Commenting on the early Christian use of the fish (ιχθυς) as a symbol, Eastern Orthodox scholar Leonid Ouspensky wrote:
One of the most widespread symbols in the first Christian centuries was the fish. The very important role played by the fish in the accounts of the Gospel certainly contributed to the act that this symbol was adopted by the Christians. Christ Himself used it. The lake, the boat, the fishermen, the net heavy with fish do not form the framework for so many used images that were familiar and understandable to them; summoning them to the apostolate, He called them “fishers of men” (“follow me, and I will make you fishers of people,” Mt 4:19; Mk 1:17). He compares the heavenly kingdom to a net filled with many different kinds of fish. The image of the fish is also used as a symbol of the heavenly good things (Mt 7:9-11, 13, 47-48; Lk 5:10). The images of the fisherman and the fish, representing the teacher and the convert, are fully understandable. But there were other reason for the wide dissemination of this symbol in Christianity. The most important of these is the mysterious meaning of the five letters which make up the word ιχθυς (The Greek word meaning “fish,” ιχθυς, contains five letters which are the initials of five words directly corresponding to Christ: ‘Ιησους Χριστος Θεου Υιος Σωτηρ, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, the Savior.” As we have seen, these words express the faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ, and in His redeeming mission. Therefore, we have in the symbol of the fish a kind of ancient creedal formula, condensed into one word). This image is found everywhere: in mural paintings on sarcophagi, in funeral inscriptions, on various objects. Christians wore little fishes around their neck made of metal, stone or mother-of-pearl, with the inscription “May You save” or “Save.”
To the extraordinary prevalence of the graphic image of the fish corresponds an equally striking literary use of it in funeral inscriptions and among many Christian writers. However, the value of this symbol seemed so great to Christians of the first centuries, that they tried to hide its meaning for a longer time then for the other symbols, to such an extent that no writer gives a complete explanation of it until the fourth century, as far as we can judge from the available documents.
The first and essential meaning of the fish is therefore Jesus Christ himself. Some ancient authors occasionally call our Lord “the heavenly fish” (ιχθυς ουρανιος). We find the image of a boat, symbol of the Church, carried by a fish: the Church rests on Christ, its founder. To represent Christ in the midst of Christians united to Him by baptism, little fishes surrounding a large one were portrayed. “We are little fish,” Tertullian writers, “we are born in the water like our fish (ιχθυς) Jesus Christ and we can only be saved by staying in the water”.” Thus the symbolism of the fish leads back to that of water, that is, to baptism.
What is particularly emphasized in the representations and writings which use the symbol of the fish is the eucharistic significance of this symbol. Indeed, each time the Eucharist is represented, whether as a banquet, a consecration scene or a simple symbol, the fish invariable appears. This is a fact. And yet, the fish has never been used as a eucharistic species. It only clarifies the meaning of the bread and wine. Of particular significance are two funeral inscriptions found at two different ends of the Christian world, in Phrygia and in Gaul, both dating back to the second century. The first is of St. Abercius, Bishop of Hieropolis, who is venerated by the Church as “equal to the Apostles.” The inscription reproduces a text written by the saint himself. A frequent traveler, he lived in Rome, and throughout the East. “The faith led me everywhere,” he writes. “Everywhere it fed me fish, pure fish, caught by a holy virgin; it constantly fed this fish to friends; it has a delicious wine which it serves, mixed in water, with bread.” The fish, caught by the virgin, is Christ. The bread and the wine mixed with water already shows our eucharistic practice.
The other funeral inscription found in France, is that of Pectorius of Autun. This is an acrostic poem in Greek in which the initial letters form the words ΙΧΘΥΣ ΕΛΠΙΣ, that is, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, Hope.” In “the eternal waves of wisdom given by the treasures,” in “the divine waters” which renew the soul, the “divine race of heavenly fish (ιχθυς ουρανιος) receives . . . immortal life.” Then the poem invites the reader to take soft nourishment, such as the honey of the Savior of the saints, and to eat the ιχθυς “which you hold in the palm of your hand” (the custom of the first Christians was for the faithful to receive the consecrated bread n the psalm of the right hand which was crossed over the left. This is how the Orthodox clergy receive Communion even today).
Thus St Abercius saw everywhere, from Rome to the Euphrates, not only the same doctrine and the same sacrament, but also the same image, the same symbol in which rite and doctrine converge, that of the fish. The inscription of Pectorius speaks of the same reality at the other end of the Christian world, in Gaul. Thus, these two documents show us that the symbol of the fish was widespread and characteristic of the entire Church. (Leonid Ouspensky, Theology of the Icon, volume 1 [trans. Anthony Gythiel; Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1992], 70-72)
