Part 1: The Scapegoat

“And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.”

Leviticus 16:7

The Day of Atonement, acknowledged on most calendars as Yom Kippur, has long interested me for many reasons. In part, because it is the only time that a man would enter the Holy of Holies and make an offering for the sins of the nation of Israel. Also, for the appearance (and disappearance) of the scapegoat. Leviticus 16 is where we will make our notes. Let’s begin the study.

The Origin of the Scapegoat

The teaching of the scapegoat has a fascinating origin. It has given birth to many cultural idioms that carry deep meaning, though few know the original idea. A recent work published that incited this article was on the history of Jerusalem. In his book, James Carroll (a Roman Catholic) attempted to impress his readers with a smattering of Hebrew traditions by citing the scapegoat.

"Hence the city-establishing story in Genesis of Abraham's trek up Mount Moriah, where human sacrifice was called off by the God who does not will it. This mythology, as we saw, locates the very origin of Jerusalem — the sacrificial rock of the Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock—in the humane repudiation of the scapegoat mechanism, or rather, since the mechanism seems eternal, in the humane substitution of the ram for the son. Humans at the altar, yes. On the altar, no. Good religion pushing out bad. But human beings are constitutionally draw to bad religion, which is forever in the throes of a comeback, with an unending supply of human scapegoats ready to be sacrificed: This Iong story shows that." 

But of this, Carroll is willingly ignorant of first, that Abraham’s substitution resulted in the death, not the sparing of the ram. Secondly, that it was indeed a ram, a sheep, caught by the horns, not a goat at all. As the King James Bible is the source of all truth in English, we will need to look deeper into the Scripture before we draw any conclusions.

So, what is a scapegoat anyway?

The first and last reference to the scapegoat comes from the instructions of God to the priesthood for the Day of Atonement. Those are found in the oft-begrudged reading of the book of Leviticus, specifically chapter sixteen, and only from verses five to twenty-eight. A short story of only 23 sentences are what seeded our language and culture with the scapegoat. But how rich a crop it will yield.

Strong’s Concordance lists ‘scapegoat’ as H5799, sounding in Hebrew like ‘azazel’. Strong transliterates the meaning as ‘goat of departure’ from two combined words, much as our English word comes from ‘escape’ and ‘goat.’²

An unsettling opinion from higher education shows the typical dissatisfaction with simply accepting the Bible for what it says. Textual critics say that ‘scapegoat’ is an unsatisfactory rendering. They reason that one goat is for the LORD (Jehovah), so the second goat is for the ‘spirit of the desert.’ They personify the Hebrew word to call the scapegoat, ‘the goat for Azazel,’³ thus insinuating that the Hebrews offered a sacrifice to a devil to appease him for another year. That idea is wrong theologically, linguistically, and culturally.

Another token example of the universal ignorance of the Bible is taken from the hearings following the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. Chairman Rogers remarked about the aggressive questioning and prosecutorial bent of the deposition: “People have suffered a lot… I’m not sure picking out any scapegoat and prosecuting would serve the national interest.”⁴ This story was transcribed and picked up by the national newspapers. As far as I can tell, not one of them caught that a scapegoat is not picked, it is chosen by chance. The lot was cast to select the escapee. And again, better was the lot of the escapee than the other goat, who was slain at the altar.

In light of modern scriptural ignorance, cultural misuse, and historical misunderstanding of the scapegoat, why does the fate of this simple goat make any difference to a Bible believer?

The offering of the two goats on the Day of Atonement portrays both historical and prophetical content.

In the Epistle to the Colossians, Paul explains the far-reaching spiritual affect of the crucifixion. He describes the substitutionary death of Christ so vividly, as if the stony Ten Commandments were fastened to the wooden cross-beams. The result of that vicarious victory restated the need to understand the Old Testament.

“Let not man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” (Colossians 2:16-17, emphasis added)

One of the holydays signals the Feast of Tabernacles; that is, the Day of Atonement. It has today a prophetical significance unfulfilled indicated by Paul’s pointing out ‘things to come.’

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, again Paul is showing the superiority of the office of the Melchisedecian priesthood over the Levitical line. Both offices bow to the High Priest of the New Testament, Jesus Christ. Paul expounds it this way.

“Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” What happened in the wilderness of Sinai was only a replication of what God has constructed in Heaven.

For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is on necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. By God’s definition, a priest brings a sacrifice in behalf of someone else. Jesus was both priest and sacrifice.

For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.” The sons of Aaron served as the priesthood through the time of Christ. They were dedicated in their service, but they did not have the faith to see that a mirrored and magnified Tabernacle exists where the ultimate sacrifice of the Lamb of God would once and for all atone. (Hebrews 8:1-5)

So the event of Leviticus 16 is special by day and design. The place, the timing, and the offering outline a bigger plan than the Old Testament writers could grasp, even as they documented it. The influence of the Holy Spirit on the Old Testament is evident by a prophetic doctrine that only New Testament Scriptures could elaborate.

Concerning the value of such ‘shadows’, we find the purpose of the shady figures in the Psalms and Proverbs. Before singing the history of Israel, Asaph warns of a darker meaning:

“I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old.”

Psalm 78:2

Those “dark sayings” are for the future. What he wrote was for the future, “That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born;” (78:6)

Those dark sayings are not just revelation, but instruction as well. Solomon advises his son to figure them out:

“To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.” (Proverb 1:7)

A present-day believer knows this: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) It is our duty, yet a privilege, to gather information from the Old Testament to help us appreciate the New. We trace the shadows on earth until we see the actual shapes in Heaven!

The weight of information in just one chapter of the Bible outweighs whole libraries of humanistic higher education. God said so much, so well, in such succinct wording. If it were possible for a man to fully grasp entirely just one Scripture verse, he would find he has only picked a pebble from Mt. Everest.

When you study history in the Bible, you are getting yourself ready for the future. A great likeness exists in the scapegoat that will energize every believer to bolder faith in the Word of God.

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1. Carroll, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 2011, p. 301 ↩︎
2. Strong, James, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 1990 ↩︎
3. Kurtz, J.H. Sacrificial Worship in the Old Testament, 1980 ↩︎
4. Higganbotham, Adam, Challenger, 2024, p. 434 ↩︎