GushK said:
I think it's not to do with what they're actually like but what they are meant to represent. In most people's eyes a lion represents pride, power and strength.
( ever watch the Lion King?
)
Similarly, just as being a sardar meant having a higher status and respect (doesn't mean it actually did in every case) but that's why in 1699, every sikh was made a sardar....to uplift a nation
Very well said!!!
It is interesting that same question came to me many years back when I was watching Discovery channel in India
Talleyrand
I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.
It is better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life. - Elizabeth Kenny
It is better to have a lion at the head of an army of sheep, than a sheep at the head of an army of lions. - Daniel Defoe
Join the company of lions rather than assume the lead among foxes. - The Talmud
Arab proverb: Quotes on Leadership
An army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.
A scientist is a mimosa when he himself has made a mistake, and a roaring
lion when he discovers a mistake of others.
-- Albert Einstein, quoted in Ehlers, Liebers Hertz
Christ as Lion
(From Forerunner Commentary) 1 Peter 5:8 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Christ is also symbolized as a lion, but not as a lion seeking to devour. Lion for Christ is used in the sense of "controlled, majestic power," but for Satan it is the symbol for one who is ruthless, stealthy, powerfully aggressive, bent on defending its turf, and destruction, often working from ambush. There are many similarities with the attributes of the "serpent."
A pride of lions will stalk and attack animals that are larger than they are—including wildebeest and water buffalo weighing thousands of pounds. It is a beautiful, deadly sight to watch lions working together as a team to bring a water buffalo down.
When lions attack, they do so through multiple attacks from every side. Eventually, one lion gets a grip on the throat of the water buffalo and kills it by strangulation. It is a slow and painful death. The water buffalo goes down, and the lions begin eating it before it is dead.
Satan is a lion, roaring, looking for and stalking whom he may devour. Male lions will even eat the young of their own pride to establish their dominance. It does not matter that they are related. If they are hungry, and a little kitten is around . . . one bite and it is gone.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Spiritual Mark of the Beast
2 Peter 1:19-21 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
It is from verse 20 in particular that we derive the principle that the Bible interprets itself. This means that somewhere within the pages of Scripture, the timing, the location, the characters, and the symbols employed in symbolic texts like parables and prophecies are explained or defined. It is our job to search them out.
When we add the following three vital verses to our understanding of this principle, however, we end up with a very significant corollary:
u For I am the LORD, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. (Malachi 3:6)
u Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)
u Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. (James 1:17)
Each of these verses proclaims God as constant, consistent, unchanging. It is this quality of God—that He is faithful to what He is—that allows us to trust Him. We can have confidence in God and His Word because He never changes! Could we rely upon a double-minded God (see James 1:6-8)? Could we have faith in a Being who constantly blew hot and cold? Never! With our God, though, we need not fear inconsistency.
Thus, if God is constant and His Word interprets itself, the corollary principle is that the Bible's interpretation of its symbols is consistent. This must be true! If the Bible gave us two contradictory interpretations of a symbol, how could we ever feel confident that we understood its meaning? This corollary underscores II Peter 1:19, where the apostle informs us that "the prophetic word [is] more sure" than even eyewitness accounts! We can have confidence in our understanding of the prophecies and parables if the symbols we interpret match what we understand in other areas of Scripture. Otherwise, we could never be sure!
This means that every symbol from Genesis to Revelation is consistent in its interpretation. If a rose means something in one part of the Bible, it will mean the same elsewhere, though the context may modify it slightly. If God is consistent, His Word—His revelation of Himself to us—must also therefore be consistent.
This conclusion may raise some questions. How can that be? How can, for instance, a lion represent Satan in I Peter 5:8 and Jesus Christ in Revelation 5:5? Is that not contradictory? Not at all! Our understanding is correct, but the meaning we give to the symbol is wrong. We have defined it too narrowly.
A study of the symbol of the lion brings out several characteristics the Bible emphasizes: It represents strength, predatory ferocity, majesty, and leadership. The lion is the symbol of a ruler, a king, and often a very fierce and powerful one. These are the general meanings of the symbol based on a lion's traits. They help us to comprehend what God wants us to focus on in the context. Thus, a lion can represent both Satan and Jesus because they both have a lion's characteristics.
It wasn't a human solution, but a divine one. Once again God surprised him. But the surprises continue: What did a lion mean to John? What does a lion represent to us? For John's contemporary civilization, a lion represented fierceness and the power. There is nothing to be more feared than a hungry lion; it is respected by all animals. It is an animal that represents sovereignty. (In our days, England is represented by a lion on its national shield, and it is historically a country of war). So John would justify his joy thinking: "finally at the end of human history, of sin, of man's filthiness, the murder of Jesus Christ, the persecution against the church and of its martyred saints, etc, they are re-vindicated by the Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Savior. Therefore, that which best represents Him is a lion; it was a guaranteed result, the sovereign over all.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Parables and Prophecy
This conclusion may raise some questions. How can that be? How can, for instance, a lion represent Satan in I Peter 5:8 and Jesus Christ in Revelation 5:5? Is that not contradictory? Not at all! Our understanding is correct, but the meaning we give to the symbol is wrong. We have defined it too narrowly.
A study of the symbol of the lion brings out several characteristics the Bible emphasizes: It represents strength, predatory ferocity, majesty, and leadership. The lion is the symbol of a ruler, a king, and often a very fierce and powerful one. These are the general meanings of the symbol based on a lion's traits. They help us to comprehend what God wants us to focus on in the context. Thus, a lion can represent both Satan and Jesus because they both have a lion's characteristics.
What Judaism says about it
Let us look at one song from Perek Shirah:
"The lion is saying, 'God shall go out as a mighty man, he shall arouse zeal, he shall cry, even roar; he shall prevail over his enemies (Isaiah 42:13)."
Called the king of beasts, the lion is the most feared predator. Formally abundant in the land of Israel, no prey was too large for the lion to tackle. Scripture constantly uses the metaphor of the lion to represent great power:
"The lion is the mightiest of animals, and turns away before no-one." (Proverbs 30:30)
Likewise, when the Mishnah wishes to instruct us in the trait of might, it finds no better example than the lion:
Yehudah ben Teimah said: Be as mighty as a lion... to fulfill the will of your Father in Heaven. (Mishnah, Pirkei Avos 5:24)
But what is this might that is required of us? Surely working on physical power is not the object of this Mishnah. Fortunately, the Mishnah elsewhere gives us a definition:
Who is mighty? He that conquers his [evil] inclination...(Mishnah, Pirkei Avos 4:1)
The might of which we are speaking is an inner strength that enables one to defeat one's baser drives. Physical power is nothing to be proud of; it is simply a gift from God. It is only inner might, which man exercises through his own free will, of which he can justly be proud.
But if this is the case, does the lion represent the point that is being made? Certainly; for it is not the physical prowess of the lion at which we are marveling, either, but rather a different trait that is unique to the lion of all big cats. Consider the following discussion by a behavioral zoologist:
"Hitherto we have known little more than the savage side of big cats, for we have relied on the stories of big-game hunters. But in recent years zoologists have been investigating a multitude of astonishing details in the tender family life of lions... The lion is undoubtedly a creature with a highly aggressive disposition. But within his clan he controls his bloodthirstiness so effectively that he can be called a friendly, even a tender-hearted beast. What is it that inhibits his aggressiveness when in the presence of fellows he knows well?" (Vitus B. Droscher, The Friendly Beast, W. H. Allen & Company, London: 1970)
The lion is termed mighty, not because of its great physical strength, but because it can act with restraint despite it. This power, to subdue and override the animalistic drives that try to destroy us, is the leonine trait that we are encouraged to emulate.
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The two types of lion power, the outer strength that it uses in hunting and the inner might that it uses to subdue itself with other lions, reflect two ways in which God relates to the world.
The internal might of the lion is demonstrated by God when we are in exile. The wicked nations inflict suffering on His chosen people and abuse His holy places. Yet God does not avenge His honor, but controls his anger and tolerates their wickedness (for the sake of the needs of our exile).
Moshe said, "The great, mighty and awesome God" (Deuteronomy 10:17)... Daniel came and said, "The nations are subjugating His children; where is His might?" And he did not say "mighty." Then the Anshei Knesses HaGedolah came and said, "On the contrary, that is His might; for He subdues His inclination and is slow to anger with these wicked ones." (Talmud, Yoma 69b)
The only external lion power present during exile is that manifest by the nations that subjugate us:
Yirmiyah saw Babylon as a lion, as it is written, "The lion arose from the thicket" (Yirmiyah 4:7). (Midrash Vayikra Rabbah 13:5)
At the time of redemption, however, God will manifest the external power of the lion, when He exacts retribution from the evil nations. It is this which is heralded by the song of the lion: "God shall go out as a mighty man, He shall arouse zeal, He shall cry, even roar, He shall prevail over His enemies."
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Finally, let us note a very simple point. Lions are very scary animals. We may have a watered
So We can see that in all religious philosophy Christianity , Judaism and even in new age scientist like einstien used the metaphor of lion so it is just a metaphor and there is nothing we should stick to like some religions have stuck to it with pregudice whether ina positive or negative sense
HINDUS -- COWS, monkeys , rats
Muslims -- Pigs and donkey
But in sikhism there is no such prejudiced sticking and there is no harm in what LION Represents to be
I think this clears the matter and also give lot of answers to Gyani Jarnail Singh to give to their students
with Regards
jatinder
