First Lutheran Church

THE SACRED MONOGRAMS AT FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH

IHS or IHC—These are the first three letters (iota, eta, sigma) of the Greek word IHCOYC which means “Jesus”. The bar over the letters indicates abbreviation. This is the simple explanation, but for those who may be interested in more detail, we add the following:

I (iota)—There is no “J” in the Greek alphabet. “I” is used instead, but it has the sound of “j”.

H (eta)—This is the Greek long “e” which looks somewhat like our letter “n”. In designing the mono gram, the left side of this letter is extended upward to meet the bar and form a cross. This makes an artistic and devotional design, but it also causes the Greek letter “e” to resemble our letter “h”. For this reason the middle letter is generally read as “h instead of “e”.

S or C (sigma)—There are two forms of this Greek letter. One resembling our letter “S” is used when it occurs at the end of a word, and another resembling our “C” when it occurs at other places within a word. There fore, IHS and IHC mean the same. The IHC is said to be of more ancient usage, but we more often see the IHS which is the way it appears in the carving on the front of our high altar and at other places where this Christian monogram is used.