: Iesous Christos Theou YiosSoter, (ICTYS) i.e. Jesus Christ, Son

of God, Saviour, using the Greekword for fish "ichthys." The Greekword Ichthus (Iota Chi Theta UpsilonSigma), pronounced ich-thoos, upper

case: and lower case: ,is the word used throughout the NewTestament for the English word fish.

The fish has plenty of other


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theological overtones as well, forChrist fed the 5,000 with 2 fishes and5 loaves (a meal recapitulated inChristian love-feasts) and called hisdisciples "fishers of men." So thatwas an easy association: "fishers ofmen" and the acronym for the wordfish in Greek, and thus the symbol

resembling a fish.

It is reputed, however, that his particularfish symbol has ancient pagan roots.

In pagan beliefs, Ichthys was theoffspring of the ancient Sea goddessAtargatis, and was known in variousmythic systems as Tirgata, Aphrodite,Pelagia, or Delphine. The word also

meant "womb" and "dolphin" in sometongues, and representations of thisappeared in the depiction ofmermaids. The fish is also a centralelement in other stories, including theGoddess of Ephesus, as well as thetale of the fish of the Nile thatswallowed part of Osiris' body (thepenis), and was also considered asymbol of the sexuality of Isis for she

had sexual intercourse with Osirisafter his death which resulted in theconception and birth of hisposthumous son, Harpocrates, Horus-the-child. So, in pagan beliefs, thefish is a symbol of birth and fertility.

In certain non-Christian beliefs thefish also has been identified withreincarnation and the life force. Sir

James George Frazer noted in hiswork, "Adonis, Attis, Osiris: Studiesin the History of OrientalReligion" (Part Four of his largerwork, "The Golden Bough") thatamong one group in India, the fishwas believed to house a deceasedsoul, and that as part of a fertilityritual specific fish is eaten in thebelief that it will be reincarnated in a


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newborn child.

Before Christianity adopted the fishsymbol, it was known by pagans as"the Great Mother", and "womb". Itslink to fertility, birth, and the naturalforce of women was acknowledgedalso by the Celts, as well as pagancultures throughout northern Europe.

The Romans called the goddess ofsexual fertility by the name of Venus.And thus it is from the name of thegoddess Venus that our modernwords "venereal" and "venerealdisease" have come. Friday wasregarded as her sacred day, becauseit was believed that the planet Venusruled the first hour of Friday and thusit was called dies Veneris. And tomake the significance complete, thefish was also regarded as being

sacred to her. The accompanyingillustration, as seen in "Ancient Paganand Modern Christian Symbolism",shows the goddess Venus with hersymbol, the fish. The similaritiesbetween the two, would indicate thatVenus and Freya were originally oneand the same goddess and thatoriginal being the mother-goddess of



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Babylon.

The same association of the mothergoddess with the fish-fertility symbolis evidenced among the symbols ofthe goddess in other forms also. The

fish was regardedas sacred to

Ashtoreth, thename under whichthe Israelitesworshipped thepagan goddess.And in ancientEgypt, Isis isrepresented with afish on her head,as seen in the

accompanyingillustration.

A

Philistine deity. It is commonlyadmitted that the name Dagon is a

diminutive form, hence a term ofendearment, derived from theSemitic root dag, and means,accordingly, "little fish". The name,therefore, indicates a fish-shapedgod. This the Bible also suggestswhen speaking of the Dagonworshipped in the temple of Azotus(1Sa 5:4) and his trunk. Coins of

various Philistine or Phænician cities,



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on most of which Dagon isrepresented as a composite figure,human as to the upper part of thebody, fish-like as to the lower. Fromthis it may well be inferred thatDagon was a fish-god. e had face andhands and a portion of his bodyresembled that of a fish, in

accordance with the most probableinterpretation of "the stump ofDagon" (verse 4). Dagon issometimes associated with a femalehalf-fish deity, Derceto or Atargatis,often identified with Astarte.

One case in point is the church mitreworn by prelates. Where did thisoriginate? Dr. Thomas Inmandiscussed this phenomenon in his twovolume opus, "Ancient FaithsEmbodied in Ancient Names," (1869).He included a representation of asculpture from Mesopotamia,observing "It is the impression of anancient gem, and represents a manclothed with a fish, the head beingthe mitre; priests thus clothed, oftenbearing in their hand the mysticbag..." "In almost every instance,"added Inman, "it will be recognizedthat the fish's head is represented as



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of the same form as the modernbishop's mitre." The fish also appearsin another sacred iconograph, theAvatars of Vishnu, where the deity "isrepresented as emerging from themouth of a fish, and being a fishhimself; the legend being that he wasto be the Saviour of the world in a

deluge which was to follow..."

Typical modern Jewellery:

What are we to do with all these "Christian"symbols that have pagan (satanic) roots?

Absolutely nothing. And what agreementdoes Christ have with Belial? Or what partdoes a believer have with an unbeliever?(2 Corinthians 6:15)

A godly man once said about peoplewearing a cross hanging from the neck: "weought to hang on the cross ourselves ratherthan the cross hanging from our necks".

Another one said: "when in doubt, leave itout".

Whether or not these pagan symbols havelost their original pagan meanings in ourmodern era (a doubtful situation) it is bestnot to be involved with them, we do notneed them. Moreover, another secure testis to see what the world does with them: ifthe world loves them, then they are notgodly for the world hates anything fromGod, and our stern warning is this: Do notlove the world nor the things in the world. Ifanyone loves the world, the love of the



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Father is not in him, (1 John 2:15)

Therefore a Christian that worships God inSpirit and in Truth has no need to make aphysical point for his belief and should notwear any jewellery AT ALL, or make use ofsymbols, whether he knows if they arePagan or not. Besides the secondcommandment forbids the flaunting of suchthings.

The faith of a Christian will be known by ALLif he puts into practice the word of hisMaster, Jesus Christ: 34 I give a newcommandment to you, that you should loveone another; according as I loved you, youshould also love one another. 35 By this all shall know that you are My disciples, if youhave love among one another. (John 13:34-

35)

origin of the christian fish symbol

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