The Humility and Glory of the Lamb: Toward a Robust Apocalyptic Christology

Although the Apostle John endorses “Lamb” twenty-nine times in his Apocalypse and employs a term that is used only one other time in the New Testament to this end, this unique title and its sophisticated christological implications has only received cursory attention both historically and more recently. Even then, incomplete/monochromatic interpretations of the unique verbiage John employs to describe Christ are reached. After identifying this clearing that exists in the christological forest, this book reaches a robust understanding of Revelation’s Lamb by means of a contextual-grammatical-canonical-historical hermeneutic. Ultimately, this monograph concludes that the apostle’s use of Lamb throughout his Apocalypse promotes a multifaceted christological presentation of John’s protagonist that is dependent on the paradoxical theme of glory in humility—a theme that is introduced when the Lamb first emerges in Revelation 5 and is then reiterated every time the title is used thereafter. In so doing, this work offers students and scholars alike a better understanding of who is coming in the end and what this means for the church at present.

Jeffrey R. Dickson is an Adjunct Professor of Theology and Bible at Liberty University Rawlings School of Divinity. He is the author of SureFire Preaching (2014).