Sunday 10 July 2016

Fish Faith

"Are you going anywhere nice for your holiday this summer?" asked the hairdresser [as they usually do!] "Norfolk - what about you?" And she became very enthusiastic about the fact that next week she and her boyfriend were going to celebrate his birthday with a four day trip to Rome. She said she really wanted to visit the Catacombs. I told her to look out for the fish symbols carved into the walls.
She asked what they were for, and I explained it was a sign used by the early Christians who met there, often in secret. I told her it was an acrostic, and explained it simply.


Here's the full explanation
ΙΧΘΥΣ (Ichthus) is an acrostic for "Ίησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ", (Iēsous Christos, Theou Yios, Sōtēr), which translates into English as "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour".
Iota (i) is the first letter of Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς), Greek for "Jesus". Chi (ch) is the first letter of Christos (Χριστός), Greek for "anointed". Theta (th) is the first letter of Theou (Θεοῦ), Greek for "God's” Upsilon (u) is the first letter of (h)uios (Υἱός), Greek for "Son". Sigma (s) is the first letter of sōtēr (Σωτήρ), Greek for "Saviour".

She was fascinated and said "So are the cars with fishes on being driven by Christians, then?" I said they probably were. Then she wanted to know how I knew about it...
My second acrostic came a few days later when Val gave me that cool MudLove bracelet. I have been wearing it since, instead of my usual WWJD one. That too has caused comments from people.





Looking down at it on my wrist I remembered another acrostic which my Grandfather taught me as a child.
He said that to have faith in Jesus is another way of saying
  • Forsaking
  • All
  • I
  • Trust
  • Him
Have you got any good acrostics worth sharing?


5 comments:

  1. I remember I used to go to the CU when I worked at the Royal Academy of Music and one week, we had to make up our own ones based on Jesus' name. I still remember my one was Jesus Eternally Saves United Souls. You could substitute United for Undeserving or any other U I suppose!
    That was a nice evangelism opportunity to speak of Christ!

    ReplyDelete
  2. GIED Gloria in Excelsis Deo

    ReplyDelete
  3. GRACE - God's Riches AT Christ's Expense

    ReplyDelete
  4. There is a You Tuber that has PUSH - Pray Until Something Happens tattooed on her fingers.

    ReplyDelete

Always glad to hear from you - thanks for stopping by!
I am blocking anonymous comments now, due to excessive spam!