Anyone who is not familiar with the Ichthys symbol off the top of their head has probably still seen it before.  It can be found easily online if you don’t know what I’m talking about.  “Ichthys” is the word used in Greek in the New Testament for fish.  The Ichthys symbol is an image of a fish which came to commonly be used to represent Jesus.  

There is wisdom and safety in refraining from the use of religious symbols altogether.  However, the Ichthys symbol should especially be scrutinized due to how it is supposed to represent Jesus Himself while it’s also unquestionably sin to represent God improperly (and of course Jesus is God as the 2nd person of the Trinity).

Read Deuteronomy chapter 4 and note there that in warning Israel about departing from Him, and citing making a graven image as a chief way of doing this, God made it clear that visually portraying Him, including through the depiction of an animal, is indeed a form of idolatry which provokes Him to jealousy.  Note there in Deuteronomy 4:15-19 that God commanded not to represent Him through any likeness- even going out of His way to specifically mention representing Him through a fish as a means of provoking His jealousy and incurring His wrath.

It’s also notable that Pagans had already used fish in their worship as a symbol of fertility prior to Christ’s time.  It is even commonly thought that the Philistine god Dagon was half man, half fish .  We see in 1 Samuel chapter 5 that the house of Dagon is where the Philistines took the Ark of God to after they had captured it. 

One quote that those who defend using the Ichthys symbol might resort to is from Tertullian (who lived in the late 2nd century and early 3rd century AD).  This quote called Christians little fishes and referred to Jesus as their Ichthys (as if He is the great fish and His disciples are little fishes).  But just because Tertullian used this analogy does not make it valid.  

Jesus is never compared to a fish in the Bible and the Bible certainly forbids images representing God while also forbidding copying Pagan imagery for use in His worship.  

The Ichthys symbols in underground catacombs used by Christians don’t necessarily prove anything more than that corruption had set in among many churches in the centuries following the lives of Christ and His Apostles.  That is already known anyways and can be demonstrated in many other ways as well.

God choosing to liken Himself to certain things in the Bible does not give man a license to read beyond the obvious in the Biblical analogies nor to represent Him by images at all.  

Though Jesus is never compared to a fish in the Bible, it can be said that Christ’s true followers are compared to fish.  However, the wicked are also compared to fish in the Bible.  

Matthew 13:47-50: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.  So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,  And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

Israel as a nation is not.

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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