Scape-goat
From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project
A scapegoat is the goat driven off into the wilderness as part of Yom Kippur (the Judaic Day of Atonement). The rite itself is described in Leviticus 16:5, 7-10 (King James version) as:
And he [Aaron] shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. ... And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.
This describes a rite of sacrifice, wherein the lives of various animals are given to atone for the people's sins; the sins transferred to the animals by the laying on of hands. Within this rite is an element of chance, in that either of the two goats could end up as the sin-offering, depending upon the lots cast by the priest (Aaron).
It will be noted that one goat was named for "the Lord" and another for "the scapegoat". The use of the word scapegoat was a later addition to the bible, first appearing in the King James edition, and put in place of the original word, which was Azazel. The name of Azazel itself means "goat-lord", thus leading some to take this name as that of a "goat-footed witch god".
The word scapegoat was created by William Tyndale when he translated the passage in question in 1530. He forged the word himself by combining goat with scape (an obsolete form of the word "escape"), so denoting the goat that was ill-favoured by the casting of lots, and so released into the wilderness.
Because the goat, with the sins of the people placed on it, is sent over a cliff or driven into the wilderness to perish, the word "scapegoat" has come to be a metaphor for a person, often innocent, who is blamed and punished for the sins, crimes or sufferings of others.
