Christian symbols

The Fish (Ichthys) in Christianity

The early secret sign

The fish, called the ichthys after the Greek word for fish, is one of the oldest signs of the Christian faith. In the days when following Jesus could cost a person their life, believers used the simple outline of a fish to mark meeting places and graves and to recognize one another. The Greek letters of the word for fish were read as an acrostic, a short confession that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Savior. In the fish the early church hid, and carried, the whole of its faith.

And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.Matthew 4:19 (KJV)

The word within the word

The Greek word for fish is ichthys, spelled with five letters. The early Christians noticed that these five letters could begin five Greek words: Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter, which means Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. So the plain word for fish became a tiny creed, a sentence of faith folded into a single word.

This kind of wordplay was natural in the ancient world, and it let believers profess the heart of their faith in a form that outsiders would pass over without a second glance. To draw a fish was to say, without saying it aloud, that Jesus is Lord.

A sign for dangerous times

In the first three centuries the church often lived under threat, and open Christian symbols could be dangerous. The fish, a common and innocent image, made a safe secret sign. It has been found scratched on the walls of the catacombs, the underground burial places of Rome, and carved on early tombs, marking the resting places of believers in the hope of resurrection.

There is a well-loved tradition that when two strangers met, one might draw a single curved line in the dust, and if the other completed it into the shape of a fish, each knew the other was a Christian and it was safe to speak. This story is difficult to prove from the ancient sources and may be later than the persecutions themselves, so it is best told honestly as a cherished tradition rather than as documented fact. What is certain from the archaeology is that the fish was among the earliest and most widespread Christian signs.

The fish in the Gospels

The sign drew strength from the Gospels themselves, which are full of fish and fishermen. Jesus called his first disciples from their nets, saying, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. He fed thousands with a few loaves and fish. After the resurrection he ate fish with his disciples and gave them a miraculous catch. He compared the kingdom of heaven to a net let down into the sea.

So the fish carried more than a clever acrostic. It recalled the calling of the first believers, the provision of Christ, and the mission to gather people into the kingdom as a net gathers fish. To wear the fish was to take up that calling.

What the fish reveals about the early church

The fish tells us something precious about the first Christians beyond its clever acrostic. It shows a church that spread not by armies or wealth but by ordinary people quietly confessing a name. A fisherman's mark scratched on a wall, a ring engraved with a fish, a fish on a family tomb: these are the traces of a movement that grew from house to house, from friend to friend, in the ordinary rounds of daily life.

It also shows a church unashamed of its humble beginnings. Jesus did not choose the powerful for his first followers but fishermen from the shores of Galilee, men who worked with nets and knew the smell of the lake. When he called them fishers of men, he took the trade of simple laborers and made it the picture of the greatest work in the world, the gathering of people into the kingdom of God.

The acrostic that names Jesus as Savior touches the very meaning of his name. The name Jesus itself means the Lord saves, given by the angel who said he would save his people from their sins. So the fish is not only a hidden creed but a hidden gospel, carrying in five small letters the news that God has come to rescue.

There is a lesson in the fish for every age, and not only for times of persecution. The gospel has always traveled best along the lines of ordinary friendship and trust, one person telling another what they have found. The fish reminds the church that it does not need grand means to bear witness. A quiet sign, an honest word, a life that points to Christ: these are how the net is still let down into the sea.

The fish in worship and today

The waters of the sea and the image of the fish flowed naturally into the life of the early church, and above all into baptism. An early Christian teacher could write that believers are like little fish, born in the water and kept alive in the water, a play on the fact that Christ, the great Ichthys, brings his people to new life through the waters of baptism. To be a Christian was, in this gentle image, to be a fish alive in the water of Christ.

The fish also gathered up the many scenes of the Gospels where Jesus and fish appear together. There was the great catch that first amazed Peter, the loaves and fishes that fed the multitude, and the breakfast of fish the risen Lord cooked on the shore for his weary disciples. Each of these bound the simple sign to the memory of Christ's provision and grace.

After long centuries when it was less used, the fish has returned in modern times to wide and open use. It appears on cars and doorposts, on jewelry and printed pages, once more a quiet public confession of faith. What was a secret sign in the catacombs is now an unashamed one on the open road, and it still says exactly what it always said.

Its endurance is part of its message. The simplest sign has outlasted empires and survived every attempt to stamp out the faith it names. A shape a child could draw has carried the highest confession across two thousand years. The fish reminds the church that the gospel needs no grandeur to travel, only faithful hearts willing to make its sign.

And that is perhaps the deepest thing the fish still teaches. The greatest news the world has ever heard was first carried not on banners or in palaces but in a fisherman's mark scratched in the dust, passed from one ordinary believer to another. The Lord who called fishermen from their nets is still gathering people through the plainest of means, and the humble sign of the fish remains a standing invitation to be caught by his love and to help let down the net once more.

How the fish points to Christ

The ichthys is beloved because it is so humble. It is a fisherman's mark, an ordinary shape, and yet it holds the highest confession: that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. It reminds the church that the gospel spread quietly, from person to person, in homes and along roads, carried by ordinary people who had been caught by the love of Christ.

The fish has returned to wide use in modern times, seen on cars and doorways, still saying what it said in the catacombs. It points to Christ not by grandeur but by the plain, unashamed confession of his name, the same confession that has always been the way into his kingdom.

A note across traditions: these symbols are shared by Christians everywhere as ways to point to Christ, never as objects of worship, for worship belongs to God alone. Where a symbol grew out of a later tradition or legend rather than the Bible, this page says so plainly. In every tradition there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, and every sign the church uses is meant to lead the heart to him.

Related: The cross · The anchor · Who is Jesus? · All Christian symbols