Uses of scapegoats in ancient times were to take the sin of the people away and bring purification to the general populace. In regards to ancient religions in times of drought, famine or plague or some other terrible natural disaster, a scapegoat would be found and offered up to their gods as appeasement and atonement.
Animals were not always used either. Often the scapegoat would be of human form such as a criminal or someone considered to be from lower society strata: the poor or a slave. Occasionally someone high bred such as a beautiful princess would "do the job" but then again, a scapegoat's scapegoat (from lower society) would oft-times be substituted. Sometimes babies or other children would be used; for example offered to Kronos or Artemis (ancient Greek Olympian gods). That is brutal truth.
You can imagine then how a scapegoat would be looked down upon and avoided at all costs until sacrifice time. The scapegoat would not always be executed, sometimes ostracized for a length of time, or chased away by stones being thrown at him or her or badly beaten but not to death. Execution would take the form of being thrown from a cliff, burned, or stoned. If the human sacrifice had been burned (on the altar) the ashes would be scattered to the ocean.
Surprisingly there was great virtue in the scapegoat willingly volunteering to be "the victim". This fell in with the...
"Greek ideology which stressed that the victim was pleased to go up to the altar, sometimes even hardly to wait to be sacrificed!" -Jan N. Bremmer-
The sacrificial person would be fed with rich foods prior to being slain or sent away, given wine to drink and even good clothes to wear. Before the actual slaughtering 'act' a prayer would be uttered to whichever deity, the victim held up and the throat slit. Gruesome.
In the Old Testament we read of an actual goat that was a scapegoat (Leviticus 16). It was the Day of Atonement. The time for the purification of all the Israelites' sins. The LORD spoke to Moses directing him to tell Aaron the high priest and his sons of the yearly ritual that needed to be performed for the sins of the high priest himself and his household, first and foremost, and then for the Israelite multitude. He was to sacrifice a bull for himself and then the goat for the atonement of the people.
They were to take two goats; these had to be without blemish of any kind. They were to cast lots for the goats: one for the LORD and the other as the scapegoat. When I was young, reading this always made me glad for the scapegoat goat even though it had to be "ostracized" outside the camp of the Israelites into the desert; at least it escaped death. This second goat was seen as "the sender away (of sins)" for "absolute removal".
The goat for the LORD was sacrificed as a sin offering and deals with the pollution of sin while the scapegoat bore the burden of sin. It took the sins away into the wilderness never to return. Do note that God ordered animal sacrifice NOT human!
I think you know where I'm headed with all this. All this is heavy with symbolism, prototype for the atonement Jesus wrought for mankind with His death and resurrection upon the cross. In the month of December we focus on Jesus' birth. Yet what was the purpose for His birth into this world? Was it not to be mankind's scapegoat; Someone who was absolutely innocent of all sin. It was to make atonement for the souls of all man kind. He was to take away not only the pollution of sin but to also bear the burden of our sin and its doomed consequences; the full weight.
He did that for us! The sacrifice of all sacrifices; the once for all sin for all time for all people. The yearly bulls and goats fell miserably short of that. They needed repeating year after year after year as did the Greeks and others who followed those appalling ritual practices of yore at their spring festivals honoring their demanding gods.
In the book of Isaiah you see Isaiah in chapter 50 and verse 7,
"...setting his face as a flint..."
...to endure with purpose the disgrace and shame he, as the prophet of his time, was given to do by God to get the message across.
Jesus too, knew His purpose and willingly went quietly "as a Lamb to the slaughter".
"As the time approached for Him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51 NIV).
He did this for you and for me and for the "whosoever" (John 3:16) so that He could atone for the sins of all; so we/they do not have to.
"You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." So said Caiaphas the high priest as recorded in John 11:50 (NIV).
The author of Hebrews records the following in Hebrews 10:1-12 especially verses 9-10 where we see His willingness to offer Himself up and then the completeness of His sacrifice in giving atonement in verses 11-12 (NIV)...
"Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will...and by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all...day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God."
Perfect appeasement. Perfect atonement. Perfect purification for the soul.
He sat down...doesn't that bespeak of finished business...completeness! Praise God! Thank-you, Jesus!! You have accomplished what no one else in the whole wide world has been able to do. As we willingly remember Jesus in His death and resurrection by passing the bread and wine n Lord's Day one to another of His children, who have benefited for all time and eternity, let us continually offer praise to our very own One who was our personal Scapegoat Sacrifice.
Thank-You, Jesus!
~ERC December 2018~
A Christmas carol to listen to, especially the third verse Listen to the Story
Besides Bible references as marked above here are some others from the web:
Scapegoat
Pharmakos
The Strange World of Human Sacrifice
~ERC December 2018~
A Christmas carol to listen to, especially the third verse Listen to the Story
Besides Bible references as marked above here are some others from the web:
Scapegoat
Pharmakos
The Strange World of Human Sacrifice
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