Greek word · G704

ἀρήν

arēn

lamb

A lamb, a young sheep. Its forms (ἀρνός, ἄρνα, ἄρνας) are standard Greek from Homer onward. It points to youth and vulnerability, and is often paired with the wolf as the natural prey.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ἀρήν, ἀρνός, ὁ

(nom, not in use, exc. in early times: see MM, see word), [in LXX for מְרִיא, כֶּבֶשׂ, etc. ;]

a lamb: Luke 10:3.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Luke 10:3

Range of meaning

A lamb, a young sheep. Its forms (ἀρνός, ἄρνα, ἄρνας) are standard Greek from Homer onward. It points to youth and vulnerability, and is often paired with the wolf as the natural prey.

Against the English

English "lambs" is accurate, though modern readers tend to hear sweetness or innocence, or think of the sacrificial "Lamb of God." Here the point is helplessness in front of a predator. Matthew 10:16 uses πρόβατα, "sheep."

How it drifted

Christian vocabulary of Jesus as "the Lamb" colours every lamb in the New Testament. Those texts use different words (ἀμνός, amnos, John 1:29; ἀρνίον, arnion, throughout Revelation), and this verse has no sacrificial setting.

Used elsewhere in the period

Homer, Iliad 22.263: "there is no agreement between wolves and lambs" (λύκοι τε καὶ ἄρνες), already a proverb. Septuagint Isaiah 11:6, "the wolf shall feed with the lamb (ἀρνός)", and Isaiah 65:25, "wolves and lambs (ἄρνες) shall feed together", picture the wolf-lamb hostility ended in the age to come. In 1 Enoch 85–90 (the "Animal Apocalypse") Israel appears as sheep attacked by wild beasts, with the Egyptians as wolves (89:13–27).

Where it appears

Luke · 1

  1. Luke 10:3 ἄρνας lambs

    Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.

    Here: The ordinary Greek word for a lamb, used only here in the New Testament. It stresses youth and helplessness: lambs cannot fight or run fast, and they are what a wolf hunts first. Matthew's parallel says "sheep"; Luke's "lambs" makes the picture even more defenceless.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.