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Author
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Topic: the origin of the fish symbol, or ichthus, for Christians
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yahsway
Advanced Member
Member # 3738
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posted
There was an upheaval against iconolatry (image worship) in the 8th and 9th centuries, and again by the Puritans in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The fish symbol is used because Christians are told that it is because we are called to be "fishers of men". Another explanation is also offered: It represents our Messiah, because of Augustines attempt to justify the adoption of another elemet of pagan worship in the Churchs syncretism, "Christianizing" pagan practices, emblems and even pagan deities.
Rev. Hislop states that our Messiah "Began to be popularly called ICHTHYS (or ICHTHUS), that is 'the FISH', manifestly to identify Him with DAGON". Dagon was the Fish-diety.
Augustine, the celebrated Church father, rather childishly, gave his reason for doing this, "If you combine the inital letters of the 5 Greek words, which are Iesous Chreistos Theo Uios Soter, Jesus Christ the Son of God the Savior, they make the word ichthus, meaning fish, and the mystic meaning of this noun is Christ, because He had power to exist alive, that is without sin, in the bottomless pit of our mortal life, as in the depths of the sea."
But Tertullian was even more frank in his blasphemous identification of our Messiah with a fish, by calling Him, "our Fish."
Terullian wrote, "But we, little fishes, are born in water according to our Fish (Ichthus), Jesus Christ."
Why were these Church Fathers so keen to identify our Savior with a fish? In the book "the Two Babylons, pp. 252 and 270, we read,
"that Icthus, or the Fish, was one of the names of Bacchus." Bacchus was just another name for Tammuz, the Sun-diety.
The adoration or veneration of the fish emblem is clearly and emphatically forbidden in Duet 4: 15-19.
Furthermore, the fish, as a pair of fishes, is part of the Chaldean Zodiac, as one of the signs of astral worship with the Sun at the center of the zodiac. It is a sign of sun-worship.
Also, Hippolyt of Rome, tells us that the Brahmans (sect of Indians, from whom some pagan idolatrous worship originated) regarded the sun to be as a fish.
Furthur, the son of the Syrian goddess Atargatis was known as ICHTHUS too. Another fish diety was the Babylonian EA, who became known amongst the Greeks as OMANNES, similar to the Fish-diety of the Philistines, DAGON, half man and half fish.
Clement and Origen, some Church Fathers from Rome, were among the Gnostic sect of Christianity.
The intermingling between Christianity and Gnosticism is typified by the Christian leader Clement's repeated praise of "The true Gnostic," meaning therby the perfect Christian!
Speaking of the Gnostics, Legge states, "Most of them, moreover, sooner or later abandoned their Gnosticism, and became practicing members of the Catholic Church, who sometimes went a long way to meet them."
They offered in fact an easy road by which the wealthy, the learned, and the high-placed could pass from paganism to Christianity without suffering the inconvenience imposed upon the first followers of the Apostles. The Gnostics brought with them into their new faith, the use of pictures and statues ect and all of the paraphernalia of the worship of heathen gods."
And in his footnote, Legge states "Clement of Alexamdria seems to have been initiated into most of the heathen mysteries then current....Origen too, both profess to know all about the Ophites (a Gnostic sect) secretopinions"
Eusebius, who later wrote, was so upset about these Gnostics being absorbed into Christianity, that he raised his voice in the following words, "savage beasts crept secretly into the Church."
Some well known Church Fathers who came from Gnosticizm were:
Epiphanius who had been a Nicolatian, Ambrose of Milan who had been a Valentinian, and Augustine who had been a Manichean for 9 years before joining the Catholic Church.
In the 5th century, the Messiah was not only called the Fish but also the True SUN and the True Apollo, the age-old sun diety of the Greeks. For many years it remained quite obvious that frank Sun-worship was being adapte to Christianity. The remarks and concerns by Tertullian, Pope Leo the Great, Eusebius, and also by Cyrill of Jerusalem, testify to this. Cyrill contended against this in 348 C.E. saying
"Let the heresy be silenced which blasphemes the Messiah, the Son of the Mighty One. Let those be silenced who say that the SUN is the Messiah, because He is the CREATOR of the Sun, and NOT the visable Sun itself."
Augustine , who himself previously had been a scholar of the Manichean Gnostic Sect (Known for worshipping the Sun all day long as it passed in the sky) also compromised, but cautioned against the frank worship of the Sun of the Manicheans and warned,
"Eventually we shall yet be taken to be Persians" the latter being known for their Sun-worship and being the place of origin of the Manichean-cult.
Posts: 1238 | From: Tennessee | Registered: Aug 2004
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Found in Him
Advanced Member
Member # 7596
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מרנא תא; maranâ' thâ' !
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~To Him That is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy...to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.~ Jude 24
Posts: 1503 | Registered: Jan 2009
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Eden
unregistered
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The Greek word for "fish" was "i-ch-th-u-s", and this Greek word was chosen as a Christian symbol because its letters spelled the initial letters of the Greek phrase, "Iesous Christos theou uios soter", meaning, "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior".
love, Eden
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