Later text
John 1:29BSB
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Intertextuality Pair
Allusion
Later text
John 1:29BSB
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Earlier text
Exodus 12:3BSB
Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man must select a lamb for his family, one per household.
When John the Baptist cries, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29), he sets Jesus against the backdrop of the Passover lamb that "each man must select... for his family" (Exod 12:3) — the unblemished animal whose blood, applied to the doorposts, turned away the destroyer and secured Israel's redemption from Egypt. The connection is typological: the historical Passover lamb is the type, and Christ the antitype who fulfills and surpasses it, accomplishing not a single night's deliverance for one nation but the removal of "the sin of the world." Escalation is plain — the lamb's blood spared firstborn from temporal death; the Lamb's blood delivers from sin and eternal death (cf. 1 Cor 5:7; 1 Pet 1:19). John's Gospel reinforces the link by placing the crucifixion at the hour the Passover lambs were slain and noting that no bone was broken (John 19:36, per Exod 12:46). The doctrine that the Lamb "takes away" sin grounds worship: the redeemed do not merely escape judgment but are freed to God, finding the slain-yet-living Lamb their everlasting song (Rev 5:9-12).