📖 Biblical Definition
The Lamb Motif runs from Abel's firstling (Gen 4) through Abraham's ram (Gen 22) to the Passover lamb (Ex 12) to the daily temple sacrifices to John the Baptist's declaration Behold the Lamb of God (Jn 1:29) to Revelation's Lamb on the throne (Rev 5, 7, 22). The lamb is Scripture's most sustained substitutionary image. Christ is the Lamb the patriarchs glimpsed and the saints worship forever.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
(Biblical motif.) The lamb as substitutionary sacrifice; from Abel to Revelation; climaxing in Christ as Lamb of God.
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Abel's firstling (Gen 4:4); Abraham's ram caught in the thicket (Gen 22); the Passover lamb (Ex 12); the daily temple lambs (Ex 29:38-42); the suffering servant brought as a lamb to the slaughter (Isa 53:7); John the Baptist's twice Behold the Lamb of God (Jn 1:29, 36); Christ slain (1 Cor 5:7); the Lamb on the throne (Rev 5, 22).
The Apocalypse refers to Christ as the Lamb (arnion) 28 times. The Lamb is sacrifice and ruler at once: slain, yet living; meek, yet conquering; bearing wrath, yet ushering in the new creation.
📖 Key Scripture
Genesis 22:8 — "And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering."
Isaiah 53:7 — "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb."
John 1:29 — "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
Revelation 5:6 — "And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne... stood a Lamb as it had been slain."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern Christianity often softens lamb-imagery to gentle pastoralism; Scripture pairs the Lamb with the Lion (Rev 5:5-6) — both, simultaneously, for the same Christ.
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Abraham's answer to Isaac's question (where is the lamb?) is a prophecy: God will provide himself a lamb. The whole Bible is the unfolding of that provision.
Revelation 5 is the climactic gathering: Christ is the Lion of the tribe of Judah; what John sees is a Lamb as it had been slain. Lion and Lamb in one figure. Conqueror and sacrifice united. The household's worship is to the Lamb on the throne.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew seh (lamb); Greek amnos and arnion.
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Hebrew seh — lamb; the term in Genesis 22 and Isaiah 53.
Greek arnion — little lamb, lambkin; the dominant Revelation term, evoking both vulnerability and triumph.
Usage
"Abraham's answer was a prophecy."
"Lion and Lamb in one figure."
"Conqueror and sacrifice united."