JONAH AND THE ICHTHYS (ICHTHUS)

 

The exact origin of the common symbol of the fish (ichthys or ichthus in Greek) in Christian art and literature as early as the 2^nd century AD has been much debated. Does it perhaps relate to Jesus' miracle of multiplication of the loaves and fishes, a precursor to the Holy Eucharist? Or was it because a fish was an ancient fertility symbol, as some liberal scholars propose? Another more likely biblical source might be Jesus' calling his disciples to become “fishers of men” (also reflected in Jesus' parable in Matthew 13:47-50 concerning the Final Judgment). In fact, this reference can be coupled with the narrative in John 21 where Jesus prepares a meal of grilled fish for his apostles followed by the instruction to Peter: “Feed my sheep.” These two events, one occurring at the very start of Jesus' earthly ministry and the other at its conclusion, act as bookends to enclose the whole of the Gospel story.

Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150-215 AD) suggested that Christians engrave their personal seals with the image of either a dove or a fish. During the same time period, the Christian historian Sextus Julius Africanus wrote down a narrative supposedly going back to the time of the Magi in which Mary's womb was said to contain “a stream of water containing a single fish, taken with the hook of Divinity, and sustaining the whole world with its flesh as though it were in the sea.” One Roman Catholic source feels that this is the earliest recorded example equating Christ to a fish. But the Church Father Tertullian is more likely to be the first. In his treatise on baptism (ca 160-220 AD), he writes: “We little fishes, as the image of our ichthys Jesus Christ, are born in the [baptismal] water and are only safe when we remain in it.”

About 200 years later, Augustine clearly explains the following acrostic as the symbolic meaning behind the image of a fish:

    i = ieous = Jesus

    ch = christos = Anointed

    th = theou = of God

    u = (h)uios = Son

    s = soter = Savior

The question remains as to whether the acrostic came about as an afterthought after the image of the fish had already been chosen or whether it was the actual reason that the fish image was chosen in the first place. I tend to think that the image came first and that it arises from a much earlier source than any mentioned above.

Since we are talking about an early (perhaps the earliest) sign of Christianity here, it is pertinent to consider what Jesus said would be the only sign of his authenticity given: the sign of Jonah (Matthew 12:38-45, 16:4; Luke 11:29-32). This is the most powerful symbol by far behind the choice of a fish as a symbol of our faith since Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days before he was resurrected, and Jesus' resurrection is the whole basis for our faith, as Paul explains in I Corinthians 15.

Douglas Stuart feels that “there may have been a sort of popular notion or cliche of expression in ancient times that the journey from the land of the living to Sheol (or vice verse) took three full days...the author expresses the duration [in Jonah 2:6] by a wording which suggests all the more strongly to the hearer/reader that the fish represented actual divine rescue back from the Underworld, i.e., death.” Thus, Stuart appears to treat Jonah's prayer in Chapter 2 not as the prophet poetically saying that he approached the gates of Hell, but to indicate that perhaps Jonah did literally die and was literally resurrected from the land of the dead.

Jacques Ellul says, “the strange references to 'the roots of the mountains' and the 'bars' of the land (v. 6) are not just poetic phrases but bear a specific sense for the Israelites. For Sheol, the realm of the dead, is in fact situated in the mountains and is closed off by a gate with bars (Isaiah 38:10; Job 38:17), and by bolts. Thus Jonah confirms the traditional meaning of water in his song. The saying in verse 4: 'I am cast out from thy presence' is a final proof, for the reference here again is to death.”

But according to Ellul's interpretation, it is not just the water that represents Jonah's death; it is also the fish itself: “The intervention of the great fish, then, is not at all a sign of grace, of Jonah delivered from the waters. On the contrary, it is the climax of the condemnation, the seal on the act of death, the presence of what is beyond remedy. It is damnation. The fish is in fact hell.”

In contrast, Phillip Cary is one of the many commentators who take Jonah's words in 2:1-2 in three different ways: “for the third time, the book describes the deep place from which Jonah calls upon the LORD: from the guts of the fish (2:1), from his trouble (2:2a), and now [2:2b] from the belly of Sheol. The first description is the literal level of the story; the second is the bland, abstract language of feeling (applying to all of us who are in trouble, no matter what our story); and the third is a vividly poetic description that reveals the true meaning of the trouble in which Jonah finds himself.”

But even Cary treats the story as a strong parallel to the story of Christ and every Christian: “Buried in the heart of the sea, he shouts from Sheol, where Jesus is to come and conquer. Jonah is baptized here, buried in a death that is not merely his own but Christ's, so that he may be raised to a new life that is not merely his own but the LORD's. Praying from the belly of Sheol means praying from within the waters of baptism, where we die with Christ – where the LORD, which is to say the Lord Jesus Christ – has already heard the prayer of the dead.”

In conclusion, whether one chooses to believe that (a) Jonah was rescued from a death in the sea by the miraculous fish or (b) Jonah did in fact die (represented by both the sea and the fish) and was brought back to life, the empty fish is demonstration of God's mighty saving power over death itself. So in that respect, the image of the ichthus expresses exactly the same thing as the symbol of the empty cross – Jesus is not dead but alive, and those who believe in Him are are also alive in Him and no longer dead in their sins.