The Scapegoat_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

The Scapegoat

And thus:

"And when he has made an end of atoning for The Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat; and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities upon him to a solitary land; and he shall let the goat go in the wilderness." (Leviticus 16:20-22 RSV)

The dead goat is a symbol of Jesus Christ, who was good and was crucified (nailed to the cross and left to bleed dry). The Scapegoat symbolizes the life of Satan, who was evil and was let live.

Quite consistent this is, you might say, with the old Chinese saying: "The good die young while the evil live a thousand years."

Anyways, it's a good thing that the Jewish goats, either the killed or the escaped, are a thing of the past. Good thing, that in modern use, the scapegoat comes to represent only men - the real goats are spared, for Christ's sakes and for heaven's snakes.

The scapegoat nowadays is someone who either by naivety or bad luck fall victim when they are blamed for some calamity happening - when in fact they are just a fall guy.

In other words, they are just patsies and whipping boys - they are (like the sacrificial goat and Jesus on the cross) left hung out to dry while the real culprits go sun-bathing, say, in the Caribbean.