Lions are not docile, tame creatures. They are powerful and capable. Even a resting or sleeping lion exudes a sense of confidence and supremacy. In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis captures the essence of the lion’s prowess in Mr. Beaver’s response to Susan when she asks if Aslan the lion is safe: “Safe?…Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”[1]

I suspect that Lewis’s choice of a lion to represent the Christ-character in the Narnia series was not random, and had everything to do with Jesus as the “Lion of the tribe of Judah.”

            The fifth chapter of Revelation describes a scene in which the observer (the apostle John) was weeping because there is “no one in heaven or on earth, or under the earth” who was worthy to open the scroll that was “in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne” (Rev 5:1-4). However, one of the elders around the throne then told John to “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals” (Rev 5:5). This “Lion of the tribe of Judah” then appears in the scene as “a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” who takes the scroll and is then worshiped by all those surrounding the throne, in a beautiful song ending with the words “To him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Rev 5:6-14).

            Why was this “Lion of Judah” able to take the scroll and open it? The answer lies in Rev 5:5. He is worthy to open the scroll because He “has conquered.” The grammar is very important in this verse. The Greek word translated as “has conquered” is ἐνίκησεν. This is the third person singular aorist form of the verb νικάω (conquer/overcome). The aorist tense is one of the past tense forms of Greek verbs. The lion of Judah isn’t worthy because He is conquering or will conquer in the future, He is worthy because He conquered completely!

            An interesting thing about the Greek language is that the author’s choice of wording can have a significant impact on the meaning of the statement that goes far beyond the simple meaning of the word itself. This can be exceedingly hard to replicate in English, which makes the translator’s job quite difficult. G. K. Beale speaks to this in his explanation that the word ἐνίκησεν can be understood as a “‘consummative or effective aorist,’ focusing on the end point, accomplishment, or climax of the action … the fact that the Lamb has already ‘overcome’ the malevolent forces that threaten the church.”[2][2]

            The appearance of this conqueror as a lamb “as though it had been slain” gives us even more information about our Lion of Judah. The sacrifice of Himself on our behalf was the means by which Jesus conquered the enemy. He conquered because He was the ultimate and perfect sacrificial lamb. Revelation 5:9-10 explains this succinctly and eloquently: “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

            John’s use of the phrase “Lion of the tribe of Judah” in Revelation echoes Jacob’s words to his son Judah in Genesis 49:8-12. In this passage, Jacob describes his son Judah as a “lion’s cub” (v. 9), whose “hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you” (v. 8), and whose “scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples” (v. 10). That sounds a lot like the conquering Lion of the tribe of Judah in Rev 5:5-14, doesn’t it? It is also interesting that Jacob mentions a foal and a donkey’s colt (v. 11). This is certainly reminiscent of the messianic prophecy in Zechariah 9:9, which was fulfilled when Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey’s colt (Matt 21:1-11).

            So…is Jesus a lion or is He a lamb? In a word, BOTH! Exodus 12:3-13 describes the original Passover, in which the blood of a sacrificed lamb provided the Hebrew people with the means to escape the death of their firstborn during the tenth and final plague in Egypt. Jesus is the ultimate, perfect “Passover Lamb” who ransomed us from sin and death. Most of us are well-acquainted with this concept of Jesus as the sacrificial lamb. Many of us are also well-acquainted with the Apostle’s Creed which states that Jesus “was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to hell. The third day he rose again from the dead.” On this side of heaven, none of us can know the exact details of what happened after “he descended to hell” and before He rose again on the third day. However, until recently, I had a vague image in my head of Satan and his minions dancing around the broken body of Jesus, or maybe torturing Him to “extract” the payment for our sin. This is no longer the image that comes to mind. In fact, I think that this image of a broken Messiah couldn’t be further from the truth. The elder’s description of Jesus as the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” in Rev 5:5 evokes the image of the lion which “features frequently in the Old Testament as a symbol of destructive power and aggression, as it tears its prey apart.”[3] In his discussion of the book of Revelation, R. Bauckham explains that “by placing the image of the sacrificial victim alongside those of the military conqueror, John forges a new symbol of conquest by sacrificial death.”[4] Christ died on the cross as the perfect Passover Lamb, the necessary sacrifice to redeem us once and for all (Heb 10:10). However, He (in the words of the Apostle’s Creed) “descended to hell” as the conquering Lion of Judah. He ravaged hell and utterly destroyed Satan’s rebellious plan to defeat God and His people. Satan and his minions weren’t dancing around the broken body of Jesus; they were shrieking in rage, frustration, and total despair as the Lion of the tribe of Judah rampaged through their ranks. His perfect sacrifice resulted in their ultimate defeat!

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[1] [1]C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (New York: HarperCollins, 1950), chap. 8, Kindle.

[2] [2]G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation, NIGTC, eds. I. Howard Marshall and Donald A. Hagner (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 350.

[3] [3]Ian Paul, Revelation, TNTC, ed. Eckhard J. Schnabel (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2018), 131.

[4] [4]R. Bauckham, “The Book of Revelation as a Christian War Scroll,” Neotestamentica 22 (1988): 20.