sorry to be pedantic but scapegoat does NOT refer to an animal that
escaped . . . in the OT version the scapegoat was specifically an animal
that was killed -- apparently by being tossed off a cliff -- as a way of
atoning for the sins of the community . . . thus the scapegoat is one
who suffers in place of others
scape in scapegoat does etymologically come from the word escape, but it
suggests escaping -- or being cast out -- of divine favor, not escaping
from the sacrificial death . . . and while because of renaissance
christian misreading of the hebrew of the text the animal came to be
identified as a goat in the original it is explicitly and clearly a lamb
end of nitpicky pedantry for now
mike
====================================
The word tragedy comes from
'goat-song' or something like that; on the old Testament theme, a goat
was
allowed to escape from sacrifices -hence the expression 'scapegoat -
this
meant that if the sacrifice did not work, blame could be foisted upon
the
escaped goat. (This is more of a last minute reprieve for the goat,
than a
rescue but hey!)
Also it might be worth considering whether the last minute rescue is
some
sort of affirmation of faith - if you have faith it will all be alright
in
the end.
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