In the nearly three hundred years before Christianity was legalized by Constantine, followers of Christ faced terrible persecution. For ten generations, Christians dug nearly six hundred miles of catacombs beneath and around the city of Rome. Catacombs were underground tombs where Christians often gathered in secret for worship.
Thousands and thousands of Christians were buried there as a result of intense persecution.
Archaeologists who have explored the catacombs have found a common inscription scattered throughout them. The inscription was the Greek word “ichthus,” which was used as an acrostic for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, the Savior.” You might recognize this sign because now these fish symbols are scattered across the backs of cars belonging to Christians. How far we have come when we paste this symbol identified with martyred brothers and sisters in the first century onto the backs of our SUVs and luxury sedans in the twenty-first century.
David Platt (Multnomah, 2010)
