Mark 1:14-20 : Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him. ………………………………………………………………………………………………
Appointing the Apostles as spiritual fishermen became a great starting initiation of the establishment the fish symbol as a pivotal symbol of Christianity. It happened for a lot of reasons. The first reason is that at least four of them were real fishermen as a fact, though we can not assert, that the first reason is the most important of the available historical options.
However it had an establishing point, as being the practical metaphor Jesus used to make their assignment to be easily understood. These four fishermen disciples were Peter and Andrew, the sons of Jonah together with John and his brother James, the sons of Zebedee.
Jesus said that they will be spiritual fishermen to fish people, aiming for salvation.
The other establishing reasons came later, when the major tenets of Christianity was molded by the views of the Apostle Paul and his next generation disciples, together with the views of the next generation Greek speaking disciples centered mainly in Antiochia and Alexandria, Ephesos and in Rome. In their Greek culture the Zodiac sign of the Fishes just started, heralding a New Age of the Fishes over the Roman Empire and the World itself.
It is known from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 11 that “Barnabas went out to Tarsus to look for Paul. When he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. It happened, that for a whole year they were gathered together with the assembly, and taught many people. The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. ”
More than likely that at the end of the first century or maybe in the first part of the second century it happened in Antiochia, that the faith systematizing disciples, having great crowds in organized congregations, formalized the first Christian Creed, which was constructed as a single sentence, serving as a wonderful basis to create an acronym out of it.
The First tangible Christian Creed went like this: 'Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior'.
In Heaven everything is easily possible, but how on Earth will a fish-ish acronym come out from the Antiochian closet, especially from the English translation of the early creed.
The acronym was created from the Greek original. It can be a question though, whether the fish was on their mind first, and they adjusted the Creed according to it, or it happened just miraculously that they worded the Creed, and they just got the acronym. More then likely they wanted a Creed adjustable toward their stamp of the Zodiac New Age, the Fishes.
Christianity with its humble beginning, even at its start, had its demand in the name of Jesus, that the new Era will have only one real moral authority, and that is the Christ, the ruler of the Fishes.
The original Greek version of the Creed, 'Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior', sounded like Iēsous Christos, Theou Yios, Sōtēr; where the first characters comprise a single word in Greek, Ichtys, which means exactly fish in English. The first character of Ichtus is a Iota (I) which stands for Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς), or "Jesus", the second character Chi (ch) stands for Christos (Χριστός), or Christ or "anointed", the third character Theta (th) stands for Theou (Θεοῦ), or "God's, the genitive singular of Θεóς, Theos, "God", the fourth character Upsilon stands for (h)yios or"Son", the fifth character, the Sigma (s), stands for sōtēr (Σωτήρ) or "Savior".
It was not a fishy playing on the words, because Jesus sent his Apostles practically to conquer the World, to convert all nations to the Gospel. However, it was a long way to go from escaping perpetual persecution to becoming an institutionalized tool in the hand of brutal conquistadors of the Spanish Kingdom.
Early Christians used the fish symbol, during the unfriendly and often cruel centuries within the Roman Empire, to mark their meeting places and tombs, or as a secret sign to distinguish friends from foes. When they met a stranger in the road, the Christian traveler sometimes drew the half of the simple fish outline in the dirt. If the stranger drew the other half, then they both knew that they are both Christians. Nowadays, mostly there is no need to hide the fish as a secret symbol of Christianity, so people use it as bumper stickers, car-window embellishment, it is used on postcards and business-cards, big printed or digital posters, as an identifier of Christian content, or it is put on jewelry items, as well like pendants and necklaces.
The Fish also represents a referral among other stories to the final judgment when Jesus told his students the Parable of the Drawing in the Net, that “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet, that was cast into the sea, and gathered some fish of every kind, which, when it was filled, they drew up on the beach. They sat down and gathered the good into containers, but the bad they threw away. So will it be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, and separate the wicked from among the righteous, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.” Also, as a referral Jesus told the Pharisees, that they will be given no other sign that the sign of Prophet Jonah, who was swallowed by the big Fish.
Some people are still amazed that Jesus, just walking along the shore, looks like by chance, found the disciples around their nets and ships, and they immediately followed him leaving behind everything, as it is written very simply in the Gospel of Mark, chapter one, that “As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.”
The Gospel story is very much abbreviated, because it should be clear to the readers that Jesus and the four fishermen met not the first time. These four, all of from Bethsaida, a town in Galilee, had been already the disciples of John the Baptist.
The Gospel of Mark starts with the ministry of John the Baptist, baptizing along the Jordan. The disciples of John witnessed the Baptism of Jesus officiated by John and the testifying of John about Jesus. John and Jesus were not only cousins, but Jesus publicly joined the movement of John, as it is obvious from the fact that John baptized Jesus and not vice versa.
Their Gospel message, as a passed torch, was practically identical: Repent and turn to God, because the Kingdom of God is close. Nonetheless, when John got imprisoned by Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, Jesus became the sole leader of the movement. Thus, on the lake-shore, on that day, Jesus was looking for exactly the scattered chief disciples of John, to revive his movement. It was not a coincidence that he found them, because he had known them before, he knew where to find them, and because they had known Jesus from before, they followed him immediately, without hesitation. Peter’s home in Bethsaida was established as the new head-quarter of the renewed baptizing movement.
We can see today, that there is a cathedral in almost every big city on every possible continent, and the Gospel has been translated into every known languages. The numbers of the Christians are counted in billions worldwide, and still we can hardly comprehend that the nominal Christian society do not take the words of Jesus seriously at all and in general.
The world exists in a complete denial of the very ideas of Jesus, and the societies of the nations are defiant of the Gospel in an increasing trend. As humanity, we are rushing toward a dangerous pit, and most of the Biblical tribulations, including devastating catastrophes and more global wars, prophesied by Jesus, are still awaiting for us on the road ahead. Long, long time ago, we, the humanity, including the church should have pulled the brakes on this express train, which is speeding toward the chasm, but we did not. Thus the same Gospel, as heard in the desert, is still relevant. Repent and turn to God, maybe it is no too late. May the Lord’s name be praised, always, AMEN.
