Christian Paschal Lamb / Agnus Dei Generic Poster

In Judaism, the Paschal Lamb or Passover Sacrifice was the unblemished lamb the Israelites ritually slaughtered on the evening of what became the Passover feast, an annual commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt. Originally, the sacrificial lamb’s blood was smeared on the exterior doorposts of the enslaved Israelites’ homes as a sign for God to pass over them as He slew the firstborn of the Egyptians in the tenth and final plague or disaster He visited upon them. This act secured the Israelites’ freedom from slavery in Egypt at long last. The lamb itself was eaten that same night with bitter herbs and matzo, an unleavened bread, at a ritual meal. (Exodus 12:1-28) In Christianity, Jesus Christ was saluted on the banks of the Jordan by St. John the Baptist as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29 and 1:36.) St. Paul (1 Corinthians 5:7) explicitly identified Christ Who was crucified during Passover with the Jewish Paschal Lamb as the New Testament’s sacrificial fulfilment of the Old. Christ as the Lamb of God figures prominently throughout the Book of Revelations which records St. John the Evangelist or St. John the Divine’s apocalyptic visions. Since the Middle Ages, Christ has been represented in art as a lamb carrying a Resurrection banner and standing or lying upon a book or scroll with seven pendant seals. This richly layered iconographic schema has become especially meaningful at Easter. Year-round, the Lamb of God is invoked at every Mass in an ancient liturgical prayer often set to music known as the Agnus Dei. + Image Credit: Antique image of the Christian Paschal Lamb (or Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God) holding a Resurrection banner and standing atop the book with its seven seals mentioned in Revelations, from an early 20th-century embossed, divided-back postcard entitled "A Joyous Easter" postmarked 1909, original publisher unknown, printed in Germany in chromolithography, from the designer’s private collection.