This short article is a kind of pushback against the iconoclasts of the eighth century C.E. who gouged out images of people and animals in churches and synagogues. They offend me. I am going to explore the meaning of two mosaic medallions involving fish and fishing that the iconoclasts partially destroyed in a church in Israel. These mosaic medallions continue to tell us of early Christian devotion to fish and fishermen—even where there was no fishing site in the area.
In Christian art, fish, fishing nets and fishermen became the symbolic image of Jesus or the apostles who brought salvation to believers. The metaphors drawn from the natural world, seas or rivers inhabited by varied fish and water creatures, became popular subjects in sermons and teachings of the Church Fathers, which also provided the visual source for the symbolism of such motifs in early Christian iconography.
The two mosaic medallions that will be our focus come from a church at Horvat Beit Loya (or, in Arabic, Khirbet Lehi) in the Judean lowlands of Israel about 30 miles from the Mediterranean Sea. The site has Biblical remains, but in the early sixth century a monastery with a church was constructed on the site.1 About 200 years later (during the Umayyad or Abbasid period), iconoclasts destroyed the human and animal images in the church mosaics. Repairs with colored tesserae were probably carried out immediately, but with no attempt to recreate the original images. The church was abandoned by the end of the eighth century C.E. Only its layout and the beautiful mosaics with the iconoclasts’ “adjustments” survived.
The Loya Church was a typical single-apse basilica with a nave and two side aisles. The floors were covered with richly colored mosaics. The nave mosaic consisted of medallions formed by vine tendrils. Each of the side aisles features a larger central medallion. From what remains of these two side aisle medallions we can easily make out their subjects, but without the human faces. The mosaic in the north aisle contains a sailing ship with a fisherman fishing with a rod over the prow and the helmsman steering the vessel with oars. The south aisle medallion contains two standing or walking fishermen. These medallions are visual interpretations of the Gospels.
Fish and fishing are common themes in the repertory of Roman-Byzantine murals and mosaics generally. In Christian art, fish are a symbol of the Christian soul, while the fisherman is the image of Jesus or the apostles who bring the believers into a state of salvation. In Greek, fish is ichthus. The word was used by early Christians as an acronym for “Ιησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ” (Iesous Christos, Theou 041 Yios, Soter), which translates into English as “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.”
Jesus began his ministry near the Sea of Galilee (Hebrew: Yam Kinneret) in the environment of Jewish fishermen practicing long family traditions.
Jesus’ first calling of the apostles was to fishermen working on the shore:
As he [Jesus] walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for 042 people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him. (Matthew 4:18–22; parallels Mark 1:16–20; Luke 5:9–11)
The boat, from which Jesus preached to the gathered public on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, belonged to Simon/Peter and served as a mediator between the dry land and the water, the stage for Jesus’ preaching (Luke 5:1–3). Thus the boat became the symbol associated with the church. The main part of the church, the nave, derives from the Latin navis, “ship,” thus linking the worshipers with seafaring travelers on a shared spiritual journey, protected by God from the storms of life.
Because Jesus started his ministry on the shores of the Sea of Galilee among the local Jewish community of fishermen, the fishing net and fishing rod were used as metaphors in various ways. In one of the so-called Parables of the Kingdom, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a fishing net that was “thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad” (Matthew 13:47–48). The sorting of the fish into the good and the bad draws on Jewish law that distinguishes between clean fish (fish with scales and fins) and unclean fish (Leviticus 11:9–12; Deuteronomy 14:9–10).a
The large medallions in the northern and southern aisles of the Loya Church are sophisticated visual symbols delivered to the illiterate audience coming to the church. These large rounded medallions placed in the middle of the mosaic floor in each aisle synthesized the Christian message in visual symbolism understood by all.
The medallion in the northern aisle is especially trenchant. It depicts a sailing ship and a fisherman with a rod that just caught fish on the hook at the end of the line. This is a visual interpretation of an eschatological hope, of salvation from the “sea of sin” to the salvation of the soul. The fish caught on the hook of the fisherman symbolizes the Christian soul who suffered symbolic death in the baptismal waters in order to be reborn into faith. The sailing ship on the wavy sea also signifies the salvation provided by the church, the ship in which the faithful found safety and were borne to salvation. They were also protected under the cross, symbolized by the mast and the raised yard with the fully open square sail.
The medallion from the southern aisle depicts two fishermen returning home at the end of their work day. It is a sophisticated symbolic depiction of the “fisher of men,” the first apostles, Simon/Peter and Andrew, or James and John, appointed by Jesus. The cast net hanging on the shoulder of the figure on the left symbolizes the net used by Simon/Peter and Andrew who were fishing along the shore of the Sea of Galilee when Jesus saw them in their work. The large fish carried 043 by the fisherman on the left and the smaller fish in the basket carried by the fisherman on the right may symbolize the saved Christian souls from the “sea of sin.”
The Loya Church also includes a baptistry at the southwestern end of the church. Probably this section was a later addition to the church.
The message of the fishing medallions of the Loya Church mosaic has been recaptured despite the work of the iconoclasts.2
This short article is a kind of pushback against the iconoclasts of the eighth century C.E. who gouged out images of people and animals in churches and synagogues. They offend me. I am going to explore the meaning of two mosaic medallions involving fish and fishing that the iconoclasts partially destroyed in a church in Israel. These mosaic medallions continue to tell us of early Christian devotion to fish and fishermen—even where there was no fishing site in the area. In Christian art, fish, fishing nets and fishermen became the symbolic image of Jesus or the apostles who brought […]
You have already read your free article for this month. Please join the BAS Library or become an All Access member of BAS to gain full access to this article and so much more.
The site was excavated in the 1980s by Joseph Patrich and Yoram Tsafrir of Hebrew University.
2.
This article is adapted from Zaraza Friedman, “The Fishing Medallions in the Northern and Southern Aisles Mosaic Floor of the Church Beit Loya, Israel: State of Salvation,” Parole de l’Orient 39 (2014), pp. 483–507.
