The Lamb Christology of the Apocalypse of John
An Investigation into Its Origins and Rhetorical Force
by Loren L. Johns
This is a study of the symbolic meaning of arnion (lamb) in the Apocalypse of John as the central feature of the Christology of Revelation. Loren L. Johns argues that arnion did not refer to an aggressive, militant ram in extant Greek literature prior to the Apocalypse, nor did it normally denote the expiatory sacrificial lamb. Rather, it symbolized vulnerability in the extant literature.The author examines the symbolic antecedents of arnion in the Hebrew Bible, while ranging throughout the literary evidence from the ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman era, even touching on the evidence from Homer and Aesop’s Fables traditions. He analyzes closely the evidence that has been offered in support of a militant lamb-redeemer figure in the apocalyptic traditions of Early Judaism and concludes that none of the writings that predate the Apocalypse and that are cited in support of this tradition is free from Christian editorializing. Furthermore, the Christology of the Apocalypse is not militant. The blood on the lamb in Rev. 19 is not from the defeated enemies of God; it is from the slaughter of the lamb.Loren L. Johns concludes that the Lamb Christology of the Apocalypse has an ethical force – that the author develops his Lamb Christology specifically to encourage his audience to the kind of faithful witness that he was convinced would result in their death as innocent lambs in much the same way that Jesus’ witness did.
- By (author) Loren L Johns
Other Titles in this Series
Hidden Criticism?
The Methodology and Plausibility of the Search for a Counter-Imperial Subtext in Paul
Volume 392
Die Ethik des Johannesevangeliums im sprachlichen Feld des Handelns
Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik / Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics. Band V
Volume 359
Sturmfahrt und Schiffbruch
Zur lukanischen Verwendung eines literarischen Topos in Apostelgeschichte 27,1-28,6
Volume 274
Sunde und Rechtfertigung bei Paulus
Eine exegetische Untersuchung zum paulinischen Sundenverstandnis aus soteriologischer Sicht
Volume 318
Constructing a New Covenant
Discursive Strategies in the Damascus Document and Second Corinthians
Volume 233
Ephesians and Empire
An Evaluation of the Epistle's Subversion of Roman Imperial Ideology
Volume 573
Thaumaturgic Prowess
Autonomous and Dependent Miracle-Working in Mark's Gospel and the Second Temple Period
Volume 491
Pioneer and Perfecter of Faith
Jesus' Faith as the Climax of Israel's History in the Epistle to the Hebrews
Volume 338
Language and Identity in Ancient Narratives
The Relationship between Speech Patterns and Social Context in the Acts of the Apostles, Acts of John, and Acts of Philip
Volume 370
Pistis and the Righteous One
A Study of Romans 1:17 against the Background of Scripture and Second Temple Jewish Literature
Volume 235
The Destroyer and the Lamb
The Relationship between Angelomorphic and Lamb Christology in the Book of Revelation
Volume 203
Sunde als Zielverfehlung bei Paulus
Eine Studie zum stoisch-sokratischen Kolorit paulinischer Hamartiologie
Volume 614
The Memory of Ignatius of Antioch
The Martyr as a Locus of Christian Identity, Remembering and Remembered
Volume 581
John 4:1-42 among the Biblical Well Encounters
Pentateuchal and Johannine Narrative Reconsidered
Volume 542
Redescribing Jesus’ Divinity Through a Social Science Theory
An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Forgiveness and Divine Identity in Ancient Judaism and Mark 2:1-12
Volume 438
Similar Books
‘For You I Study, For You I Work, For You I Live, For You I Am Ready To Even Give My Life’
Essays in Honour of Francis (Frank) J Moloney, SDB
A Late Antique Harrowing of Hell and Its Medieval Reception
Eusebius of Alexandria's Sermons 15 and 17 (CPG 5524; 5526) and their Latin Rewritings
Volume 99
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Fear, Fear of God, God-Fearers
Philological and Historical Perspectives on the World of Ancient Judaism and Christianity
Legal Visuality
Exegesis, Ambiguity, and Dissimulation of the Donation of Constantine in the Early Modern Period
Liturgia semper reformanda
Adaptations and accommodations in the liturgy in light of canon 838 of the Code of Canon Law
Pre-Christian Religions, Rituals, and Beliefs in Central and Northern Europe
Interdisciplinary Investigations
Volume 5
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
Shame in the Worlds of the Hebrew Bible and Akkadian Texts
A Linguistic Study and Its Implications
Volume 33
The Body
Lived, Cultured, Adorned: Essays on Dress and the Body in the Bible and Ancient Near East in Honor of Nili S. Fox
