When
William Tyndale (1494 to 1536) undertook the first translation of the Bible
from Greek, Hebrew, and German into the English language he coined the word (e)scapegoat
as a translation of the Hebrew words that referred to the second goat.
So today,
in the English language Bible we read that ‘…the scapegoat shall be
presented live before the Lord…’ and that Aaron was to ‘…let it go as
the scapegoat into the wilderness.’1
The
scapegoat that Arron let go took with it the sins of the people. Leviticus 16:22
tells us that this goat ‘…shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an
uninhabited land: and (Aaron) shall release the goat in the wilderness.’
The word scapegoat
has now been part of the English language for almost 400 years. We are
still making use of it, and doing so increasingly. In the early 1800s the word
was used approximately 0.04 times in every one million words uttered. By 2019
it was being used 0.83 times in every one million words. That is a staggering twenty-fold
increase in just 200 years.
Why? we
might ask.
Does the
increase in the number of times we use the word scapegoat mean that we
are more willing to atone for our sins? Does it indicate an increase in the
number of scapegoats?
Or,
through a subtle shift in the sense of the word scapegoat, does it
suggest a keenness to shift the blame for our sins, and iniquities, onto
someone else, and treat them as a scapegoat?
Today, the
meaning has shifted subtly. A scapegoat is someone who is blamed for the
sins and iniquities of another. Furthermore, in today’s world a scapegoat is
not only blamed, but often punished. We see it often, don’t we; not only at an
individual level, but also at a societal and even global level. Something bad
happens and immediately we (individually and/or collectively) look around for a
scapegoat – someone to blame.
That
someone (the scapegoat) is then threatened in all sorts of ways. It
could be a threat of personal violence. It could be the threat of exile. It
could, as we have seen many times throughout the past century, be the threat of
bombing and invasion of one country by another.
The scapegoat
nowadays is no longer the means by which our sins, iniquities, and harms are let
go into the wilderness. The scapegoat is the reason for those sins, iniquities,
and harms.
When will
we rediscover the courage to admit that we can be the authors of our own misfortune
and not seek out a scapegoat to blame, accuse, and threaten?
If the
world is ever to find some peacefulness and harmony then we will have to learn what
Aaron was taught.
We will
have to let the goats escape.
Notes
1. Holy
Bible, New King
James Version, copyright 1990 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
