The Sign of the Fish

The Sign of the Fish?  Didn't I mean The Sign of the Cross?  The sign of the fish was one of the very early symbols used by Christians.  The obvious reference is to the biblical stories recorded in Matthew 14:13-21, 15:32-39, Mark 6:31-44, 8:1-9, Luke 9:10-17, and John 6:5-15 where Jesus fed thousands using only a few fish and loaves of bread.  Also, several of Jesus' first disciples were fishermen and He promised them that they would become "fishers of men." (Matthew 4:19, Mark 1:17)

The fish symbol was often safer to use than a cross because the Romans knew the cross symbol but most of them would totally miss the significance of a fish.  The symbol became a sort of secret code so Christians could safely recognize others whom they had not yet met.  Also, a house with a fish over the door was a "safe house," an indirect reference to the Passover. (Exodus 12:12-14)

This was not the only meaning of the fish; it was also an anagram from the first letters of the phrase Ιησούς Χριστός Θεού Υιός Σωτήρ (Greek meaning "Jesus Christ God Son Savior).  The first letters of the five words spell out ΙΧΘΥΣ (Icthys, Greek for "fish,'" from which we derive the English word "ichthyology," the study of fish.)