Wednesday 25 February 2015

Was Jesus really a scapegoat? Not essentially

*
While there are some reasonable parallels to the analogy; Jesus was not really a scapegoat for Man.

Not, that is, one who was punished for the sins of others; not even one who was willingly punished for the sins of others (which a scape goat never really can be - at most the goat might placidly accept the unjust punishment).

Indeed it is dangerous to regard scapegoat as the master metaphor of what Christ did; because, surely, no matter how we try to spin it, we could never wholly accept the principle that it was right to punish the innocent for the sins of the guilty?

No - Christ was essentially the giver of great gifts, the bringer of great Goods; bringer of the good news.

He was one who added; not one who took-away.

*

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Read Rene Girard's 'The Scapegoat.'

Anonymous said...

Girard doesn't contradict you-but writes on topics closely related to the ones you're exploring now.

Bruce Charlton said...

@Anonymous - please use a pseudonym.