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Chapter IV. The Sign ARIES (The Ram or Lamb)

The Blessings of the Redeemed Consummated and Enjoyed.

This Second Book began with the Goat dying in sacrifice, and it ends with the Lamb living again, “as it had been slain.” The goat had the tail of a fish, indicating that his death was for a multitude of the redeemed. In the two middle Signs we have had these fishes presented to us in grace, and in their conflict. We come now to the last chapter of the book: and, as we have seen, like each of the other books, it ends up with victory and triumph. Here we are first shown the foundation on which that victory rests, namely, Atonement. Hence, we are taken back and reminded of the “blood of the Lamb.”

This is pictured by a ram, or lamb, full of vigour and life; not falling in death as Capricornus is.

In the Denderah Zodiac its name is Tametouris Ammon, which means the reign, dominion, or government of Ammon. The lamb’s head is without horns, and is crowned with a circle.

The Hebrew name is Taleh, the lamb. The Arabic name is Al Hamal, the sheep, gentle, merciful. This name has been mistakenly given by some to the principal star, α. The Syriac name is Amroo, as in the Syriac New Testament in John i. 29: “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” The ancient Akkadian name was Bara-ziggar. Bar means altar, or sacrifice; and ziggar means right making; so that the full name would be the sacrifice of righteousness.

There are 66 stars in this sign, one being of the 2nd magnitude, two of the 4th, etc.

Its chief star, α (in the forehead), is named El Nath, or El Natik, which means wounded, slain. The next, β (in the left horn), is called Al Sheratan, the bruised, the wounded. The next, γ (near to β), is called Mesartim (Hebrew), the bound.

How is it there is no conflicting voice? How is it that all the stars unite in one harmonious voice in testifying of the Lamb of God, slain, and bruised, but yet living for evermore, singing together, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing” (Rev. v. 12)?

This rejoicing connected with the Lamb shines faintly through the heathen perversions and myths: for Herodotus tells us how the ancient Egyptians, once a year, when it opened by the entrance of the sun into Aries, slew a Ram, at the festival of Jupiter Ammon; branches were placed over the doors, the Ram was garlanded with wreaths of flowers and carried in procession. Now the sun entered Aries on the 14th of the Jewish month Nisan, and another lamb was then ordered to be slain, even “the Lord’s passover”—the type of that Lamb that should in the fulness of time be offered without blemish and without spot. Owing to the precession of the equinoxes, the sun, at the time of the Exodus, had receded into this sign of Aries, which then marked the Spring Equinox. But by the time that the antitype—the Lamb of God, was slain, the sun had still further receded, and on the 14th of Nisan, in the year of the Crucifixion, stood at the very spot marked by the stars α, El Nath, the pierced, the wounded or slain, and β, Al Sheratan, the bruised or wounded! God so ordained “the times and seasons” that during that noon-day darkness the sun was seen near those stars which had spoken for so many centuries of this bruising of the woman’s Seed—the Lamb of God.

Was this design? or was it chance? It is far easier to believe the former. It makes a smaller demand upon our faith; yes, we are compelled to believe that He who created the sun and the stars “for signs and for cycles,” ordained also the times and the seasons, and it is He who tells us that “when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son” (Gal. iv. 4), and that “in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. v. 6).