DAY 15: Well, That's Fishy (pun intended)

     As part of the Lenten tradition, I am not eating meat today. The only "meat" I am allowed to eat is fish. The reasoning behind this is:

       A) fish is a large part of the New Testament. There is the loaves and fish story and Jesus telling some of his disciples "Come, and I will make you fishers of men." (Mark 1:17 )
     B) During the Middle Ages especially, the Church really tried to unify the Catholic peoples. To do this, they required nobles (the people who could afford meat) to eat fish on Fridays to connect with their poorer brethren.

     Do you know what the fish symbolized for the early Christians? It was a communication tool to identify fellow Christians in the early church- when we were first being persecuted for our beliefs. When two strangers met and thought maybe they were fellow believers, one of them would draw, on the ground, the upper half of the fish symbol.
                                               
If they knew the symbol, the second person would add the other line to complete the drawing of a fish.

      If not, then the second person would assume that the other was just drawing in the sand, and the Christian's identity would stay hidden.

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     Just as some of the first Bibles were written in the Greek language, so also were some of the early Christian codes. For Example: The Greek word Ichthys means fish. Yet, it is also an acrostic:
                                                                                Iesous
                                                                                Christos
                                                                                Theou
                                                                                Yios
                                                                                Soter
                                                        or Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior. 　

     The fish symbol may have also originated from the Greek letter "a" or "alpha." It looks very similar to the fish we see today.
                                                         

                           As God says in Revelations, " I am the ALPHA and the Omega."

                                         God Bless! <>< :) <-- Do you like my fishy?