Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Satan in the Book of Revelation

Why Satan was depicted as a dragon in the Book of Revelation? and why Jesus was presented as a lamb?

1 comment:

CMAR II said...

Jesus the Lamb:
Jesus's execution is said to be a sacrifice to atone for the sins of mankind. The Jews would periodically sacrifice a lamb (among other animals) to atone for sins (Leviticus 3:6-8).
Thus, John the Baptist called the Messiah "God's Lamb" (John 1:29 & 1:36); that is, God's final perfect sacrifice rather than man's imperfect sacrifices. Probably, he drew this analogy originally from the messianic passage in Isaiah 53:
"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." (Isa 53:7)

Satan the Dragon:
As Revelation 12:9 implies, a dragon is a monstrous serpent. In Revelation 12, he is directly identified with the serpent that deceived Eve in the Garden (Genesis 3). And of course chapter 12 is a straight forward allegory in which the serpent is the Devil, the woman is the people descended from Jacob/Israel, and the child she bore is Jesus.