Lamb Of God Research Articles

Reinterpreting the Participle ὁ αἴρων in John 1:29. A Proposal for “who carries”

In John 1:29, John the Baptist, upon seeing Jesus, exclaims: ἴδε ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου. Most prominent English translations render the Greek participle ὁ αἴρων in John 1:29 as “who takes away.” However, the authors of this article present evidence that John 1:29 contains an intertextual reference to the figure of the Servant of YHWH from Isa 53:7. In light of this, the proper interpretation of the participle ὁ αἴρων is better understood as “who takes up and bears. “Therefore, the proposed translation of John the Baptist’s words in John 1:29 is: “Behold, the Lamb of God who carries the sin of the world.”

The ‘Lamb of God’ in the early Middle Ages: a zooarchaeological perspective

ABSTRACT Medieval ecclesiastical estates have long been linked to vast flocks of wool-producing sheep that underpinned the wealth of the nation well into the sixteenth century. Recent surveys of English medieval animal remains have found evidence for an exceptionally high quantity of sheep at some of the earliest monastic communities established in England from the seventh century AD. The association between religious ideology and sheep is integral to teachings from the Bible, but sheep were also of economic value, and these ideas are considered alongside the changing meaning and value of flocks, and the increase in wool production in medieval England.

The concept of “the Lamb of God” («ὁ ἀµνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ») in English, German and Russian translations of the Gospel of John

The interpretation of biblical concepts is a complex translation problem, the method of literal translation cannot solve it. The search for lexical matches in the target language is not always systematic. A comprehensive solution to this problem is possible within the framework of the conceptual theory of metaphor, which allows you to rethink the process of translating biblical concepts. The article explores the implementation of the concept «the Lamb of God» («ὁ ἀµνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ») in the translations of the Gospel of John into English, German and Russian in the light of modern research on the conceptual theory of metaphor. The purpose of the study is to analyze the degree of implementation of the concept «the Lamb of God» («ὁ ἀµνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ») in translations of the Gospel of John. The work uses the MIPVU method to identify metaphors in the original text of the Gospel of John, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis to assess the adequacy of the translation of the concept « the Lamb of God» in the context of the biblical conceptual field. As a result of the study, it was revealed that in the English, German and Russian translations of the Gospel of John, the concept of the «the Lamb of God» («ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ») of the original text is not fully implemented. The absence of a separate lexical unit leads to confusion in the translations of the «Lamb» («ἀμνὸς») from the Gospel of John and the «Lamb» («ἀρνίον») from the Apocalypse, which distorts the meaning of the translations. The application of the MIPVU method to identify metaphors in the biblical text, as well as an integrated approach to the translation of biblical concepts, is a developing direction in modern translation studies. Modern advances in the field of metaphor theory make it possible to create new translations of the Bible that are accessible to readers who are not familiar with the biblical conceptual field.

Portrait of St. John the Baptist in the prologue of the Fourth Gospel

This article analyses the portrait of John the Baptist in the prologue of the Gospel of John. It explores both the hymnic prologue (Jn 1:6-8.15) which speaks of John as the witness “sent by God” to testify to the coming Light, as well as the narrative prologue (Jn 1:19-34) where John denies being the Messiah but points to the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The study excavates the mission, role, and testimony of the Baptizer in preparing the way for Christ. Though subordinate to Jesus, John is presented as the first and paradigmatic witness who actualizes the prophetic tradition to proclaim the arrival of the long-awaited salvation. His testimony progresses from affirming the unknown presence of the One “standing among you” to explicitly identifying Jesus as the pre-existent Son. While the Johannine prologue features multiple witnesses to Christ, John the Baptist is the foremost herald who fades humbly into the background once the Bridegroom appears. As the study unpacks this rich, multi-layered portrait across the opening chapters of John's Gospel, it illuminates John's vital function in revealing the incarnate Logos to the world.

Jesus the Harmony, Gospel Sonnets for 366 Days by Gracia M. Grindal

Reviewed by: Jesus the Harmony, Gospel Sonnets for 366 Days by Gracia M. Grindal Philip Nesvig Jesus the Harmony, Gospel Sonnets for 366 Days. By Gracia M. Grindal. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2021. 369 pp. Drawing upon the long Christian tradition of harmonizing the life and ministry of Jesus, Gracia Grindal has expanded this form by writing 366 gospel sonnets to match any modern calendar year. Using the harmony provided by Johannes Thorbjørnson Ylvisaker (1845–1917), Grindal astonishingly wrote her sonnets on a daily basis for an entire year. One could assess Grindal's success with the sonnet form, but poetry does not take pride of place in this remarkable [End Page 202] collection. Proclaiming Jesus does! Grindal is preaching to us on every page. The reader is aware that the iambic pentameter rhythm is the structure for each poem. Yet the form is the servant of the proclamation. Each sonnet is one piece of a comprehensive sweep of the biblical message. On one level, the entire Bible story drives each sonnet with a selected gospel pericope plus two additional biblical texts per poem. On another level, the preaching and devotional proclamation of each sonnet reveal the enduring value of Grindal's masterpiece. The reader meets Jesus before and after his public ministry. As such, the starting point for the devotional use of this work is the Advent-Christmas season with but 24 sonnets. The public ministry portion of Grindal's book begins with John the Baptist's pointing to "the Lamb of God" and concludes with the Johannine "These were written so you might believe in Jesus." (Jn 20:31). The same could be said about the sonnets. The reader will be impressed by the Christocentric focus of the sonnets. As the supporting non-Gospel Bible passages are read, Jesus appears in the sonnets much as Luther discovered him in all of Scripture. The result is a profound appreciation for the "red thread of salvation" (xvii). The sonnets proclaim the paradoxical glory of Jesus' death. Lutheran theological themes and points of emphases enrich the texts. Poetic paraphrases, puns, allusions, turns of phrase, slogans, artfulness, wry humor and metaphors provide both profundity and play. They delight the reader. Names of Christians throughout the centuries appear with some occasional surprise as an echo of the texts in their witness. We meet St. Francis, Hieronymus Bosch, Flannery O'Connor, Joseph Conrad, Mother Teresa, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as well as some lesser knowns who gave their ordinary but impressive witness. This sonnet collection is best appreciated by those who have worked the biblical texts for years, namely, experienced preachers and all students of the Bible. Having said this, all readers will benefit from engaging the three daily texts as well as the sonnet. The true goal of each sonnet is to evoke the living Word, thereby preaching Jesus to the reader. Some books require a slow read because the thought process and the argument presented are intricate and [End Page 203] intellectually demanding. Other books require a slow read because they are so rich in meaning that they must be absorbed in due time. Grindal's work is the latter type. Jesus the Harmony deserves to become a devotional classic. Philip Nesvig Tacoma, Washington Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

Washed Clean

Washed Clean Ann Leamon (bio) Springtime on the Maine farm where I grew up meant melting. The smell of manure and mud mixed with the tang of smoke as maple sap boiled off to syrup. It meant lambing, too; my mother waking at two in the morning to check on the ewes. Most of them, dirty white skeins of unspun wool on skinny black legs, birthed their twins without trouble, even in the dirt-floored lean-to, but Granny, the matriarch—a scruffy, stubborn blend of unknown breeds—had triplets year after year. Sometimes the three could manage; alternatively, we bottle-fed the smallest, keeping it in a box behind the kitchen woodstove. In the dark March nights, often with snow or freezing rain, my mother pulled on her boots and jacket and checked on the sheep. Granny always lambed between the checks. One night during a fierce snowstorm, Granny lambed. In the harsh light of the two a.m. flashlight, Mom found two tiny figures, snuggled against the old ewe just as they should be. Maybe, this time, she’d only had the two. But at the morning feeding, under a drift of snow, we found the third, a cold scrap of pure white fluff. Oh, lamb of God. All creatures great and small. Remembering James Herriot, Mom put the small body in a bucket of warm water. It floated like a bar of Ivory soap. After five minutes, the lamb opened his eyes. [End Page 25] Ann Leamon Ann Leamon’s world includes venture capital research and creative writing. The sheep are gone, although she loves to watch them in the spring. In addition to writing a textbook and 150 cases for Harvard Business School, she has published in The Lyric, Hole in the Head Review, Live Nudes, Microlit Almanac, They Call Us…, and The Boston Globe. She holds degrees in German, Economics, and Poetry from Dalhousie, the University of Montana, and the Bennington Writing Seminars, respectively. She lives on the coast of Maine with her husband and a Corgi-Lab mix. Copyright © 2023 River Teeth

The Word, the Lamb, and the World: Reflecting on Christ, Power, and Humanity with Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on John

The Word, the Lamb, and the WorldReflecting on Christ, Power, and Humanity with Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on John Thomas J. Hurley (bio) Key Words Thomas Aquinas, Gospel of John, Jesus Christ, Christology, Lamb of God, power, politics, humanity Charles schulz once began his Peanuts comic strip with the out-spoken Lucy holding a sign declaring “power to my kind!”1 Lucy may put things a little more bluntly here than is customary, but she portrays an attractive thought, and a relevant one in contemporary Christianity. We live in a world containing widely differing perspectives on humanity. In this context, does Lucy’s slogan make sense for Christians? Should we focus on doing what seems necessary to attain and defend power in the world, in order to defend Christian perspectives? St. Thomas Aquinas gives us a fruitful starting point for thinking about how such questions fit into a Christ-centered perspective on human beings, particularly in his reflections on Jesus Christ as the Word and Lamb in the Gospel of John. Reflecting with Thomas on these themes helps us to recognize the implications of understanding the world and humanity as created within the Word, who becomes human and relates to human beings as Jesus the Lamb, and to see how this foundation of a Christian perspective on humanity also lays the groundwork for the forms that the promotion of such a perspective can take in the community. Thomas’s reflections on the Word [End Page 33] and Lamb can thus help us shape a Christian approach to thinking about power, to considering perspectives on humanity from different sources, and to representing in the world the humanity revealed in Christ. The World in the Word Throughout Thomas’s work, creation is at the foundation of his understanding of the world and of humanity. From the beginning, the presence of God to us is a presence by way of creative love: “When his hand was opened by the key of love, creatures appeared.”2 This creating Love reveals itself as a Trinity, and the relation of the created world to God is grounded in the relations of the Trinity. “As a stream is drawn from a river,” Thomas writes, “so the temporal procession of creatures is drawn from the eternal procession of the Persons.”3 The distinctions in the Trinity underlie the distinction between Creator and creature, and the nature of the creature is linked in a particular way to the Word and Son of the Father. Thomas brings this out especially in commenting on the Gospel of John. When the Gospel says of the Word of God, “All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made” (Jn 1:3), Thomas emphasizes the depth of the relation expressed here: A quite beautiful explanation is found in a certain homily. . . . For where in the Latin we have sine [without], in the Greek it said choris. But choris is the same as beyond or outside of, as if John would say, “All things were made through him,” in such a way that “nothing was made” outside of him. . . . John says this to show that through the Word and in the Word everything is preserved. . . . That is, nothing was made outside of him, because he embraces all things in himself.4 It is not merely that nothing exists without the Word, in the sense that creation cannot be accomplished if the Word is not involved. For the creature, to exist is to be contained by the Word. Every creature [End Page 34] can only exist in the Son and Word.5 Everything in the world exists by being loved, and can be so loved only in the Word. The natural world thus does not stand as itself, by being separate from or outside of God. Moreover, this dependence applies also within the freedom of the rational creature. The freedom that comes with rationality also opens up a possibility of the creature attempting to reject this relation of dependence, although this does not imply a possibility of actually escaping the relation. Thomas continues his commentary on this line from John—“All things were made through him, and without him nothing was...

“The Robe of Righteousness”: Exilic and Post-Exilic Isaiah in The Book of Mormon

“The Robe of Righteousness”: Exilic and Post-Exilic Isaiah in <i>The Book of Mormon</i>

K problematike pečatného symbolu a erbu mesta Krupina

The author discusses the existence and dating of the Krupina town’s seals and the motivations for accepting the seal symbol (later the coat of arms as well) of the Lamb of God of Krupina, whereas based on the analogies of towns in Hungary or abroad he contemplates the influence of the paradigm of medieval society and its focus on eternal life that leads to the Kingdom of heaven to the Savior, Jesus Christ. The author points to the possible connection of the symbol with the church dedication of the main parish church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He also deals with the view of older literature, which derived its acceptance into the seals of the town from the coins of Hungarian rulers who were associated with the origins of the town of Krupina. Jesus Christ (symbolically depicted as the Lamb of God) is an attribute of the Virgin Mary in Christian iconography and was constantly depicted together with the mother, Virgin Mary, similarly to the fashion it was implemented in Krupina. At the same time, the Lamb was a symbol of the heavenly Jerusalem, a perfect city, which was a model and ideal of the earthly city, and thus of the community of the Krupina townspeople. The authority of the Savior is thus symbolically linked to the authority of the king and also to the authority of the burghers, as well as to the legal force of the documents they issued. This could have been one of the motivations of the Krupina townspeople to adopt this symbol into the seals of the town. At the same time, it is possible to assume an increase in the influence of rectors of the main parish church in the town, who probably performed the duties of the first notaries of the town of Krupina.

Play Time: Gender, Anti-Semitism and Temporality in Medieval Biblical Drama

Play Time: Gender, Anti-Semitism and Temporality in Medieval Biblical Drama

The Agnus Dei: Towards a Missional Dimension

Abstract As a devotional part of the eucharistic liturgy, the Agnus Dei also carries a missional aspect. Exegeting the verse Jn 1.29 (‘Behold the Lamb of God…’) two major theories of the atonement are seen to be involved and are applicable to the meaning of the Agnus Dei. These two theories of the atonement (ransom and substitutionary) in their relationship to each other are noted, and a primary emphasis on the ransom theory and its background of the Passover is argued for. The Passover Lamb focus is seen as liberative and missional. This leads to seeing the Agnus Dei in its referring to the redeeming death of Christ (‘Lamb of God’) as appropriately accompanied by the fraction of the bread. The history of the Agnus Dei and its Eastern Orthodox roots are brought to bear, as are our modern Anglican liturgical forms.

«ВСЕ ВРЕМЕННОЕ ЕСТЬ СПЛАВ ИЗ НИЧТО И ВЕЧНОСТИ»: ЕЩЕ РАЗ О ТРИНИТАРНОЙ ОНТОЛОГИИ ПРОФ. ПРОТ. СЕРГИЯ БУЛГАКОВА (К 150-ЛЕТИЮ СО ДНЯ РОЖДЕНИЯ)

The article will focus on the version of the Trinitarian Ontology by Professor Archpriest Sergius Nikolaevich Bulgakov, as propounded in the previously unpublished sections of the “Chapters on the Trinity”. The text is a draft manuscript with many revisions, and it dates from 1925. This dating al- lows us to correlate the original edition of the text of the “Chapters...” with the article “Hypostasis and Hypostaticity”. In the “Chapters” there is an extension and continuation of the concept that was set out in the “Hypostasis...” The “missed Chapters” contain Bulgakov’s Trinitarian and Sophiological models, transitional from “Hypostasis and Hypostaticity” to those ontological models that are known to us from the “Lamb of God”. Bulgakov rejects the concept of “hypostaticity” as “the ability to give oneself” in favour of the concept of Sophia-unum, and from the Palamite influence in favour of the Triadology of St. Athanasius the Great, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Damascene, etc. Separate sections of the “missed Chapters” are associated with the Philosophy of Sexuality and the Philosophy of Language.

The Concept of Atonement in the Old Testament, Greco-Roman World and the New Testament

The Concept of Atonement has been an old concept in the biblical world. The Old Testament speaks of it using mainly the Hebrew word כפר (kphr), with its attendant various implications. This concept wasn’t alien in the Greco-Roman world which formed part of the New Testament background. The New Testament writers pushed the concept of atonement beyond the level of animal sacrifice in the Old Testament, and the gods allowing themselves to be reconciled to sinful humanity in the Greco-Roman religious context, to the point of Jesus Christ being viewed as the Lamb of God, i.e. both the sacrificial lamb and the priest that offers the sacrifice. In this way, Christ is presented both as the offering and the offeror. The New Testament uses two main Greek words καταλλαγή/ (katallage) and ἱλασμός (hilasmos) in driving home this important concept which stems from God’s love towards the creation and results in forgiveness, restoration of estranged relationship, maintenance of divine justice and expression of divine mercy. The work used content analysis method of research and comparative theory in the study of religion in dealing with the subject of atonement in the Old Testament, Greco-Roman Context and the New Testament. Significantly, the work draws a thread of thought from Old Testament through Greco-Roman thought on atonement to that of the New Testament. It therefore also serves a point of comparative religious study of this thought among these three world views.

Leksemy oznaczające imię Boga w polskich pieśniach religijnych

The subject of the analysis performed by the author were the names of God in the songs recorded in the “Church Songbook”, by Rev. Jan Siedlecki. It is a relatively large collection of nominations the centre of which contains a collection of the names related to God the Father, successively to the Son of God Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. There are also frequent references to “Lord, Creator, Lamb of God”. The use of a given name depends on Christian dogmas and the prayer purposes of the speech acts.

Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Vol. 15: Kalam–Lectio Divina

<i>Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception.</i> Vol. 15: <i>Kalam–Lectio Divina</i>

Johannesoffenbarung (Offb 1,1–5,14

Johannesoffenbarung (Offb 1,1–5,14

John 1.29, 36: The Meaning of Ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ and John’s Soteriology

The phrase “Lamb of God” in John 1.29 and 36 has been explained from various Old Testament texts, but it has generally been taken for granted that the words should be understood as sacrificial terminology. Isaiah 53 comes closest because it uses the same term ἀμνός, which could be appropriated by early Christians, perhaps not so much as a reference to Jesus’ sacrificial death, but more as describing Jesus’ obedience and submission to the will of the Father. In the soteriology of the Fourth Gospel, the death of Jesus plays a less prominent role than elsewhere in the New Testament. John’s emphasis is more on the “yes” to Jesus in the encounter with him than on Jesus’ death as saving event. If we acknowledge this specific Johannine soteriology, we may need to rethink the translation of some of the key terms in the Fourth Gospel, such as the singular ἁμαρτία and the expression τίθεναι τὴν ψυχήν ὑπέρ.

Madonna in trono col Bambino di Bernardo Daddi nella collezione Lanckoroński del castello di Wawel

Madonna and Child Enthroned in the Lanckoronski family collection in the Wawel castle (inv. No. 7908) along with the quarters with St. Bartholomew, St. Lawrence, St. Catherine and St. Cecilia that are preserved in other collections as well as with the panels that present the blessing Christ and the Evangelists used to be an essential part of a retable that can currently be found in various places across the world. The retable was made by Bernardo Daddi around 1340. It was intended to be a part of St. Bartholomew and St. Lawrence Chapel in the Carmelite church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. After being divided into parts around 1750, the panel had become a part of the Viennese collection of Karol Lanckoronski (1848-1933) by the end of 1903. In 1994, the collection, including the previously mentioned panel, was placed in the Wawel Royal Castle, where it is held today. The composition and the ideological content of the quarter are closely related to an earlier confraternal altar panel from the church of Santa Maria del Carmine that includes Madonna and Child Enthroned with Two Angels as well as Christ Blessing between Two Angels placed at the top and originally separated with a frame. The altar panel, credited to Maestro della Sant’Agata (around 1270) is currently stored in the Brancacci chapel. The Wawel quarter is in line with Tuscan Madonnas that are defined in the iconography as the Regina Coeli or Maesta. A thorough analysis of ideological content presented on the Daddi panel based on source materials as well as an attempt to reconstruct the whole panel leads us to the conclusion that the retable made in Daddi’s workshop presented the vision of Heavenly Jerusalem, based on the Revelation to St. John. Through the Madonna and Child Enthroned with Two Angels panel the artist referred to the truth about the royal dignity of Mary and her participation in the mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption whereas Christ Himself was presented as the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. Therefore, the patron saints of the chapel worship Him. A holistic view of the Wawel panel and the way it is connected with the art of Tuscany shows that it is the object that, in artistic and formal terms as well as in content, is one of the most valuable examples of Italian Trecento that can be found in Polish collections.

Credo

Credo Mary Gordon (bio) I believe in the Temptation in the Desert I believe in the Terror in the Garden I believe in the Seven Last Words I believe in the Lamb of God I believe in the Beatitudes I believe in the Annunciation I believe in the Visitation I believe in the child born in the manger I believe in the child lost in the temple I believe in the burning bush I believe in the burning coal I believe in the burning hearts on the Emmaus road I believe in the Question: What do you want of me? I believe in the Answer: Sight I believe that Jesus wept. [End Page 253] Click for larger view View full resolution Angels and Demons © 2017 Mariia Prokopenko. [End Page 254] Mary Gordon Mary Gordon is the author of eight novels, including, most recently, There Your Heart Lies (Patheon, 2017), two collections of novellas, two collections of stories, two collections of essays, two memoirs, a biography of Joan of Arc and a writer’s study of the Gospels: Reading Jesus: A Writer’s Encounter with the Gospels. The recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Academy Award for literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she teaches at Barnard College and lives in New York. Copyright © 2017 Johns Hopkins University Press

John 1:29, 36: The Meaning of ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ and John’s Soteriology

The title “Lamb of God” for Jesus in John 1:29 and 1:36 has traditionally been explained as a reference to Jesus’ sacrificial death, and the phrase “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” has mostly been interpreted in terms of Old Testament sacrifices or near-sacrifices as for example Genesis 22 (the binding of Isaac) or Leviticus 16 (the scapegoat of the Day of Atonement), the Passover lamb, or as a reminiscence to the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. The aim of this article is to argue two things.BR First, that the words “lamb of God” do not refer to a sacrifical animal. They originate from Isaiah 53, not, however, as a reference to an atoning sacrifice, but as an expression of Jesus’ complete obedience to the Father and his willingness to suffer (and ultimately die) as a consequence. Secondly, that in his Gospel, the Fourth Evangelist focuses on the salvific effect of the believer’s affirmative “yes” to Jesus as the one through whom the Father can be known, rather than on Jesus’ death as saving event.