CHRISTIAN INSCRIPTIONS IN EPHESUS AND SARDIS

Image by Matt Rowell (Sardis, Turkey 2025)

Early Christian Inscriptions

Few symbols from the early Christian era are as compact, mysterious, and impressive as the inscriptions engraved into stone, found at the sites of the biblical cities of Ephesus and Sardis, located in Roman Asia Minor (modern Turkey). Most of these inscriptions are known as “ICHTHYS,” the Greek word ἰχθύς, which means “fish.”

These inscriptions are scratched into tombs, carved into marble slabs, and painted in various dwellings. The ICHTHYS serves as a theological acrostic (Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς Σωτήρ — Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior) and as a way of signaling the presence of Christian influence and gatherings. It was a discreet way to give one a sense of belonging among people who could potentially face suspicion or persecution.

These two Anatolian cities, where these symbols and inscriptions often appear, are key locations in Asia Minor that have received considerable attention from archaeology and scholarship. These sites also offer significant insight into the identity of early Christianity in antiquity.

Ephesus

One of the largest and most diverse cities in the Roman East was the bustling city of Ephesus. There is a consistent flow of Christian witness through its streets and cemeteries. The ICHTHYS can take many different forms at Ephesus. It features designs that resemble wheels or stars, as well as the well-known two-arc fish most would recognize today. These symbols are occasionally interpreted by archaeologists and tour guides as variants of the ICHTHYS symbol etched on buildings and grave markers.[1]

These marks frequently have Greek inscriptions that use expressions that refer to new life or resurrection; however, they are to be interpreted in light of religious conviction and burial traditions. Mark R. Fairchild’s research on Christian beginnings in Ephesus shows how these visual signs functioned in a busy city. They helped identify a religious minority that was still engaged in many parts of public life.[2]

As an expert in fieldwork at sites near Ephesus, Mark Wilson has published his findings on the inscriptions found in the Aegean region. He uses their original locations to emphasize the significance of interpreting these symbols. Their placement—from walls facing the street to the very private interiors of a house to a sarcophagus—demonstrates that Christians were identifying themselves as such in every conceivable context[3]. And when they wrote on an existing temple, monument, or placed their symbols alongside previously inscribed stones, they were making a bold statement about who they were and what they believed—often noting that Jesus Christ is God and King!

Sardis

The ancient capital of Lydia, Sardis, gives us yet another picture of the early underground church. Its urban fabric shows monumental churches and Christian epigraphy ruling the day. But underneath was another Sardis—a city of the dead, where Christians were burying their loved ones with the fish.[4] There was more to it, as they took the image of the fish from the tomb to construct a visible and self-evident Christology: Jesus is the resurrection and the life. They were living in Sardis and dying in Sardis in the time of John and Paul. Yet, they remained hopeful—hopeful in the promises and purposes of Jesus Christ, and his inaugurated kingdom, which existed as a contradiction to the powers and kingdoms of the world.

Inscriptions from the Christian first century carved in religious temples of Roman Asia Minor stand as striking testimonies to the interaction between the emerging Christian identity and the pagan environment of the Greco-Roman world. More of these inscriptions exist in Asia Minor than in any other province of the Roman Empire, and they are much earlier and much more numerous than any other Christian inscriptions from the early part of the imperial period.

Representing Light and Life in Christ

The inscriptions shed light not only on the rise of Christianity but also on its complex relationship with civic religion. For the early Christians, to be part of a secret society that worshiped the God of the Jews and the Christ had its risks, especially if your name was on an inscription in the public forum. Yet for those that did so, these were not acts of secret rebellion, but rather they claimed the victory of Christ over the mostly meaningless religious idols.

The ichthys is rich in multiple meanings, not just one. First, from a theological stance, it can serve as a very condensed confession of faith — one that demonstrates who Jesus is. Second, it serves as the symbol of a kindred community, which allowed believers to identify themselves to others, especially in seasons of intense persecution and opposition. Third, it serves as a marquee of the church’s presence in that area.[5]

The research of Christian inscriptions in Roman Asia Minor is vitally important in gaining an understanding of the social, cultural, and theological development of early Christianity. Inscriptions offer direct evidence of how Christians claimed their identities in a world overwhelmingly saturated with Greco-Roman religion and divine cults.[6] They also provide insight into the kind of communities that Christians were forming at this time—communities that were evidently marked by a somewhat unique regional character and that, as certain scholars argue, constituted a kind of "post-Constantinian" milieu certainly by the middle of the 4th century.

Reading the Stones

The markings serve as an intersectional tool for scholars who study the culture in urban life, architecture, and politics in the world of the early Christian church. Not only were cities like Ephesus and Sardis major urban centers of governance and commerce—they were also the stage on which local Christian communities sought to make their presence felt, amid the temples, theaters, and agoras that constituted the local "cult" of the urban populace.

By studying the ways these local communities left visible traces of their presence, we can reconstruct the civic lives of these early Christians. This, in turn, would allow scholars to determine the experiences and influences of the church as it existed in a very intense imperial and political climate. And it would offer one insight into the religious worldviews Christians embraced, even in the face of religious persecution and opposition.

[1] Mark R. Fairchild, Christian Origins in Ephesus and Asia Minor (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017), 142–44.

[2] Fairchild, Christian Origins, 148.

[3] Mark Wilson, Biblical Turkey: A Guide to Jewish and Christian Sites of Asia Minor (Istanbul: Ege Yayınları, 2010), 182–83.

[4] Wilson, Biblical Turkey, 236–37.

[5] Mark Wilson, “The Search for Early Jewish and Christian Inscriptions in Asia Minor,” Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin 53 (2008): 38–40.

[6] David A. deSilva, A Week in the Life of Ephesus (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2020), 97–99.