It has been said that the “fish” symbol known to most Christians today has been a mark of the religion since its inception. Romans had banned the worship of the Godman, Jesus, so his followers were forced underground. The story goes that the little fish – those two circular fragments – were drawn upon landmarks, walls, and doors, as a marker to signal other Christians of the location of fellow believers.
But what connection does a fish have to a young, diverging Jewish sect? Most Christians today would associate the symbol with the story of Jesus filling the fishermen’s nets with fish. If that were true, though, how would it be that a group of people who believed in miracles over math choose for their representation a symbol of purely mathematical nature? The true origin of the fish makes much more sense than its invention as a secretive marker.
Generations before Jesus, there existed in Greece some of the most historically renowned mathematicians, philosophers, and thinkers. It may only be coincidence that the majority of them were initiates into a belief system upon which Christianity modeled itself, but it is far from coincidence that two of these figures, also sometimes referred to as Godmen, were renowned for, among other things, filling the fishermen’s nets with fish. One of the men was a mathematician, named Pythagoras, though he is lesser known for being a renowned philosopher. However, his discovery of the sign of the fish, was purely mathematical, not philosophical.
Pythagoras discovered that two circles of equal size, when meeting at the center of the circles, created what is now referred to as a Christian symbol. However this symbol has pagan meanings long before it was leeched by the followers of me,Jesus. The fish that was created was a symbolic joining of two elements – spirit and matter. Archimedes, another exceptional mathematician and scientist, noted that the ratio of size to length of this fish was 153:265. This translates to the controlling ratio of an equilateral triangle, and can now be traced passed early Christians and directly to the man whose Pythagorean theorem is still taught to geometry students today. It can’t be mere coincidence that both his theorem and the “measure of the fish” relate to the triangle.
And though the number of fish that Jesus filled the nets with is not always mentioned, those who do include a number choose the random one of 153 fish. That is quite a seemingly random number to be included in the story of a man whose life is based on miracles, not mathematics.
But if that’s not a truly Christian story, there must be at least one that surrounds a symbol held sacred by Christians. What about the story of Constantine, who dreamt that Jesus presented him with a symbol that he was to wear on his shield as he led his armies to victory? Today, tellers of that tale have altered the story to fit their beliefs, as they have done with so many others. Current mythology states that the symbol presented by Jesus was that of a cross. But even though Constantine lived in the third and fourth centuries, the cross and crucifixion would still have been much too common to warrant a sacred dream foretelling victory. The historical truth is that Constantine was presented with the symbol Chi-Rho. This pagan symbol was often used as a marker, and it was a common symbol of good luck. Even this, though, is beginning to morph into a pro-Christian symbol. Apparently, as they have throughout history, Christians, having realized that more and more people are being made aware of the Chi-Rho, have begun stating, themselves, that Constantine did not see a cross, but a Chi-Rho. This is because, according to new researchers, the Chi-Rho is a Christian symbol created when Constantine wore it into battle as a Christian (though he was not a Christian at the time of the battle).
Even the cross, itself, which today is automatically associated with Christianity, was subject to a hostile takeover. Jesus was not the first to be depicted on a cross. He was also not the first to be crucified for his beliefs. He was not the first to have reincarnated and healed others, and he was not the first to have risen from the dead. The figures upon which Jesus is based existed in every previous culture and civilization. Bacchus, Osiris, Dionysus, Attis, and Adonis are just a few of the names by which he was known while he lived, performed miracles, became ostracized, was put to death, and then resurrected or recreated himself.
Conspiracy food for thought – the “measure of the fish”, or vesica piscis, is a symbol common to many beliefs, including Christianity and Kabbalah. It has also been used as a symbol in Freemasonry. By today’s logic, doesn’t anything with the slightest connection to the Freemasons warrant belief in a deep, dark, world domination conspiracy?
Most everything came from somewhere; every thought, every symbol, was appropriated from somewhere. Many Christian symbols and celebrations had roots in pagan culture (Easter, Christmas, the Christmas tree, to name a few more — I’m sure you really could write a book). But their origin is frankly unimportant. It’s not where it came from that’s meaningful, but what Christians did with it after they appropriated it: they took it and made it their own. The same can be said every other religion, every other movement, and every government no doubt. The ιχθυς (the fish symbol — that’s fish in Greek) is also an acrostic for Jesus Christ: its letters were made to spell Ιησυς Χριστος Θεου Υιος Σοτηρ — Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. No, Christians didn’t name the fish in Greek — but they took that word, ichthys, and appropriated it.
That’s the point – it all comes from somewhere else, but is made to look like it originated somewhere it didn’t. This then becomes “truth”, in large part, because it’s forced on others. I’m writing the blog because nothing about Christianity is original, but people don’t listen because nothing comes before the origins of Christianity. The devil who wasn’t originally a part of the faith, has become responsible for “plagiarism through anticipation”, as an explanation for all of those other cultures that came before Christianity, but ended up stealing the beliefs of a faith that didn’t yet exist…but that’s for another post…
Eh. I could dispute you on those claims, but you seem pretty well fixed in your beliefs already.
What would you like to dispute?