Dolphins and Anchors - Good Luck and Crucifixion

Many people are missing the significance of the Dolphin and Anchor motif that became a common Christian symbol. In my 2007 research, and in my books, Unkilling Jesus and The Mark of Titus, I discussed how this symbol had become associated with the Flavians because it had been an early family symbol connected to or borrowed from early Roman symbology. The fact that it appeared on Flavian era coins is proof that the Flavians saw it as central to their family. That the same symbol became associated with Christianity is a telltale clue to the fact that the original models for Christ were the two Flavian generals who tried to have themselves accepted as the Messiah of the Jews (Josephus was the first to recognize this). This was a propaganda ploy intended to tie the Flavian symbol with the effort to usurp Jewish prophesies. The Romans used similar symbology to create the symbol for the Roman Pax, the Roman peace, which attempted to associate Roman imagery with peace and other Roman values in the empire. 

I have also noticed that associating the Flavians, in particular Titus, with this Dolphin and Anchor symbol could relate to the good luck maxim, probably discovered much later (but also associated with the Flavians), which states: “make haste slowly” (festina lente) which could refer to the lesson inherent in the various trips by the Flavians that involved going by sea rather than over land. The implication is that if you take a ship, which appears to go slowly, but arrives much sooner, you will be fortunate. So, Titus and Vespasian going by sea is symbolic of that principle. It could (later) have been symbolic of the slow but sure growth of Christianity over the centuries.

I contend that the imagery of dolphins, anchors and fish in the catacombs of Rome is indicative, not of Christianity at all, but of the fledgling Titus-worship that engulfed the empire in the aftermath of the deification of Titus. Only later, after discovery of the catacombs by Christians, did this imagery become associated with Christianity – because of what had been described as the acts of Jesus at Lake Gennesaret. In other words, the imagery of “fishing for men” was at first associated with Titus (as Josephus describes) and only later, after the gospels were written (by altering the writings of Marcus Agrippa), were they associated with Jesus. 

Additionally, the concept of Christ’s crucifixion as a human sacrifice for humanity was initially associated with Titus as well since it was thought that he had died too early and that his death was a sacrifice for mankind – only later did this death relate to a crucifixion of Jesus at which point the imagery of the dolphin on an anchor became the man (god) on a cross. The symbolic transition from Titus to Jesus was thus completed.

Later, it is likely that this same symbology became associated with Paul who had been shipwrecked. On the cover of James Valliant’s book, Creating Christ, we see a symbol (which was supposedly invented much later) that has an anchor with two fish and two men swimming around it. This could refer to Paul's strife in the sea, his ability to survive, as well as the Church's growth under his leadership.

Then, of course, there is the association of the fish symbol with fertility, the womb of the Virgin Mother, as well as the sea voyage of Jonah. This connects the symbology, not only to Jewish concepts, but also to pagan concepts like the trident and the god Poseidon. This brings us full circle.

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