Concept
ChristologyThe Lamb
From Abraham's "God will provide himself a lamb" to the Lamb standing as slain in heaven — the Bible's longest single image.
#typology#sacrifice
- 19passages
- 114original words
- 240cross-references
- 1thread through it
The words behind it
Hebrew and Greek standing in the 18 passages listed below — not a lexicon of "the lamb" itself. The number on each word is how often it occurs in those passages; the connecting words the languages use everywhere are set aside so the words that carry meaning can be seen.
Hebrew70
60 more hebrew words ▾
Greek44
34 more greek words ▾
The passages
The first 18 of 19 passages this site attaches to the concept, in canon order. Each row says where it came from.
Old Testament14
- Genesis 22:7listed key text
Then Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” “Here I am, my son,” he replied. “The fire and the wood are here,” said Isaac, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Commentary on Genesis 22:71 voice
Therefore he brings his well-beloved son to be sacrificed, and offered promptly him whom he had received late; nor is he restrained by being called by the name of father, when his son called him "Father," and he replied, "My son." Dear pledges of love are these names, but the commands of God are loved still more. And so although their hearts felt for each other, their purpose remained firm.
Ambrose of Milan· On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus, Book 2, Section 97, 397Patristic
- Exodus 12:3listed key text
Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man must select a lamb for his family, one per household.
Commentary on Exodus 12:31 voice
"The lamb," the Lord says, "must be without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats." In another place of Holy Writ, it is prescribed that if anyone is unable to keep the Passover in the first month, he is to do so in the second. According to the regulation above, anyone who is unable to sacrifice a lamb may substitute a kid.
Jerome· HOMILY 91, 420Patristic
- Exodus 23:19topical floor
Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
Commentary on Exodus 23:191 voice
Our physical nature rebels against the thought of making the nourishment of the living a garnish for the dead or the cause of life an accessory to the death of the body.
Clement of Alexandria· The Stromata Book 2, 215Patristic
- Exodus 29:38thread stop
This is what you are to offer regularly on the altar, each day: two lambs that are a year old.(opening verse of the passage)
Commentary on Exodus 29:381 voice
Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar,....
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
- Leviticus 3:7topical floor
If he is presenting a lamb for his offering, he must present it before the LORD.
Commentary on Leviticus 3:71 voice
If he offer a lamb for his offering,.... Which was of the flock, and must be of the first year; this is a rule laid down by Maimonides (i), that where ever this word is used in the law, it signifies one of the first year: then shall he offer it before the Lord; bring it into the court, and present it to the priest. (i) Maaseh Hakorbanot, c. 1. sect. 14.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
- Leviticus 4:32topical floor
If, however, he brings a lamb as a sin offering, he must bring an unblemished female.
Commentary on Leviticus 4:321 voice
And if he bring a lamb for a sin offering,.... As he might if he would; the Jews observe, that in all places a lamb is put before a goat, as being more excellent in its kind; but here it is mentioned after, which shows, they say, that they are equally alike (p): he shall bring it a female without blemish; typical of Christ the Lamb of God, without spot and without blemish, 1Pe 1:19. (p) T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 57. 2. & Ceritot, fol. 28. 2.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
- Leviticus 5:6topical floor
and he must bring his guilt offering to the LORD for the sin he has committed: a female lamb or goat from the flock as a sin offering. And the priest will make atonement for him concerning his sin.
Commentary on Leviticus 5:61 voice
And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord, for the sin which he hath sinned,....
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
- Leviticus 22:23topical floor
You may present as a freewill offering an ox or sheep that has a deformed or stunted limb, but it is not acceptable in fulfillment of a vow.
Commentary on Leviticus 22:231 voice
Either a bullock, or a lamb that hath anything superfluous, or lacking in its parts,....
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
- Leviticus 23:12topical floor
On the day you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a year-old lamb without blemish as a burnt offering to the LORD,
Commentary on Leviticus 23:121 voice
And ye shall offer that day, when ye wave the sheaf,.... Besides the daily sacrifice of the morning and evening, and the additional offerings made on everyone of the seven days of the feast of unleavened bread: an he lamb without blemish of the first year, for a burnt offering unto the Lord; typical of the perfect and immaculate Lamb of God, whose sufferings are fitly signified by a burnt offering; and which were endured at the time he became the firstfruits of his people, and sanctified them.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
- Numbers 6:12topical floor
He must rededicate his time of separation to the LORD and bring a year-old male lamb as a guilt offering. But the preceding days shall not be counted, because his separation was defiled.
- Numbers 7:15topical floor
one young bull, one ram, and one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering;
Commentary on Numbers 7:151 voice
One young bullock,.... Of three years old, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem: one ram; of two years old, as the same Targums: one lamb of the first year, for a burnt offering; of which see Lev 1:3.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed
- Numbers 7:21topical floor
one young bull, one ram, and one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering;
- Numbers 28:3topical floor
And tell them that this is the offering made by fire you are to present to the LORD as a regular burnt offering each day: two unblemished year-old male lambs.(opening verse of the passage)
- Isaiah 53:7listed key text
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
New Testament4
- John 1:29listed key text
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Commentary on John 1:291 voice
Abel knew how to divide when he offered a sacrifice from "the firstlings of his flock," teaching that the gifts of the earth, which had degenerated in the sinner, will not please God. But those in which the grace of the divine mystery shone forth will please him. And so he prophesied that we were to be redeemed from fault through the passion of the Lord, of whom it is written: "Here is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Thus, too, he made an offering from the firstlings, that he might signify the firstborn.
Ambrose of Milan· On the Sacrament of the Incarnation of the Lord 1.4, 397Patristic
- 1 Corinthians 5:7thread stop
Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
- 1 Peter 1:19listed key text
but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or spot.
Commentary on 1 Peter 1:191 voice
" And, for fear you should fly to that statement for a licence to fornication, on the ground that you will be sinning against a thing which is yours, not the Lord's, he takes you away from yourself, and awards you, according to his previous disposition, to Christ: "And ye are not your own; "immediately opposing (thereto), "for bought ye are with a price"-the blood, to wit, of the Lord: "glorify and extol the Lord in your body.
Tertullian· On Modesty, 220Patristic
- Revelation 5:6listed key text
Then I saw a Lamb who appeared to have been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
Commentary on Revelation 5:61 voice
John also, the Lord's disciple, when beholding the sacerdotal and glorious advent of His kingdom, says in the Apocalypse: "I turned to see the voice that spake with me.
Irenaeus· Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 4, 202Patristic
Voices on these passages
Commentary matched to the verses above, each named with its source — the full pool sits on each verse page.
Therefore he brings his well-beloved son to be sacrificed, and offered promptly him whom he had received late; nor is he restrained by being called by the name of father, when his son called him "Father," and he replied, "My son." Dear pledges of love are these names, but the commands of God are loved still more. And so although their hearts felt for each other, their purpose remained firm.
Ambrose of Milan· On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus, Book 2, Section 97Patristic
Genesis 22:7
"The lamb," the Lord says, "must be without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats." In another place of Holy Writ, it is prescribed that if anyone is unable to keep the Passover in the first month, he is to do so in the second. According to the regulation above, anyone who is unable to sacrifice a lamb may substitute a kid.
Jerome· HOMILY 91Patristic
Exodus 12:3
Our physical nature rebels against the thought of making the nourishment of the living a garnish for the dead or the cause of life an accessory to the death of the body.
Clement of Alexandria· The Stromata Book 2Patristic
Exodus 23:19
Study it deeper
6 moves a student can make from here. Every one opens a tool on this site.
Trace one word to every place it stands
A word page lists every verse that word occurs in, with its definition and its range of meaning. Start with the roots that occur most under the passages above.
Walk out from the passages
The passages above carry 240 cross-references between them — links from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, the great 1830s reference work, together with the reader-voted index at OpenBible.info. The most-linked destinations:
Read it in both testaments
Set the earliest passage beside the New Testament one and ask what changed and what did not — the shape of the lamb before Christ and after him.
Read the whole chapter around it
A verse quoted alone can mean almost anything. Open Genesis 22 in the reader, where the Hebrew or Greek sits under every line.
See everywhere else it appears
The search page is a doorway: it returns verses, word studies, people, places and studies for one term at once.
Walk it stop by stop
A thread takes the passages in order and stops at each one with commentary, so the idea unfolds instead of arriving all at once.
Where this comes from
Isaac's question on Moriah — "where is the lamb?" — is answered four times: by a ram in the thicket, by the Passover lamb in Egypt, by the daily sacrifice in the tabernacle, and finally by John the Baptist pointing at a Man (John 1:29).
Revelation keeps the title after the resurrection: the One on the throne is still "a Lamb as it had been slain." The wounds are permanent; the image never gets traded up.