Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

Understanding Biblical Symbolism


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SCAPEGOAT

A symbol of ignorance and error, that is, the absence of the real, the true.

"And he shall take the two goats, and set them before the Lord at the door of the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for Azazel." - LEV. xvi. 7, 8.

The two “he-goats" signify, (1) Desire for lower things, and (2) Ignorance and error, which are negative and illusory conditions. The first must be offered up to the Higher Self (the Lord), and the second must bear, as an excuse, the sins of the qualities, and be dismissed to nullity or negation (Azazel). Ignorance dissipated and replaced by true knowledge atones for sin.

"This very circumstance of a word (Azazel) having been coined for the occasion, suggests what seems to me the right view. To have the iniquities ... conveyed by a symbolical action into that desert and separate region, into a state of oblivion, was manifestly the whole intention and design of the rite." - P. FAIRBAIRN, The Typology of Scripture, Vol. II. p. 536.

"Azazel (in the Book of Enoch) was conceived as chained in the wilderness into which the scapegoat was led. The Jerusalem Targum (Ps. Jonathan) on Leviticus says that the goat was sent to die in a hard and rough place in the wilderness of jagged rocks, i.e. Beth Chaduda." - R. H. CHARLES, Book of Enoch, p. 72.

 

See Also

AARON
AMMIT
ATONEMENT
GOATS
IGNORANCE
SACRIFICE