What is a scape goat?

Question

Where does the term scape goat come from and what does it mean?

Answer 1

Judas
Scooter Libby

Answer 2

A scape goat was the one that was, in ancient Jewish times, released to carry away all the sins of the Jewish nation. At the time when this happened one goat was sacrificed to God and the other released into the wilderness. that is where the phrase Scape Goat comes from. However today it refers to any one or thing that carries the blame.

Answer 3

As part of the ceremonies of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, all the wrong doings and sins of the village or city would be transferred to a goat which would then be driven out into the desert, effectively taking all the sins with it, the term has now come to mean someone who takes the blame for the wrong doings of others

Answer 4

The term scapegoat comes from long ago (Old Testament of the Bible). The Jewish people had a ceremony in which they got rid of everyone's sins by putting them on a goat.

The goat was then either sent off to get lost or was killed. The thinking was that everyone's sins and problems went away since the goat took the sins with it (and so they got rid of them).

So metaphorically, a scapegoat is someone who you can blame (even though it's not really their fault). Get rid of your problems by blaming someone else or putting your problems on someone else. That's what a a scapegoat is good for. Get them blamed instead!

Of course it's unfair to them. You're basically using them as a scapegoat (an excuse or someone to blame) instead of admitting what really happened.

Answer 5

In the old testament, the priests were told to use two goats to represent all the sins of the people. On the day of atonement, They were to cast lots to see which goat would be for God, and which would be the scapegoat. The one chosen for God would be sacrificed and the meat cut up and burned. The scapegoat would ceremonially be packed with all the sins of the community and sent alive into the desert. The sacrificed goat represented the forgiveness of sin and the scapegoat represented the removal of guilt. (Lev 16:8) hope that helps

Answer 6

The scapegoat was a goat that was driven off into the wilderness as part of the ceremonies of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, in Judaism during the times of the Temple in Jerusalem. The rite is described in Leviticus 16.

The word is more widely used as a metaphor, referring to someone who is blamed for misfortunes, generally as a way of distracting attention from the real causes. Also referred to as the fall guy.

Answer 7

I was going to give a long and involved answer but Wikipedia did it for me.

"The scapegoat was a goat that was driven off into the wilderness as part of the ceremonies of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, in Judaism during the times of the Temple in Jerusalem. The rite is described in Leviticus 16.

The word is more widely used as a metaphor, referring to someone who is blamed for misfortunes, generally as a way of distracting attention from the real causes. Also referred to as the fall guy."

Answer 8

Well before Christ in Greece, and it was the goat placed in a flock of sheep to keep watch. Goats always hung by the fringe of the flock and usuall wound up being attacked by the wolves in the mountains. It usually got away because it could go straight up the mountain and the wolves couldn't catch it or they couldn't deal with a goats horns and fell off the side of a cliff.


Meanwhile, the herdsman got the flock outa there. huh? Oh yeah.

Later, in the writings of the Bible, it was used in the simplest terms, as a sacrifice for the flock.

Answer 9

a scape goat is the person everyone else uses to get away with their misdemeanours, by blaming the scape goat.

Answer 10

goes back to old testament times when a goat was sacrificed , each person who had sin was to go and lay hands on the goat and transfer their sins to the goat, then the goat was killed and everyones sin was washed in the blood of the poor goat, sort of like the old english sin eater.