The fish is thought to have been chosen by the early Christians for several reasons:
Although the word looks like IXOYE, the letters are from the Greek alphabet, so the "I" is actually an iota, the "X" is actually a chi, the "O" is actually a theta, the "Y" is an upsilon, and the "E" or "C" at the end is a sigma. Taking the first sound from each of these Greek letter names, we get the transliteration into our alphabet of ICHTHUS.
Today, when Christians do not need to worry about persecution, the Christian fish symbol often has "Jesus" written inside or includes a cross symbol. And of course, there have been many spoofs and variations of the popular Christian symbol, such as the famous "Darwin fish."
The fish is also a symbol of baptism, since a fish is at home in the water.
- the Greek word for fish, works nicely as an acrostic for "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior"
- the fish would not be an obvious Christian symbol to persecutors
- Jesus' ministry is associated with fish: he chose several fishermen to be his disciples and declared he would make them "fishers of men."
Although the word looks like IXOYE, the letters are from the Greek alphabet, so the "I" is actually an iota, the "X" is actually a chi, the "O" is actually a theta, the "Y" is an upsilon, and the "E" or "C" at the end is a sigma. Taking the first sound from each of these Greek letter names, we get the transliteration into our alphabet of ICHTHUS.
Today, when Christians do not need to worry about persecution, the Christian fish symbol often has "Jesus" written inside or includes a cross symbol. And of course, there have been many spoofs and variations of the popular Christian symbol, such as the famous "Darwin fish."
The fish is also a symbol of baptism, since a fish is at home in the water.