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Aug 8, 2008 · The Greek word for fish is "ichthys." As early as the first century, Christians made an acrostic from this word: Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter, i.e. Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.
One of the things Augustine was saying is that Jesus, the mystical Big Fish, was in the waters, in the sea of human mortality, yet He did not succumb to sin as we do but remained alive, remained free from sin, remained clean. (The fish has the added advantage of its association with baptismal water as well as its Greek acrostic resonance.)
The use of the Ichthys symbol by early Christians appears to date from the end of the first century C.E. Ichthus (ΙΧΘΥΣ, Greek for fish) is an acronym, a word formed from the first letters of several words. It stands for "Jesus Christ God's Son Saviour," in ancient Greek " Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ ."
