Is it not remarkable that in the book of “the Revelation” we get the new name of ARNION (Lamb) applied to Christ, and that it occurs twenty-eight times in the Apocalypse, as we have seen in the preceding jottings, and is found as a name given to HIM nowhere else in the New Testament?
When the same writer, St. John, speaks of Jesus as presented to the Jews in the Baptist’s preaching, He is termed AMNOS (the Lamb), and when in the Revelation, Jesus is spoken of as the Lamb, the word ARNION is used exclusively; and every scholar knows arnion is a diminutive, and hence a word of disparagement. JESUS, the personal name of the Lord on earth, was nailed over the cross as a name of humiliation, scorn, and rejection; the world treated God’s AMNOS as ARNION; and God opens the heavens to the Prophet of Patmos, and by him shows to the Churches, as He shall one day do to the world, the One who was treated on earth as (i.e., as a diminutive creature, a lambkin not worth looking at) “in the midst of the throne,” and “the book” of the title-deeds to the world’s dominion given by GOD into His hands!
The whole action of the Apocalypse, is in connection with the enthroning of ARNION on the throne of God—as He is now on His Father’s throne as Son—and Christ’s promise “I will write upon him my new name,” seems to be fulfilled in the end of the book, when His “faithful” followers have the name of Arnion written upon them, and they are called “The Bride, ARNION’S Wife” (Rev. 21).
The places where the word “Lamb” (Arnion) occurs in “Revelation” are the following, as above: —Rev. 5:6,8,12,13;66And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. (Revelation 5:6)
8And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. (Revelation 5:8)
12Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. 13And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. (Revelation 5:12‑13)
13And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. (Revelation 6:13). 1, 16; 7:9, 10, 14, 17; 12:11; 13:8, 11, 14:1, 4, 10; 15:3; 17:14; 19:7, 9; 21:9, 14, 22, 23, 27; 22:1, 3.
In “man’s day” the “Lamb” was treated as “small and despised,” “a worm and no man;” but “in the day of God,” He and His people shall be in the ascendancy and angels and redeemed men, the earth and the heavens, shall conspire to praise and exalt Him. “Let us go forth therefore, unto Him without the camp, bearing his reproach;” and, when the day of His manifestation in glory arrives, “we shall be glorified together.”