DIVINE VIOLENCE IN THE IMAGERY OF SLAIN LAMB IN REV 5:5-6

摘要

With remarkable frequency, God is the subject of violent verbs, in the Old Testament. However, divine violence views to be related to human sin. Violent human actions lead to violent consequences and is named as divine judgment (Ezek 22:31). Divine violence also becomes the means by which God’s people are delivered from violence (Ex 15:1-3), from other people’s sins. It 1s also utilized in order to save God’s people from the effects of their own sins (salvation to the exiles, Isa 45:1-8). The Synoptic Gospels have records of divine and human violence. Jesus challenges the authority of sacred violence represented by the Temple by violent acts (Mk 11). The violence of abuse of power of Jewish authorities produced institutional vigilantism and caused death of Jesus. The figure of the slaughtered Lamb in Rev 5:6 seems as a symbol of divine violence of salvation of the redeemed, in whom the elders recognized the Lion of Judah, the triumphant Christ. The divine violence which acted upon Christ, the Lamb, is inevitable for the redemption of a violent world which allowed the Lamb to be sacrificed in order to bring creation along to a point where violence has no existence.