Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Revelation 5:5 Wall Art

A lion at rest

The animal fills the center of the page. His mane is a thick mass of amber, rust and brown, painted with loose, separate strokes, and his gaze is fixed calmly on something to the right. He lies with his front paws crossed over the edge of a pale gray rock, tail curled beside him. Nothing about him is snarling; this is strength that no longer needs to prove itself.

Behind him a soft sunrise glows over blue ridges, and a walled hilltop city sits among cypresses in the distance. The verse is lettered in four lines above: “And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed.”

Who is the Lion of Judah?

In Revelation 5, John watches as the one seated on the throne holds out a book written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals, and no one in heaven or earth is found worthy to open it. John begins to weep. One of the elders interrupts with this verse. The spelling “Juda” is simply the Greek form of Judah kept by the 1611 translators.

Both titles reach back into the Old Testament. In Genesis 49 the dying Jacob blesses his son Judah and compares him to a young lion, the tribe from which Israel's kings would come. “Root of David” echoes Isaiah 11, which promises a shoot from the stump of Jesse, David's father. The elder is saying that the long-awaited king has arrived.

Then comes the surprise. When John turns to look at the Lion, he sees instead a Lamb, standing as though it had been slain (verse 6). The conqueror wins by sacrifice. That pairing of lion and lamb is the heart of the chapter, and the reason both images belong together.

Where the lion fits

The warm golds and earth tones suit a study, a man's office or a teenage boy's room, and the verse gives courage without being loud about it. Fathers, grandfathers and young men at their baptism often receive it. It also works in a family room as a counterweight to softer pieces.