Jesus Christ as a Lamb

Didrion, Alphonse. Christian Iconography: The History of Christian Art through the Ages. Vol. 1 New York: Ungar, 1965

The chapter “Jesus Christ as a Lamb” in the Christian Iconography: History of Christian Art through the Ages concerns the symbolic form of Christ as a lamb. From very early in the history of Christianity Christ was represented as that of a lamb. This was in coherence with the Bible's reference to Christ as the "Lamb of God"(318). St John, in the Apocalypse, saw Christ in the form of a lamb opening the book with seven seals, while seeing Jesus exclaimed “Behold the Lamb of God”(318, 319). The lamb by itself is symbolic. It was one of the sacrifices used by the Israelites before Christ’s birth. They considered Christ as their new sacrifice, replacing the shedding of an innocent lamb’s blood with His own (319).

In the eleventh century Christ, as the lamb, was engraved in copper plates looking down from the summit at four mystic streams. Others engravings depicted Christ being carried by St. John the Baptist. In either case the lamb would be surrounded by an aureole and a crucifix. However, by the sixteenth century the depiction of Christ as a lamb had been degenerated into a very natural description of Christ. He no longer appeared with a nimbus or a divine aureole, he could be seen running along the ground, or even being assisted by St. John the Baptist (323). Not only was the figure of Christ reduced to a more common lamb, but other personages of the Old Testament and even common Hebrews were being represented by a lamb (330). By the year 692, under the Emperor Justian II, it was formally decreed that the figure of Christ as a human would subitute the common depiction of a lamb (332). This proclamation decreased the depictions of Christ as a lamb.