The Scholarly Case

The ritual of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, as prescribed in Leviticus 16, stands as one of the most profound prophetic types within the Torah, meticulously detailing the process of national atonement for Israel. Central to this ritual are two goats: one sacrificed "for the Lord" (Leviticus 16:8-9) and the other, the "scapegoat" (Hebrew: la'aza'zel), sent into the wilderness (Leviticus 16:10). This dual imagery finds its ultimate and singular fulfillment in Yeshua HaMashiach, who, through His death and resurrection, accomplished both aspects of atonement.

The Tanakh context reveals that the two goats, while distinct in their immediate function, were integral parts of a single, unified atonement ceremony. The first goat was sacrificed, its blood brought into the Most Holy Place by the High Priest to "make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins" (Leviticus 16:15-16). This act symbolized the expiation of sin, the covering and removal of defilement from God's presence. The second goat, the la'aza'zel, had the sins of the people confessed over its head by the High Priest, who then sent it "away into the wilderness" (Leviticus 16:21-22), symbolizing the complete removal of those sins from the community. The Temple Scroll, an ancient Jewish text from the Qumran community, corroborates this understanding, noting that the goat for YHWH undergoes sacrificial rites, while the goat for Azazel bears the sins of Israel and is sent away without being sacrificed, highlighting their distinct yet complementary functions (Temple Scroll, 11Q19, 25,10-27,10).

This dual action—expiation through blood and removal of sin—is perfectly encapsulated in Yeshua's work. The New Testament unequivocally presents Yeshua as the ultimate High Priest and the perfect sacrifice. As the author of Hebrews declares, "He entered once for all into the Most Holy Place, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:12). Yeshua's shed blood on the cross serves as the definitive atonement, mirroring the first goat's sacrifice, making propitiation for sins and cleansing the heavenly sanctuary itself through His perfect offering (Hebrews 9:23-24).

Furthermore, Yeshua embodies the scapegoat (la'aza'zel) by literally bearing the sins of the world away. Isaiah 53, a prophecy widely understood in ancient Judaism as Messianic, speaks of the Suffering Servant who "bore our griefs and carried our sorrows" and was "pierced for our transgressions" (Isaiah 53:4-5). The Targum Isaiah, an Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Bible, explicitly interprets this Suffering Servant as a Messianic figure whose role is intrinsically linked to atonement through sacrifice and intercession (Targum Isaiah, Isaiah 53). This pre-Christian rabbinic understanding provides a critical bridge to the New Testament's portrayal of Yeshua. The Apostle John, upon seeing Yeshua, proclaimed, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). The Greek word for "takes away" (αἴρων, airōn) carries the connotation of both "bearing" and "removing," precisely aligning with the scapegoat's function of carrying sins away into oblivion.

Yeshua did not merely symbolize the removal of sin; He accomplished it. Unlike the physical goat that merely carried the symbolic weight of sin into the wilderness, Yeshua, through His resurrection, demonstrated His triumph over sin and death, definitively removing the penalty and power of sin for those who believe. The wilderness, in ancient Jewish thought, was often associated with chaos and the realm of evil spirits. Sending the goat to Azazel, often understood as a demonic entity or a desolate place, signified the complete banishment of sin from God's people. Yeshua, by descending into death and rising again, conquered the spiritual forces of darkness and "disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him" (Colossians 2:15), thereby banishing the power of sin and death to their proper place.

The concept of atonement in the Torah was not limited solely to unintentional sins, a common misunderstanding. While Numbers 15:30-31 speaks of "high-handed" sins for which there is no sacrifice, Leviticus 5-6 describes the asham (guilt offering) which addresses specific guilty acts, including certain intentional transgressions, providing a sacrificial remedy (Leviticus 5:1-6:7). This demonstrates that the Torah itself provided mechanisms for dealing with a broader range of culpability than often acknowledged, further emphasizing the comprehensive nature of the Yom Kippur atonement and its ultimate fulfillment in Yeshua, whose sacrifice covers all sin (1 John 1:7).

Therefore, the two goats of Yom Kippur are not separate, incomplete symbols, but rather two facets of a single, perfect atonement achieved by Yeshua. He is both the sacrificed Lamb whose blood makes expiation and the Scapegoat who carries away our sins, providing a complete and eternal redemption that the animal sacrifices could only foreshadow. His work renders the ritual obsolete, not because it was flawed, but because its prophetic purpose was perfectly realized in Him (Hebrews 10:1-4).

Who was the scapegoat in the Bible?

In the Bible, specifically Leviticus 16, the "scapegoat" was one of two goats chosen for the Yom Kippur ritual. Designated "for Azazel" (לַעֲזָאזֵל), this goat had the confessed sins of the Israelite community laid upon it by the High Priest and was then led into the wilderness to be released, symbolizing the complete removal of Israel's sins from the camp and from God's presence (Leviticus 16:21-22).

Was Jesus or Barabbas the scapegoat?

Neither Jesus nor Barabbas was the literal scapegoat in the context of the Yom Kippur ritual. However, in a profound theological sense, Yeshua HaMashiach is the true and ultimate Scapegoat. While Barabbas was a criminal released by popular demand, representing a false "freedom" from human judgment, Yeshua was innocent, yet bore the sins of humanity, suffering the penalty and carrying them away definitively. The choice presented to the crowd—Barabbas (a rebel) or Yeshua (the innocent Messiah)—is a stark contrast between a temporary reprieve from human justice and eternal deliverance from divine judgment through Yeshua's atoning work.

Is Jesus considered our scapegoat?

Yes, Yeshua is indeed considered our Scapegoat. He perfectly fulfills the prophetic imagery of the goat sent to Azazel. Just as the scapegoat bore the sins of Israel into the wilderness, Yeshua bore the sins of all humanity upon Himself on the cross, taking them away to the ultimate "wilderness" of separation from God, thereby removing their guilt and power. His resurrection signifies the definitive and final removal of sin, an act that the ritual goat could only symbolize temporarily.

Adversary Teardown: Aish.com

The contemporary counter-missionary movement, exemplified by platforms like Aish.com and Chabad.org, frequently distorts the prophetic significance of the Yom Kippur scapegoat, severing its connection to Messianic fulfillment. This deviation from earlier Jewish thought is not an ancient tradition but a relatively recent development, largely solidified in the post-Temple era and amplified by figures like Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, 1040-1105 CE) who, in his commentary, began to shift away from more overt Messianic interpretations of certain Tanakh passages that were prevalent in earlier rabbinic writings and Targumim.

Aish.com, for instance, in articles discussing Yom Kippur, will typically focus on the historical ritual and its ethical implications for personal repentance, often emphasizing that "the Azazel goat was dispatched to a desolate place" to symbolize the removal of sins, but conspicuously avoids any direct Messianic application to Yeshua. This approach is a deliberate theological maneuver to deny the New Testament's claims. Chabad.org similarly frames the scapegoat as a symbol of "discarding the negative" through personal introspection and repentance, without acknowledging its prophetic foreshadowing of a singular, atoning figure.

This denial is a break from a more ancient Jewish understanding. While the specific identification of Azazel itself has varied (from a demonic entity to a desolate place), the overarching concept of a sin-bearing sacrifice that removes guilt was deeply ingrained. The Targum Isaiah, for example, long before Rashi, understood Isaiah 53 – the quintessential prophecy of a suffering, sin-bearing Messiah – in a Messianic context, linking atonement directly to a future redeemer (Targum Isaiah, Isaiah 53). This demonstrates that the concept of a Messianic figure bearing sins was not alien to pre-Christian or early rabbinic thought.

The fault line in Aish.com and Chabad.org's approach lies in their insistence that the Day of Atonement ritual, including the scapegoat, finds its contemporary "fulfillment" solely in personal repentance and prayer, devoid of any external, once-for-all atoning sacrifice. This position fundamentally undermines the explicit biblical requirement for blood atonement for sin (Leviticus 17:11) and ignores the prophetic trajectory of the Law pointing to a greater, definitive sacrifice. By rejecting Yeshua as the fulfillment, they are forced to reinterpret the ritual as an ongoing, symbolic act rather than a completed prophecy, leaving a gaping void in the biblical scheme of atonement that only the Messiah can fill.

The denial of Yeshua as the ultimate Scapegoat is a post-Temple theological construct designed to counter the claims of the New Testament. It is a tradition-driven reading that broke from the 1st-century Hebraic faith, which understood the need for a perfect, final atonement. The adversary's own sources, when examined without later rabbinic filters, often reveal a longing and expectation for a Messianic figure who would indeed bear the sins of His people, a role Yeshua perfectly fulfilled.

Counter-Arguments Anticipated

Objection 1: The scapegoat was sent to Azazel, a demonic entity, and God would not send sins to a demon.

Rebuttal: The identity of "Azazel" is debated, but even if it refers to a demonic entity or a wilderness demon, this does not negate Yeshua's fulfillment. The purpose was not to *transfer* sins to a demon for punishment, but to *remove* them from God's presence and the camp of Israel, symbolically banishing them to a place of desolation or to the realm of evil where they belong, away from the Holy God. Yeshua, by His death and resurrection, conquered the powers of darkness and disarmed them (Colossians 2:15), effectively banishing the power of sin to its proper, defeated realm. He carried sin away, not to empower evil, but to render it powerless over believers.

Objection 2: The two goats represent two distinct aspects of atonement that cannot be fulfilled by one person.

Rebuttal: This objection, sometimes voiced even within Messianic circles (see Rabbi Greg Hershberg, "October 2, 2025 Yom Kippur"), misinterprets the unity of Yeshua's work. While the ritual used two physical goats, they were part of a single, unified ceremony of atonement (Leviticus 16). Yeshua, as the Son of God, is fully capable of embodying both expiation (through His shed blood as the sacrifice "for the Lord") and the removal of sin (by bearing them away as the Scapegoat). His singular, comprehensive sacrifice on the cross achieved both the propitiation for sin and its definitive removal, making the two-goat ritual obsolete because its prophetic purpose was perfectly realized in Him (Hebrews 10:10-14).

Objection 3: The scapegoat ritual was only for unintentional sins, and Yeshua's sacrifice is for all sins, so there's no parallel.

Rebuttal: This argument misunderstands the scope of biblical sacrifices. While some offerings were specifically for unintentional sins, the Yom Kippur atonement, represented by the two goats, was for "all their transgressions, all their sins" (Leviticus 16:21), implying a comprehensive covering for both known and unknown, intentional and unintentional sins of the community. Moreover, the Torah itself describes sacrifices, like the asham (guilt offering), that address certain intentional transgressions (Leviticus 5:1-6:7). The sole exception was "high-handed" or defiantly rebellious sin (Numbers 15:30-31), for which there was no sacrifice. Yeshua's sacrifice, however, transcends these limitations, providing atonement even for deliberate acts of rebellion when accompanied by genuine repentance (1 John 1:9).

Position Lock

Position Lock: The prophecy of "The Scapegoat — bearing sins away" (Leviticus 16:20–22) finds its complete and exclusive fulfillment in Yeshua HaMashiach. He alone, as both the sacrificial Lamb and the sin-bearing Messiah, definitively expiated and removed the sins of humanity, rendering the ancient ritual obsolete through His singular, perfect atonement.

Related Sources & Prophecies

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• Messianic worldview overview
• Ask Enoch about was the prophecy "The Scapegoat —