The symbolism of the lamb in the New Testament

Abstract

This thesis will be divided into four chapters: Chapter One deals with the Old Testament background in participation of the ritual and ancient religious sacrifices. In various religions of the ancient world, the search for strengthening the relationship between God and man was the search of offering him various types of sacrifices in which agriculture plays an important role. The second chapter then will be regarding Old Testament books that hold the subject of the lamb sacrifices in the history of Israel like: The Passover lambs, mentioned in the book of Exodus, which gave their blood for the ransom of Israel from Egyptian slavery. These will shape the focus of life and death of Jesus Christ as the “lamb that was led to slaughter” (Is 53,7) “who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1,29) found in his death and resurrection. In this fulfillment of the great message of the coming redeemer of the Old Testament, I will give account as well of the “lamb” in the Jewish sacrifices found in Leviticus, and one of the messianic prophecies “the suffering servant” found in the book of Isaiah. It will preserve all the form that is hidden in the Old Testament concerning the “Lamb” that will later be known through the New Testament authors. The second chapter will endeavors to reveal “the symbolism of the Lamb” first, in the synoptic gospels and after that in the gospel according St. John. Both represent to us Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s plan, common in the innocence and gentleness of the sacrificial lamb featured in the Old Testament. Therefore, in the Gospel of John, God supplied the perfect lamb for the substitutionary atoning sacrifice for sin (Ex 12; Is 53, 6-7) of everyone, once and forever. In the last chapter we confirm, through the New Testament authors, that Jesus was the true “Lamb of God”, the messiah and the continual sacrifice that many prophets in the Old Testament announced. In 1 Corinthians 5, 7 Jesus is identified as the Passover lamb. He is also seen as the suffering servant; the suffering lamb mentioned in Isaiah 53 and the fulfilment of the lambs in the Jewish sacrifice. The claims of Divine holiness and justice were perfectly met in the atoning death of Jesus Christ that God "is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rm 3,26).