What Does IXOYE Mean?

IXOYE is an acronym that means, “Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior.”

Simply explained, the Greek word ΙΧΘΥΣ means “fish.” The word IXOYE is formed by taking the first letter of five Greek words. Those five Greek words mean, “Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior.” So fish is simply an acronym to refer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Let me show you the five Greek letters (in red), including the five Greek words that form the acronym.

• Ίησοῦς means Jesus in Greek.
• Χριστός means Christ in Greek.
• Θεου means God’s in Greek.
• Υἱός means Son in Greek.
• Σωτήρ means Savior in Greek.

You see?

The first letter (in red) of each Greek word is used to form the word IXOYE, which means, “fish.” At the same time, each of those Greek words make up the phrase, “Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior.” It’s pretty genius actually.

All right, now let’s cover the details together.

• (Ἰησοῦς) Iēsous is Greek for “Jesus,” the first letter is Iota (i).
• (Χριστός) Christos is Greek for “Christ,” the second letter is Chi (ch).
• (Θεου) Theou is Greek for “God’s,” the third letter is Theta (th).
• (Υἱός) (h)uios is Greek for “Son,” the fourth letter is Upsilon (y).
• (Σωτήρ) sōtēr is Greek for “Savior,” the fifth letter is Sigma (s).

IXOYE transliterated is ichthys or ichthus

How about an image to bring it all together?

So how did this all come about?

Since the first century, Christians have used the fish as a symbol of our faith. This is evident by its presence in the Christian catacombs of Rome.

In fact, the first literary reference to the fish as a symbol of our faith goes back to Clement of Alexandria (c. 150). In his work titled, “Paedogogus,” he wrote,

“And let our seals [symbols] be either a dove, or a fish, or a ship scudding before the wind, or a musical lyre, which Polycrates used, or a ship’s anchor, which Seleucus got engraved as a device; and if there be one fishing, he will remember the apostle, and the children drawn out of the water.”

We have more…

The early church father Tertullian (c. 160-220) wrote in “De Baptismo,”

“Happy is our sacrament of water, in that, by washing away the sins of our early blindness, we are set free and admitted into eternal life! … But we, little fishes, after the example of our IXOYE Jesus Christ are born in water, nor have we safety in any other way than by permanently abiding in water.”

There can be no doubt.

The fish as a symbol of Christianity has been rooted within our faith for thousands of years. Even before our church fathers, it was Jesus Himself who fed thousands of people with just “five loaves and two fish,” (Matthew 14:17-19).

Before that, Jesus told the Disciples,

“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Matthew 4:19

In another account, when the Disciples had no luck fishing, Jesus said, “Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find,” (John 21:6). They did, so much so, the Disciples couldn’t pull in the net due to the abundance of fish they caught.

Jesus also provided a prophetic statement that ties in the fish…

Christ said, “As Jonas was three days and three nights in the” belly of the great fish God prepared, “so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth,” (Jonah 1:17, Matthew 12:40).

So over and over again, we find the fish symbol tied to our Christian faith.

My friends, never forget your Christian roots, and the symbols tied to it.

Just remember, the next time you see IXOYE, it means,

Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior.