Friday, December 23, 2022

David M. Moffitt on Hebrews 9:28 and Jesus not being Prefigured by the "Scape Goat"

  

 . . . if one looks to the Levitical cult for the idea of an animal “bearing sins,” the nearest parallel is the so-called scapegoat on the Day of Atonement. . . the goat was not ultimately offered to God. Rather, after sins were placed upon it, it was led away into the wilderness by someone other than the high priest (Lev. 16:10, 21-22). The point seems to be that precisely because sins were placed on the goat, it must move away from God’s house and presence. This goat bears sins away from God. By contrast, the goat that does not have sins placed on it is explicitly offered to God (16:9). This is the goat whose blood is taken into the holy of holies by the high priest (16:15-16). Hebrews’ reflection of Jesus offering himself to the Father consistently tracks with his latter direction. Like the high priest and the blood of the goat on the Day of Atonement, Jesus moves into the heavenly holy of holies to offer himself to the Father. Conceptually, then, there seems to be a distinction in the Levitical system between a sacrifice that is offered to God and the goat that “bears sins.” This goat is not offered to God but moves away from his presence. (David M. Moffitt, Rethinking the Atonement: New Perspectives on Jesus’s Death, Resurrection, and Ascension [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2022], 63)