The image of fish is often found in meeting places of early Christians, in the catacombs and cemeteries of ancient Rome and Greece, as well as in medieval Christian architecture. There are several complementary theories as to why the fish became the symbol of Christianity.
Instructions
Step 1
Proponents of the first theory argue that the fish was chosen as a symbol of the new faith and an identification mark among early Christians, since the Greek spelling of this word is an acronym for the main dogma of the Christian faith. “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior” - this was and remains to this day the confession of Christianity, and the first letters of these words in Greek (Ἰησοὺς Χριστὸς Θεoὺ ῾Υιὸς Σωτήρ) form the word Ίχθύς, ichthis, “fish”. According to this theory, the early Christians, depicting the sign of the fish, professed their faith and at the same time recognized their fellow believers. In Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel "Quo vadis" there is a scene in which the Greek Chilo tells the patrician Petronius exactly this version of the origin of the fish sign as a symbol of Christians.
Step 2
According to another theory, the early Christians used the fish sign to symbolize the followers of the new faith. This statement is based on frequent references to fish in the sermons of Jesus Christ, as well as in His personal conversations with his disciples, later apostles. He metaphorically calls people in need of salvation fish, and the future apostles, many of whom were formerly fishermen, "fishers of men." “And Jesus said to Simon: Do not be afraid; from now on you will catch people "(Gospel of Luke 5:10) The Pope's" Fisherman's Ring ", one of the main attributes of vestments, has the same origin.
The biblical texts also state that only fish survived the Flood sent by God for the sins of people, not counting those who took refuge in the Ark. At the beginning of the era, history repeated itself, the Greco-Roman civilization was going through a monstrous moral crisis, and the new Christian faith was called to become the salvific and at the same time the cleansing waters of a new "spiritual" flood. “The Kingdom of Heaven is also like a net cast into the sea and captured all kinds of fish” (Gospel of Matthew 13:47).
Step 3
Also noteworthy is the theory that fish has become a symbol of Christianity due to its main, food function. The new creed first of all spread among the most oppressed part of the population. For these people, simple food like fish was the only escape from starvation. It is in this that some researchers see the reason why the fish has become a symbol of salvation from spiritual death, the bread of new life and the promise of life after death. As evidence, the supporters of this theory cite numerous images in the Roman catacombs in places where rituals were performed, where the fish acted as a Eucharistic symbol.
