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Ichthys and ROTAS
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One of the favourite secret symbols of early Christians is the fish. Fishes feature prominently in the Gospels, and there is evidence that fish is eaten in the early centuries with the bread and wine at the communion meal. But there is also excellent mystery in a fish.
In Greek, the language of the early church, the word for fish is ichthys. This is taken to stand for Iesos Christos Theou Yios Soter, meaning 'Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour'.
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More of a puzzle, and less certainly Christian, is the square of letters which has been found in Pompeii and even in a remote extremity of the Roman empire, at Cirencester in England. At first sight it appears to be meaningless, for the five five-letter sequences are not all Latin words.
| | | | | | R | O | T | A | S | | | | | | | O | P | E | R | A | | | | | | | T | E | N | E | T | | | | | | | A | R | E | P | O | | | | | | | S | A | T | O | R |
But a little rearrangement will work wonders.
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'I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending', saith the Lord in Revelation in the New Testament. If we remove A and O twice over from the ROTAS square, we are left with a group of letters which can be reorganized to spell Pater Noster (Our Father), also twice over and in the shape of a cross.
So the answer, for those in the know, is:
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| | | | | | | A | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | P | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | A | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | T | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | E | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | R | | | | | | | | | A | | P | A | T | E | R | N | O | S | T | E | R | | O | | | | | | | | O | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | S | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | T | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | E | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | R | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | O | | | | | | | |
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