Ichthus : Authorhouse : 9781665539883 : 1665539887 : 04 Oct 2021 : The title itself is the Greek word for fish. The sequence of the Greek letters of the word forms an acrostic for Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour used by the early Christians as a secret symbol to identify themselves to one another. The focus of this historical religious novel is the letter the Apostle Paul wrote to a slave owner named Philemon on behalf his runaway slave Onesimus. Probably one of the least read and underappreciated portions of the New Testament. It is Onesimus' story which becomes the vehicle to explore and discover the dynamics of the life, expansion and early history of the Christian faith and its development, using the best of biblical scholarship as well as historical research. From his capture as a youngster by the Romans along the Rhine frontier following the defeat of the Chatti tribe and his subsequent separation from his mother who is sent to Rome, he is taken to the East to be sold into slaver