Fish

Fishing on the Sea of Galilee was a major industry, and fish was a staple food — which is why several of Jesus' first disciples were fishermen, and why so many scenes unfold beside the lake and the nets.

Fish run all through the Gospels: the feeding of thousands from a few loaves and fish, the miraculous catches, the coin found in a fish's mouth to pay the temple tax. Jesus called his followers to a new vocation in the same terms — “I will make you fishers of men” — and likened the kingdom to a net gathering fish of every kind.

In the centuries of persecution that followed, Christians used the Greek word for fish, ICHTHYS, as an acrostic for “Jesus Christ, God's Son, Saviour,” and scratched the simple fish outline as a secret sign of belonging. A piece of everyday Galilean life became one of the earliest emblems of the church.