It was only at this point, as Christianity was officially instated by Rome, that the Cross finally emerged as the leading visual symbol of the faith.
We are told that the Emperor Constantine’s own mother, Helena, following her son’s famous vision of a Cross in the sky before a decisive military victory, traveled to the Holy Land in 325-328 CE and discovered the True Cross, thus helping to institutionalize the shift from the dolphin-and-anchor motif used by both the Flavians and the Christians to a new symbol that had no connection to the Flavians.
Let us now examine those first Christian symbols that came before the Cross and how such symbolism came to be used by both the emperor of Rome and early Christians. How common was this fish-and-anchor combination of symbols? Was it common enough to account for an overlap in its use, despite what we have been taught was total opposition between the groups using it? And, if not, what could account for this coincidence?
Apart from the fish or the Cross, at least as common and ancient a symbol of Christianity was the dolphin-and-anchor motif used by the Roman Emperor Titus. The crude image we have seen of a single fish drawn with two curved lines may strike one as the most primitive original, but at least as old, and perhaps even more widespread than the fish alone, was an anchor attended by one or more dolphins or fish. Here, for example, is a late Christian sample from an early 3rd Century catacomb with the inscription “fish of the living”:
3rd Century Christian inscription
Here is a much earlier example dated to the early 2nd Century found in the very oldest Christian site in the world, the Catacombs of St. Domitilla. As mentioned earlier, Domitilla was the granddaughter of the Emperor Vespasian and the niece of the Flavian emperors Titus and Domitian:
Christian inscription, 2nd Century Catacombs of St. Domitilla
Most ancients regarded the dolphin as a kind of fish, indeed, the King of Fish. Even today the dolphin is associated with Jesus Christ. This 2nd Century Christian ring shows the same variation found on Titus’s coins:
2nd Century Christian ring
Here is another 2nd to 4th century example of the Christian motif:
2nd-4th Century Christian ringstone
Sometimes this symbol is surrounded by the letters that confirm its Christian nature:
We can also note this in this 3rd-4th Century example of a Christian insignia from the British Museum:
The same motif was apparently used in this artifact that predates any archeological evidence of Christianity (that has been acknowledged). It is a 1st Century cameo from the Flavian era in the Hermitage museum at St. Petersburg. Remember, no ruler had used this motif on coins since the Seleucid Empire four centuries before the Emperor Titus resurrected it for his coins:
Flavian era 1st Century cameo
Notice how the subtle rope depicted in the cameo above would later replace the dolphin entirely in this modern-day Christian version of the symboclass="underline"
In one of the very earliest examples of a Christian symbol from one of the oldest catacombs we can see that the first Christians sometimes represented themselves with two fish juxtaposed beside a trident instead of an anchor:
Early 2nd Century Christian catacomb
The Temple of Venus erected during the late 1st Century Flavian dynasty, again before all acknowledged archeological evidence of Christianity, was also decorated with a dolphin-and-trident motif repeated at the top of the pediment:
Dolphin-and-trident motif, Flavian Temple of Venus, 1st Century
We see this motif appearing on the very pagan 2nd Century basilica of Neptune in Rome, as welclass="underline"
Dolphin-and-trident, Basilica of Neptune, 2nd Century
Christians sometimes juxtaposed an anchor with a fish, as here in the Catacombs of St. Sebastian at Rome:
Here is another example from the Catacombs of St. Sebastian:
From the Christian Catacombs of Priscilla, this fish is facing an anchor:
An anchor alone or juxtaposed with a fish or dolphin is commonly seen on countless early Christian rings, like these:
Early 2nd Century legionary ring
Here’s a variation from a 3rd or 4th Century Roman Christian intaglio ring:
And another of the same age:
All of these images comprise a closely related family of symbols used by Christians during at least the first three centuries, almost to the total exclusion of the symbol of the Cross. While these anchor/fish Christian symbols have been found in abundance, only 20 instances of Christians using a cross as a symbol over the first four centuries have ever been discovered in Rome’s famous catacombs.
The anchor had long been a universal pagan symbol of safety, security and homecoming. The New Testament itself states of Christian salvation: “We have this hope as anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf.” (58) This passage refers to the annual Yom Kippur entrance into the Holy of Holies by the Jewish High Priest in order to supplicate God for the atonement of the sins of the people—and how Christ himself had supplanted this important religious observance.
Oddly, St. Clement of Alexandria did not cite this passage from the New Testament when recommending the anchor as a Christian symbol (in the list where he also recommends the dolphin). Nor does he cite any previous use of the anchor by Jews, who did use an anchor on some of their coins. Instead, he mentions only pagan precedents from the Seleucid Empire as a pedigree for his recommendation.
Some have observed that the anchor forms a kind of Cross (though not all of its representations suggest this). Thus, they speculate, this makes it an appropriate symbol of both Christ and Christian hope for redemption through the Crucifixion.
However, the anchor is referenced by St. Paul as a Christian metaphor before the Cross itself was used as a Christian symbol, as we have seen. When employing the anchor metaphor in their earliest literature, Christians associated it with hope, in Latin “spes,” or, Spes in Christo; spes in Deo; spes in Deo Christo, as rendered in the traditional Catholic formulation.
Above, we can see many examples of two fishes or dolphins facing or aiming at the anchor. This has been interpreted as the Christian’s quest for hope and redemption and the search for knowledge of Christ. When the symbol was depicted as a dolphin entwined around an anchor, it made the anchor an alternative to a cross with the dolphin representing Christ himself, as can be seen even on this pendant that is still offered to the faithful today:
Here is a modern-day Catholic pendant with Christ himself in the place of the dolphin on an anchor:
A distinction between Christians and Christ is suggested in the variations of the symbolism. The fish (or multiple fishes) juxtaposed with or aiming at an anchor seems to represent the Christian follower at burial sites, while the fish or dolphin entwined or superimposed on the anchor seems to represent Christ, especially on rings, seals, and even modern pendants.