A Living Symbol

The lamb never settled into one fixed meaning, and that is part of its staying power. Different traditions read it through their own lens — some stress the lamb on the altar of the Mass, others the lamb dying in our place, others the lamb reigning at the end of time.

Artists still reach for it. Many use the lamb to probe innocence and violence — the gentle creature bred for slaughter standing in for the defenseless everywhere. The image keeps shifting, which is exactly why it survives.