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Azazel
The significance of the act depends on the provenance of the Day of Atonement. Critical scholarship sets this in the postexilic period, while allowing that it developed various ancient rites, including the offering of a scapegoat to Azazel. However, it is unlikely that the Jews in the exilic period would have deliberately introduced a specifically pagan concept. Moreover, the view of a late date for the Day of Atonement has been seriously weakened by archeological discoveries in Babylonia and Ugarit, which show that there were rituals connected with the New Year festivals analagous to the Day of Atonement. The consigning of a goat to Azazel was prob. one of many features adapted from contemporary cultic life in the Mosaic period and incorporated into the Israelite cultus, receiving an entirely different significance in the process.
Bibliography
N. Micklem, Leviticus IB II (1953), 77-84; W. F. Albright, From the Stone Age to Christianity, 2nd ed. (1957), 329; R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel (1961), 507-510; J. Gray, The Canaanites (1964), 137, 138.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
(`aza’zel apopompaios; the King James Version Scapegoat, the Revised Version, margin "removal"):
I. THE MEANING OF THE WORD 1. The Passages to Be Considered
2. The Proposed Interpretations
(1) The Etymology
(2) The Explanation
II. WHAT IS DONE IN CONNECTION WITH AZAZEL 1. The Significance of This Action
2. The Jewish Liturgy
I. The Meaning of the Word 1. The Passages to Be Considered:
This word is found in connection with the ceremony of the Day of Atonement (which see). According to
2. The Proposed Interpretations:
(1) The Etymology.
Some have derived the word from `az plus ’azal (fortis abiens, "passing away in his strength" or from an intentional alteration of ’el plus `azaz, robur Dei, "strength of God"; compare below the angel of the Book of Enoch); while others have regarded the word as a broken plural of a substantive in the Arabic `azala, and translated it as "lonesomeness," "desert." Now there is an inclination to regard it as a reduplication from `azalzel, derived from the root `azal. If we accept this view, although it is without certainty and an exact analogue cannot be found, we could conclude from the way in which this noun has been formed that we have before us not an abstract term (remotio, "removal," or abitus, "departure"), but a concrete noun, or an adjective, longe remotus ("far removed") or porro abiens ("going far away").
(2) The Explanation.
II. What Is Done in Connection with Azazel. 1. The Significance of This Action:
Both goats, according to
2. The Jewish Liturgy:
The actions in connection with Azazel, as was also the case with the Day of Atonement, were interpreted more fully by the Talmud and the traditions based on it (compare ATONEMENT, DAY OF, sec. III, 2). The lots could be made of different materials; in later times they were made of gold. The manner of casting the lots was described in full. The goat that was to be sent into the wilderness was designated by a black mark on the head, the other by one on the neck. On the way from Jerusalem to the wilderness, huts were erected. From a distance it was possible to see how the goat was hurled backward from a certain cliff, called Beth-Hadudu (Beth-chadedun, 12 miles East of Jerusalem). By means of signals made with garments, news was at once sent to Jerusalem when the wilderness had been reached.