a lamb, a young sheep; in the New Testament almost always used as a figure, above all as Revelation's title for the slain and reigning Christ
The word names a young sheep, a lamb. It is a softened, affectionate form of the ordinary word for lamb (ἀρήν), so it can carry the sense of a little lamb, though in everyday Greek that gentle nuance had largely worn off and it meant simply a lamb.
Only one New Testament writer uses it, and he uses it almost entirely as a symbol. In Revelation it becomes the book's central name for Jesus: the Lamb who was slain and yet stands alive,
- worshipped alongside God
- opening the scroll
- conquering his enemies
- shepherding his people
The striking thing is that this gentle, sacrificial image is joined to overwhelming power and majesty, so the same figure who was killed is the one who reigns.
Twice the word steps outside that title. Once it describes a counterfeit: a beast that looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon, an imitation meant to deceive. Once, in the Gospel of John, it is plural and ordinary, the lambs of the flock that Jesus entrusts to Peter's care.