Lion

Lions were a real feature of the biblical landscape. The Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica) ranged across the wooded gorges of the Jordan Rift and the thickets of the upper Jordan valley well into the Crusader period; the last lions in the Holy Land were hunted out only in the twelfth century, and the species survives today only in the Gir Forest of India. Samson tore one apart with his bare hands (Jdg.14); David rescued a lamb from a lion's mouth (1Sa.17); Daniel spent a night with them (Dan.6); and the prophet Amos lists the lion's roar as the first thing that makes a man tremble. The Old Testament uses the lion as the highest figure of nobility and royal courage — "bold as a lion" is the proverbial line, and the lion of Judah is Israel's royal emblem. The New Testament keeps both senses: in Revelation 5 Jesus is acclaimed as the Lion of the tribe of Judah; in 1 Peter 5 the devil prowls "like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour." The same animal frames both glory and danger.