Scapegoat
A scapegoat is a person or entity that is unjustly blamed for the faults or misdeeds of others, serving as a means to deflect responsibility. The term originates from ancient rituals described in the Bible, specifically in the book of Leviticus, where a goat was symbolically burdened with the sins of the Israelites and then cast into the desert during the Day of Atonement. This historical practice underscores the idea of transferring guilt, a concept that has evolved over centuries to encompass broader contexts, including social and political situations. In contemporary usage, a scapegoat often refers to an innocent party who suffers repercussions for the actions of others, evoking themes of injustice and sympathy. The metaphor has permeated various cultures, with parallels found in ancient Greek and other traditions that involved rituals of expulsion or punishment. In modern discourse, the term is commonly used in secular contexts, often detached from its original religious significance. Understanding the scapegoat concept can illuminate discussions on accountability, blame, and the dynamics of social conflict across different societies.
Scapegoat
In the twenty-first century, scapegoat refers to a person or thing that takes the blame and/or punishment for another's sins, shortcomings, failings, or problems. The original concept, however, referred to a literal goat that the ancient Israelites would ceremonially load with their sins and send into the desert. The concept is most familiar from the book of Leviticus in the Bible's Old Testament but appears in other cultures and periods.
While the historical scapegoat as described in the Bible and elsewhere in antiquity was a literal goat, the term has gradually expanded over time to refer to anyone or anything that is blamed in place of the person or thing responsible. Much like the whipping boys hired to take the punishment of young royals in centuries past, a scapegoat helps the source of the real guilt to avoid blame and punishment.
History
The use of the term scapegoat as a metaphor for one thing taking the blame for another appeared in writing in the mid-seventeenth century, but the literal meaning for scapegoat dated back to the fifteenth century BCE in the Old Testament book of Leviticus. Attributed to Moses and purported to have been written in the Mount Sinai area around the year 1445 BCE, Leviticus is a guide for Israelite priests. Following chapters dealing with how the priests should attend to altars and perform sacrifices and purification rituals, the sixteenth chapter addresses the Day of Atonement.
Purification of the area around the temple was a regular part of the priestly practice intended to rid it of the impurities from the many sacrifices that took place there. But the Israelites believed these routine purifications could not rid the temple of the defilement caused by intentional sin. Unlike unintentional sins, which were purified by the routine blood sacrifices, intentional sins—deliberate disobedience or defiance of one of the commandments—were believed to go straight to the holy of holies, the most sacred part of the temple, and stay there. While the hope was deliberate sin would be a rare occurrence, in reality it was not, and the most sacred part of the temple became the most sin-laden.
To rid the temple of this defilement, the priests would choose two goats on the tenth day of the seventh month, known as the Day of Atonement. One goat would be slaughtered and its blood sprinkled on and around the altar as atonement for the people's sins. Leviticus 16 describes Moses' brother Aaron as performing this task. Aaron then took a second goat, placed both his hands on its head, and recited the sins of the people. In this way, he symbolically loaded the sins onto the goat, which was then driven out into the desert bearing away the Israelites' sins.
Leviticus says this second goat is designated for Azazel, which Biblical scholars believe was the name of a demon. Though demons are rare in this section of the Bible, other cultures of the time believed demons were responsible for causing the sins and shortcomings of people. Regardless, the two goats—one killed instantly and one banished into the wilderness with nothing but the sins of the Israelites—established the concept of a scapegoat.
Other Substitute Sacrifices
Other cultures engaged in similar rituals and may have been the inspiration for the ceremony detailed in Leviticus. The scapegoat sacrifice does not appear elsewhere in the Old Testament, but similar rituals that involve expelling an animal into the wilderness are outlined in the Hittite and Mesopotamian cultures. However, these rituals were performed to appease an unhappy god, and the animals were not specifically burdened with the sins of the people.
The ancient Greeks also used a similar expulsion ritual, but they used people who represented another person, or in some instances, an entire community. These rituals often involved a pharmakos, or human embodiment of evil, and frequently involved physically punishing the person before he or she was killed by burning, stoning, or some other violent means. The pharmakoi in these ceremonies often were people who were rejected by the community because of their appearance or because they were believed to be bewitched or magical. Their sacrificial death was intended to protect the town from pestilence, plague, or a weather disaster.
Although the term is never specifically applied to Jesus Christ in the New Testament, his first century Jewish followers who were very familiar with the Leviticus scapegoat ceremony could not avoid the idea that Christ was a scapegoat for humankind. The Gospel of John 11:50 reports Caiaphas as saying it is better for one man to die for the nation, and as a high priest of the temple, he likely would have been familiar with the concept of a scapegoat. The belief that Jesus, fully human but fully divine and therefore sinless, was killed to take away the sins of the world made him a human scapegoat. The circumstances of his death—blamed, driven out by the crowd, and sent to his death by Pontius Pilate as a means of appeasing the crowd and restoring order—is an example of scapegoating.
Contemporary Usage
In 1530, the Bible published by William Tyndale in vernacular English brought the actual word scapegoat before the common people, and use of it expanded from there. Along the way, the idea of the scapegoat as an innocent victim was emphasized and expanded, adding an air of sympathy and pity to the scapegoat. In the twenty-first century, it is more frequently used in a secular connotation than in a religious one, and many who use it likely have no idea of its Biblical origins.
Bibliography
Campbell, Charlie. Scapegoat: A History of Blaming Other People. London: Duckworth Overlook, 2011. Print.
Collins, John J. A Short Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007, 76–77. Print.
Dawson, David. Flesh Becomes Word: A Lexicography of the Scapegoat or, the History of an Idea. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2013. Print.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible, New Standard Revised Version with the Apocrypha. Eds. Michael D. Coogan, Marc Z. Brettler, and Carol Newsom. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, 166–167. Print.
"Chapter 1. The Pharmakos in Archaic Greece." Center for Hellenic Studies. Harvard University. Web. 28 Aug. 2015. http://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/4912