‘Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.‘ John !:36
It seems the nursery rhyme. ‘Mary had a little lamb,’ originated in New Hampshire, America in the 19th century. It is thought to be based on a true incident where a child named Mary took her pet lamb to school which naturally caused an uproar. There are other claims to this story, one being in Massachusetts where a memorial has been erected. The moral was made that because Mary loved her lamb, the lamb loved her in return and the rhyme was written by her teacher.
Still thinking on the theme of lambs and love, the choral work, ‘All in the April evening‘ was composed by Sir Hugh S. Robinson (1874-1923) to words by the Irish poet Katherine Tynan Hickson (1861-1931). The final verse reads – ‘All in an April evening, April airs were abroad, I saw the sheep with their lambs and thought on the Lamb of God.’
A number of Biblical references are included in the Bible to Jesus being the Lamb, of God, one being the comment from John the Baptist, who when he saw Jesus passing by said in John 1:36 ‘Behold the Lamb of God.’ The slain lamb is referred to in Revelation 5:6 ‘Then I saw the lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the centre of the throne.’