| Origin Of The Fish Symbol |
This symbol is used because Christians are told that it is because we are called to be "fishers of men." Also, another popular explanation is offered: It represents our Messiah, because of Augustine's attempt to justify the adoption of another element of pagan worship in the Church's syncretism, "Christianizing" pagan practices, emblems and even pagan deities. Paganism was mixed with the Messianic Belief. Rev. Hislop states that our Messiah "began to be popularly called ICHTHYS (or ICHTHUS), that is 'the Fish', manifestly to identify Him with Dagon." Dagon was the Fish-deity. [1]
Despite this, I have found Hislops findings to be incorrect from a number of sources like Holmans Bible Dictionary which states: According to a popular etymology of Dagon, the name came from the Hebrew word for fish, and so it was postulated that he was a sea god. However, archaeological evidence does not support this view. The name probably was derived originally from the word for grain, or possibly from a word for clouds. Thus Dagon was a grain god or a storm god, much like Baal. According to Ugaritic documents from the fourteenth century B.C., Dagon was the father of Baal. Little else is known about his mythology or cult. [2]
Augustine, the celebrated Church Father, rather childishly, gave his reason for doing this, "If you combine the initial letters of the five Greek words, which are Iesous Chreistos Theou Uios Soter, Jesus Christ the Son of God the Saviour, they make the word ichthus, meaning fish, and the mystic meaning of this noun is Christ, because He had power to exist alive, that is, without sin, in the bottomless pit of our mortal life, as in the depths of the sea." [3]
In The Two Babylons, pp. 252 and 270, we read, "that Icthus, or the Fish, was one of the names of Bacchus." Bacchus was just another name for Tammuz, the Sun-deity. The adoration or veneration of the fish emblem is clearly and emphatically forbidden in Deut. 4:15-19. [4]
Deut 4:15-19
15 Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:
16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
17 The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,
18 The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:
19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.(KJV)
The fish, as a pair of fishes, is part of the Chaldean (Babylonian) zodiac, as one of the signs of astral worship with the Sun at the center of the zodiac. It therefore formed part of, and was a sign of Sun-worship. [5]
The son of the Syrian goddess Atargatis was known as Ichthus too. Another Fish-deity was the Babylonian Ea, who became known amongst the Greeks as Oannes, similar to the Fish-deity of the Philistines, Dagon, half man and half fish. [6]
The Fish is also associated with the sun...the god of the sun...as a fish," also being an Egyptian phallic emblem, as well as a sign of fecundity, or the female generative organ, or of female goddesses. [7]
Again, early Christians used the Greek word ichthus, "fish," as an acrostic based on the initial letters of the words "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour." This was not something they borrowed from paganism, but was probably a protest against the paganism of Roman Emperors, such as Domitian (AD 81-96) who took to himself a title meaning "Son of God." The Son of God to Christians was not Domitian, but Jesus Christ the Saviour. [8]
We know also that during the persecution era, the fish was a code symbol for Christians. Upon coming in contact with another person, the outline of a fish might be drawn on the ground. If the other person were a Christian, he would then be able to identify a fellow believer in "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour." [9]
But Hislop, with no proof at all, says this widespread practice of using "fish" as a title of Christ was "manifestly to identify him with Dagon"! This is rediculous. What purpose would it serve for Christians, or anyone else, to identify Christ with the fish-god Dagon? If the fish was a recognized symbol of Dagon at the time how could it serve as a code symbol for persecuted Christians? The fact is, Dagon worship had died out long before - in the latter days of the Assyrian Empire - and was not contemorary with Christianity. [10]
Today, numerous dedicated Christians, as did early Christians, use the fish symbol. If it is seen on the back of an automobile, can anyone rightly say: "That person is a worshipper of the fish-god Dagon"? Of course not! If the fish was ever used as a symbol for Dagon, it would have been so long ago and by such a tiny segment of people, it could hardly have any bearing on what the symbol means now. If you'd like to see the the number of fish emblems out there used to mock Christians click here. [11]
In ancient times, those who entered the temple of Dagon did not "tread on the threashold" (1 Sam 5:5). Today, in keeping with a wedding custom, a groom may carry his new bride over the threashold into their new house. Does this make him a worshipper of Dagon? Of course not! Though there is a similarity - a threashold is involved - there is no connection. [12]
There are a number of interesting things I could point to about the so-called history of these pagan origins. The sad truth is that most “pagan origin” claims come from the work of an Alexander Hislop. For those who have taken the time to check out Hislop, they will discover that his research on the pagan origins is often contradictory. Read what “The Saturday Review” dated September 17, 1859, p. 340. had to say about Hislop’s work:
In the first place, his whole superstructure is raised upon nothing. Our earliest authority for the history of Semiramis wrote about the commencement of the Christian era, and the historian from whom he drew his information lived from fifteen hundred to two thousand years after the date which Mr. Hislop assigns to the great Assyrian Queen. The most lying legend which the Vatican has ever endorsed stands on better authority than the history which is now made the ground of a charge against it.
Secondly, the whole argument proceeds upon the assumption that all heathenism has a common origin. Accidental resemblances in mythological details are taken as evidence of this, and nothing is allowed for the natural working of the human mind.
Thirdly, Mr. Hislop’s method of reasoning would make anything of anything. By the aid of obscure passages in third-rate historians, groundless assumptions of identity, and etymological torturing of roots, all that we know, and all that we believe, may be converted…into something totally different.
Fourthly, Mr. Hislop’s argument proves too much. He finds not only the corruptions of Popery, but the fundamental articles of the Christian Faith, in his hypothetical Babylonian system…
We take leave of Mr. Hislop and his work with the remark that we never before quite knew the folly of which ignorant or half-learned bigotry is capable. [13]
Now about C.J. Koster's book "Come Out Of Her, My People", Roy Ingle, a Christian book reviewer, had the following to say:
C.J. Koster's COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE was given to me by a lady who left our church for the radical Messianic Jewish followers such as Koster and Michael Rood. I read the book with great doubts about the book since most serious Messianic Jewish Gentiles I have met were simply bizarre. This book did nothing more than confirm this view.
Koster appears to have taken most of his information from the cult, the Assemblies of Yahweh. His insistance upon using the various Hebrew names for God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit go from poor understandings of the Greek language to flat out denials. His writing style is poor and the structure of the book appears to not have been very well thought out. Koster appears mad throughout the book at the "established Church" and he seems mad enough to essentially condemn anyone who calls the holy Scriptures "the Bible" or calls Yahushua "Jesus" or has a cross up in their meetings or calls their assemblies "church" or who worship on Sunday (or some other day other than Saturday and dare not call the days or months by its Greek names!) than they are going to burn forever. Further, any follower of the Messiah not keeping the entire Law of Moses is lost! Ironically, few Jews have "converted" to Messianic Jewish roots despite Koster's belief that this will usher in a great harvest of Jews into the kingdom of Elohim. Could it be they see the error of the Sacred Name Movement as do many Gentiles such as I?
For me, Koster and the rest of the radical Messianic followers are nothing more than the Pharisees of Acts 15. They seek to add to the salvation given to us by Jesus Christ (Acts 15:9-11). They want us to keep the Law of Moses but not one person (including themselves) is capable of doing so (Galatians 3:11). How sad that these men have dived into a works salvation that focuses on rules rather than on Christ's atoning sacrifice (Colossians 2:11-23). I for one thank God that I am free from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13-14) and that Jesus brings no condemnation (Romans 8:1-4; Galatians 5:1-13). [14]
[1] C.J. Koster, Come Out Of Her, My People
[2] Ibid
[3] Ibid
[4] Ibid
[5] Ibid
[6] Ibid
[7] Ibid
[8] Ralph Woodrow, The Babylon Connection?
[9] Ibid
[10] Ibid
[11] Ibid
[12] Ibid
[13] The Saturday Review, dated September 17, 1859, p. 340
[14] Reviews Written by Roy Ingle, http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A11OBEH2ZCVAHX/104-1507350-3632721?_encoding=UTF8&display=public&page=9
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