Socinius says that the scapegoat doesn’t bear punishment for the sins of the people. Grotius ( Defensio Fidei Catholoicae: De Satisfactione Christi Adversus Faustum Socinum Senensem , 1.28) disagrees: Citing Genesis 9:5; Exodus 21:28; and Leviticus 20:15, he concludes that in Scripture “punishment, taken generally, certainly falls upon animals.” He adds that the scapegoat was thrown from a high place, though he admits this is drawn from “Jewish interpreters” rather from the explicit statement of Scripture. Even if this were not the case, “what other threat could that driving away into the desert solitude pose than a by no means natural death, either by hunger or the tearing apart of wild animals.”
This highlights a curiosity of the scapegoat rite: Other sacrificial victims were killed directly by priest or worshiper, their blood contained, their flesh turned to smoke. Insofar as slaughter can be contained, sacrifice is containment, a ritualization of death. But this is precisely what does not happen to the scapegoat (notwithstanding the Jewish tradition), whose death, if it happens, is “accidental.” A scapegoat bears the sins and uncleanness of Israel into the wilderness to be torn apart by some wild beast. The flesh of sacrificial animals is disposed of in orderly, prescribed ways; only the scapegoat risks the full curse of the covenant, his flesh left for scavengers and birds of prey.
The scapegoat is a Joseph among his murderous brothers; David surrounded by dogs and lions; ultimately it is Jesus betrayed, surrounded by baying enemies. These are scapegoats precisely because their deaths exceed the containment of sacrificial ritual, because their deaths are un controlled.
