Jesus' Logo...

Today at work I was looking for a nice Icthus fish image for a project I was doing. I should have just made one myself but I didn't want to. It's been that kind of day, resist motivation day. ;-) Anywho, I came across this nice image and with it came a history lesson on the origin of the Icthus fish or Jesus' logo, as the author put it. So, I found it interesting and thought I would share it with you.

I have always wondered why a fish was the "symbol" for Christianity and now I have a better understanding as to why. (I found this info at www.designassembly.org if you want more information on it. I looked this information up on Wikipedia and found it there too. )

"During the reign of Emperor Nero (54 - 68 A.D.), and the subsequent emperors of the Roman Empire, the ichthus symbol was used by Christians as a precaution against persecution. It was a means of identifying and acknowledging a fellow believer in Christ without the need for any verbal communication.

As a security measure, when meeting strangers, it is said, that one Christian would draw an arc in the ground, and if the other was also a Christian they would know to enclose it by drawing another arc, making the sign of a fish."

"The Greek word for fish is Ichthus (ΙΧΘΥΣ), an acrostic word formed from the first letters of ‘Iēsous Christos, Theou Huios, Sōtēr’. Translating to ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.

‘i’ Iota, the Greek for Jesus

‘kh’ Chi, the Greek for Christ or anointed

‘th’ Theta, the Greek for God

‘u’ Upsilon, the Greek for Son

’s’ Sigma, the Greek for Saviour"

It's funny because whenever you see a business truck with an Icthus fish on it you know right away that they are a Christian company and that they are an honest trustworthy company. I just didn't know that that tactic originated long ago.