Could anyone please tell me...?

The Jesus fish was known by the early Christians as a secret symbol: believers would draw one arc of the fish in the dirt, if a stranger drew the second arc, they knew they could trust each other. Even today, the Jesus fish is a symbol that shows that the bearer is a Christian.

The fish has an important symbolic meaning in the Bible, several of Jesus' disciples were fishermen and Jesus declared them "fishers of men". The Jesus fish symbol is also intertwined with the story of the loaves and fishes.

The symbol is actually a vagina from many other cultures that used it. The proper name is ichthus. Given that genitals have always been considered important, typically the phallus being a ruler but lustful and the vagina being more subtle, but the giver of life, the "fish" worked its way to being a symbol for giving life. Early Christians found the symbol of giving life to be very appropriate, and the symbol has remained. It has been a symbol for many earlier fertility deities as well, often called the vesica pisces, or vessel of the fish.

Back in the Roman empire after the time of Jesus, being Christian was illegal (ah those were the days). People wore a fish to let other Christians know that they were Christian. It has nothing to do with Jesus, thats why they used it as as symbol, so the Romans could not tell what it was.

During the first century CE, Christians had to hide their silly beliefs from the Romans. The symbol of the fish was similar to the secret handshake.

I've been told that it's a symbol for Jesus's mandate that his followers be "fishers of men", and also heard a theory about Jesus and the 12 disciples actually being part of the Nasorean group of the Mandean sect.

I heard this long ago, and found this wikipedia article to explain. I first heard of it in the movie "Quo Vadis"

"Ichthus (Ichthys), an anagram in Biblical Greek used since the second century by Christians as a symbol of their religion. The word is composed of the letters ἸΧΘΥΣ, meaning fish. The individual letters make up a confessional statement of Christians, "Jesus Christ Son of God, Savior":

Ἰησοῦς: Jesus

Χριστός: Christ

Θεοῦ: God

Υἱός: Son

Σωτήρ: Savior"

Hope that helps.

It comes from a scripture where Jesus tells the apostles they will be fishers of men. That is, they will spread the word and gain converts.

Darmani + noisyneighbor gives the only right answer. fisher of men.

go raibh maith agat.

Fish in Greek is ICHTHUS -- I-CH-TH-U-S

I stands for Iesou (Jesus) CH for Christos (Christ) TH for Theos (God) U for uios (son) S for soter (saviour).

The fish is the symbol for Jesus Christ.

Know how we are now at the dawn of the age of Aquarius? Jesus was supposedly born at the dawn of the age of Pisces.