e and Words of Christ," says that a fish stood
for his _name_, from the significance of the Greek letters in the word
that expresses the idea, and for this reason he was called a fish. But,
we may ask, why was Buddha not only called Fo, or Po, but _Dag-Po_,
which was literally the Fish Po, or Fish Buddha? The fish did not stand
for his name. The idea that Jesus was called a fish because the Messiah
is designated "Dag" in the Talmud, is also an unsatisfactory
explanation.

Julius Africanus (an early Christian writer) says:

"Christ is the great Fish taken by the fish-hook of God, and
whose flesh nourishes the whole world."[355:1]

"The fish fried
Was Christ that died,"

is an old couplet.[355:2]

Prosper Africanus calls Christ,

"The great fish who satisfied for himself the disciples on the
shore, and offered himself as a fish to the whole
world."[355:3]

The _Serpent_ was also an emblem of Christ Jesus, or in other words,
represented Christ, among some of the early Christians.

Moses _set up_ a brazen _serpent_ in the wilderness, and Christian
divines have seen in this a type of Christ Jesus. Indeed, the Gospels
sanction this; for it is written:

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the
Son of man be lifted up."

From this serpent, Tertullian asserts, the early sect of Christians
called _Ophites_ took their rise. Epiphanius says, that the "Ophites
sprung out of the Nicolaitans and Gnostics, who were so called from the
_serpent_, which they worshiped." "The Gnostics," he adds, "_taught that
the ruler of the world was of a dracontic form_." The Ophites preserved
live serpents in their sacred chest, and looked upon them as the
_mediator_ between them and God. Manes, in the third century, taught
serpent worship in Asia Minor, under the name of Christianity,
promulgating that

"_Christ was an incarnation of the Great Serpent, who glided
over the cradle of the Virgin Mary, when she was asleep, at
the age of a year and a half._"[355:4]

"The Gnostics," says Irenaeus, "represented the Mind (the Son, the
Wisdom) in the form of a serpent," and "the Ophites," says Epiphanius,
"have a veneration for the serpent; they esteem him the same as Christ."
"They even quote the Gospels," says Tertullian, "to prove that Christ
was an imitation of the serpent."[356:1]

The question now arises, Why was the Christian Saviour represente