...or, in Gnostic understanding, was Christianity originally a Pythagorean off-shoot?
One more thing about this particular religious symbol which I forgot to mention, for those who enjoy religious symbolism, Gnostic mythology and codes ... and thankfully do not have to risk incurring the wrath of the Benedictines ;-) Some have interpreted the Vesica Piscis as evidence of the Gnostic contention that Jesus, his disciples, and the sect he belonged to was a Pythagorean sect instead of an Essene or other Jewish offshoot group (there is much debate as to which sect), but this Pythagorean connection would be highly doubtful, had not thousands died believing it, and had not Jesus' brother James and others who took up his cause (Paul) been practicing Jews. Most of the Gnostics slaughtered and burned at the stake for believing in the Pythagorean connection being the aforementioned Albigensians. Had Jesus spoken Greek, however, instead of Aramaic, it would be a closer call as brothers often do take separate spiritual paths. So far as I can tell, there is some, but little good evidence that Jesus spoke Greek, or if there is clear evidence, it is buried in some catacomb under Rome that was missed in Angels and Demons, along with the Gospel of Mary. http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/archives/greek-2/msg00315.html According to St. John, who was Greek, but is not believed to a contemporary, Jesus performed his first public miracle at a wedding feast in Cana, when he turned water into wine (John 2:1-11). Side note >> similarly, earlier Greek myth had Dionysus turning water into wine at his own wedding to Ariadne . Also in John, Jesus miraculously helped Peter and other disciples catch a large number of fish at the Sea of Galilee -- 153 fish, to be precise (John 21 : 11). Note: Christianity originally first turned up in all the exact places where Pythagorean sects were predominant (so called Asia minor), leading some to think it spread through this vector initially, before Paul and Peter took charge and spread it to Rome. The great mathematician Pythagoras, according to his disciples - which sects had been spreading for 500 years or so before Jesus, also performed this very same supernatural feat with fish. Since far more ancient times, the original "fish story" has been part of a mathematical ratio called "the measure of the fish," which produces the mystical symbol of the vesica piscis (or pisces). This is the Icthus, or sign of the fish, which of course, is still widely used today as a symbol of Christianity. Icthus is a Greek word long associated with the Pythagoreans for hundreds of years prior to Jesus. Pythagoras' disciples established religious communities throughout the Greek world and some of them were in Galilee. All were vegetarians but ate fish. The number 12 was a common theme. Men and women were admitted equally, they took vows of celibacy and all possessions were held in common. Oil was used in the rites. Celibacy was defined somewhat differently than we do today - basically it meant no commitment to a single individual, what we would call a romantic commitment. All wore white robes. Pythagoras himself was reputed to have worked many miracles of healing, including reviving several dead people. He was said to be the son of a god, Apollo, and born of a mortal mother, who was called "Parthenesis", which means virgin. The word "Parthenon" is a temple dedicated to a virgin, often her name is Athena, but she is also called Madonna. Like the great vegetarian miracle worker Pythagoras, Jesus is strangely associated with fish, but not only real fish, rather an allegorical code to explain a deep mystical relationships. The Pythagoreans had a diagram of 2 intersecting circles, one above, one below, with the circumference of one touching the center of the other. The 2 circles represented the spiritual and the material domains. The "transcendental" region where the circles intersect resembles a fish shape-exactly as used as the symbol for Christianity. The Pythagoreans even gave this symbol its latinized name, vesica piscis. The ratio of the height of this fish symbol to its length is 153 : 265, which is the *nearest whole number ratio to the square root of 3* (1.732 ...) and the controlling ratio of the equilateral triangle. Anyway, remember that key symbolic number =153. Now the stories of both Pythagoras and Jesus have them telling disciple fishermen - who have failed to catch fish all day, to now cast their nets again. Miraculously, the nets come in full. Pythagoras was said to have correctly predicted the exact number of fish caught but the mystic number is not revealed, after all it is a Gnostic story. But in the Gospel story of Jesus the number of fish caught is given by St. John, a Greek, as exactly 153. Coincidence? Dan Brown missed his chance in Angels & Demons (don't waste your time with that one) but the NT book of John is my favorite by far, and if some new Dead Sea Scroll should turn up with you-know-who speaking you-know-what, then duck and cover... as who knows what is on the way... what do those four horsemen represent, anyway? http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/earth2.htm Jones
