A question we get asked, What does IXOYE mean?
For Christians, the fish is one of the earliest symbols, it was used to profess faith and to avoid persecution. "IXOYE" was a used as an anagram by members of the early Christian church to identify themselves. It means "Jesus Christ - Son of God - Saviour".
IXOYE is the Greek word for "fish".
The Greek letters break down as follows:
I – Iota is the first letter of Iesous (Jesus) X – Chi is the first letter of Christos (Christ) Θ – Theta is the first letter of Theos (God) Y – Upsilon is the first letter of Yios (Son) Σ – Sigma is the fist letter of Soter (Saviour)
“Jesus, Christ, Son of God, Saviour”.
The fish symbol also helped Christians distinguish between friend and foe. When a Christian met a stranger in the road, whilst traveling, the Christian would draw half the fish (half a crescent) in the sand. If the other person completed the fish, he or she was a Christian and the two would know it was safe to discuss the Lord.
Believers in Jesus were themselves "little fishes", according to the well-known passage of Tertullian (De baptismo, c. 1) "we, little fishes, after the image of our IXOYE, Jesus Christ, are born in the water".
Here at Children's Christian Learning we believe there is one God, perfect and holy, existing eternally in three equal divine persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God is the creator of all things, both visible and invisible, the heavens, the earth and all that is contained in the universe.
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the eternally existing only begotten Son of God, the Lord of all creation who was with God in the beginning and at the appointed time took the form of man, lived a sinless life and died on a cross, being raised again on the third day. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. JOHN 3:16
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A great way to share your faith and start a witnessing conversation, after all they asked "What does IXOYE mean?"
