On the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16), the high priest selected two goats by lot: one was sacrificed as a sin offering, its blood sprinkled on the mercy seat to satisfy divine justice; the other — the scapegoat — had Israel's sins confessed over it by name and was then led into the wilderness by a fit man, never to return. The two-goat ritual expressed two dimensions of atonement that the cross achieves simultaneously: propitiation (divine wrath satisfied by blood) and expiation (sin removed from the record). Jesus is both goats: "As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12). The scapegoat announces that God does not merely cover sin — He removes it entirely.
SCAPEGOAT — n. [scape and goat.] In the Mosaic ritual, a goat on which the high priest anciently laid the sins of the people by confession, and which was then sent away into the wilderness. Leviticus 16:8–10, 20–22. "And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness." In modern usage, a person who bears the blame for others.
• Leviticus 16:21–22 — "Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel… The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area."
• Psalm 103:12 — "As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us."
• Isaiah 53:6 — "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned — every one — to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."
• Hebrews 9:28 — "Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time."
• Micah 7:19 — "You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."
Culture has reduced "scapegoat" to a social dynamic — blaming an innocent party to relieve group tension. While René Girard's scapegoat theory (mimetic rivalry → sacrificial victim) captures a real sociological pattern, it can evacuate the theological content entirely, reducing the cross to sociology rather than cosmic atonement. The danger: if Jesus is merely the "ultimate scapegoat" of human violence, then God is not satisfying His own justice — humans are venting their violence on an innocent, and God is absent from the transaction. Scripture says the opposite: "It was the will of the Lord to crush him" (Isa 53:10). The cross is not an act of human mob violence absolved by God — it is a divine act of atonement executed through human agency.
Hebrew: עֲזָאזֵל (Azazel, H5799) — found only in Lev 16:8,10,26 Three main interpretations: 1. Geographic: "rocky precipice" — the remote wilderness location 2. Personal: "Azazel" — a wilderness demon (cf. Enochic tradition) 3. Descriptive: "goat of removal/departure" — complete expulsion of sin LXX renders: τῷ ἀποπομπαίῳ (the one sent away) Vulgate: caper emissarius — "the sent-out goat" (→ English "emissary") William Tyndale (~1530): "scape goat" → "the goat that escapes" Modern English retains his coinage Theological pair (Lev 16): Goat 1 (slain) = propitiation — wrath satisfied Goat 2 (Azazel) = expiation — sin removed