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9 CHAPTER 2 Ancient Types and Soteriologies The Blood and Mystery of the Cross At the threshold of the Christian era, the historical path of the scapegoat divides in two directions: on the one hand, the first Christian Day of Atonement typologies; and on the other, two early conceptions of Christ’s saving work that have little if anything to do with the Day of Atonement. One writer notes that “the doctrine of the atonement, the doctrine that God has resolved the problem of human evil by means of the suffering and death of Christ, is the central doctrine of Christianity.”1 Because the scapegoat is a Day of Atonement animal, its interpreters will eventually find ways of using it to comment on this problem and its resolution. This happens at important moments in the long historical evolution of Christian thinking on the subject, although the two things—typologies and soteriologies—run at an oblique angle initially. The business of rendering Day of Atonement types begins early and persists for centuries, with many different writers venturing typologies of one or both goats. Early interpreters are divided between those who see the scapegoat as a demonic figure and others who see it as divine. Indeed, most readings ventured during the first fifteen centuries of the Christian era tend to run to one extreme or the other, giving rise to fully antipodal scapegoat traditions. In time a “structure” of polarized interpretations stands forth whose collapse at the dawn of the modern age produces the current metaphorical usage. 10 Chapter 2 The Epistle to the Hebrews establishes a decisive connection between the death of Jesus “outside the gate” (13:12) and the burning of slain Day of Atonement animals “outside the camp” (13:3:11). Among these animals is the immolated goat chosen by lot “for Yahweh” whose blood the priest conveys inside the sanctuary “to make atonement” (Lv. 16:16). The New Testament never mentions the scapegoat explicitly, although the text of Leviticus plainly stipulates that it, too, shall be “set before Hashem” to “make atonement over him” (Lv. 16:10). The Hebrew word translated “make atonement”—dp'K; Kāphar—means to wipe out or to cover, though it comes in time to stand for other things too—annulment, purging, and sometimes propitiation or appeasement. The Septuagint renders it with exilaskomai—which means “to propitiate” or “appease” in pagan Greek usage—adapting the expression considerably to specify the removal of guilt and defilement. This Greek word does not appear in the New Testament; instead, the verb hilaskomai is used, notably in Hebrews, for a description of Christ’s high priestly work. The author tells us that Jesus “had to be made like His brethren in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make expiation ( ἱλάσκεσθαι, hilaskesthai) for the sins of the people” (2:17). Taking the merciful initiative, God sends Jesus not merely to expiate sin but to perfect his son “through sufferings” (2:10) and make him a sympathetic intercessor for humankind. The cardinal verse for what we will be calling the Christus Victor idea of the atonement comes in Hebrews 2: “Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (2:14–15). In this glimpse of the drama of salvation, four distinct players appear: God the Father, Jesus the Son, a captive humanity, and the Devil. Death and its enslaving fear are plainly the works of the Devil. Other images of Christ’s triumph over the powers of evil appear in Colossians , which records that “He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (1:13) and having “disarmed the rulers and authorities” made “a public display of them, having triumphed over them in him (Christ crucified)” (2:15). With this image, the author of Colossians adds that Christ nails “the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us” to his cross (2:14–15).2 The pecuniary metaphor recalls the Gospel claim that “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom (λύτρον, lutron) Ancient Types and Soteriologies 11 for many” (Mark...

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