Scapegoat Sacrifice and the Crucifixion

[Secret Alias]

When the Christian calls himself the 'peripsema' he means that he and Jesus have traded places, his 'old self' is now witnessed as being crucified and Jesus lives in him.

[Secret Alias]

Allan Brent:

What is the character of that sacrifice for Ignatius? Ignatius will call his sacrifice a 'scapegoat sacrifice'. As he explains to the Ephesians gathering around him for the procession to the altar of sacrifice at Rome:

I am your scapegoat sacrifice (peripsema) and I consecrate myself as such for the church of you the Ephesians, a church renowned throughout the ages ... my spirit is a scapegoat sacrifice bound to the cross[.]"

Ignatius emphasizes to the churches he addresses the sacrificial character of his martyr procession. Ignatius uses, in addition to the word for scapegoat sacrifice (peripsema), the general word for expiation in Hellenistic Jewish literature, namely antipsuchon, which means literally something or someone given in place of the soul or life of another.” He uses this word again specifically of those who join the sacrificial procession: 'I am your expiatory sacrifice and of those whom you sent for God's honour to Smyrna.” (p. 48)

[Secret Alias]

We stand very close to the substitution myth of the Islamic pseudepigrapha

[Secret Alias]

The parallel concept in 4 Maccabees:

Writing possibly in the early first century, the author of 4 Maccabees re-tells the stories of the martyrdoms of Eleazar and the mother with her seven sons. It is the author's thesis that the Maccabean martyrs prove by their willingness to die for the law that reason can rule the passions; were this not so, these nine individuals would have recanted the religion of their ancestors. Although it may be reasonable for a person to die for the Law (see 6:27), the suffering and death of the Maccabean martyrs is also accorded a distinct salvation-historical function. Eleazar is condemned to death by burning because of his refusal to violate the Torah. At the point of death, he petitions God, "Be merciful to your people and let our punishment be a satisfaction for them. Make my blood a purification (katharsios) and take my life as a ransom (antipsuchon) for theirs" (6:28-29; see also 1:11). Likewise, concerning these martyrs the author comments towards the end of 4 Maccabees: "They became, as it were, as a ransom (antipsuchon) for the sin of our nation. And through the blood of those pious ones and the atoning value (hilasterios) of their death, divine providence saved Israel, which had been exceedingly mistreated" (17:21-22).

[Secret Alias]

Allan Brent again:

"Thus Ignatius has been successful in achieving, as a scapegoat sacrifice, the peace at Antioch that he had failed to achieve whilst still free. His claim for a single bishop at the apex of a hierarchy had been the reason for the inner conflict in that church that had led to his removal for execution at Rome at the mouths of the wild beasts in the arena. Since they [Ignatius' opponents in the church of Antioch] had opposed the ecclesial order that he had advocated and had been the cause of his troubles, they had now to accept the collective guilt for making him a scapegoat. Thus Ignatius by his martyrdom had sapped their will to continue in a state of faction. And they were being joined through the effects of that scapegoat sacrifice by the divided churches of Asia Minor that were joining his procession and accepting his church constitution. Ignatius is assimilating his concept of a 'scapegoat sacrifice' (peripsema) drawn from Old Testament typology to the pagan and Hellenistic concept of a joint sacrifice or sunthusia. His martyr procession, in sending forth and receiving ecclesial ambassadors, is like a procession that culminates in a sunthusia that concludes a homonoia treaty between city-states." (pp. 53-54)

[Secret Alias]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosis_(E ... _theology)

[Peter Kirby]

Speaking of 'scapegoats'....

http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2015_0 ... 5882108105

NEW BOOK FROM SUNY PRESS:
Divine Scapegoats
Demonic Mimesis in Early Jewish Mysticism



Andrei A. Orlov - Author
Price: $95.00
Hardcover - 352 pages
Release Date: May 2015
ISBN10: N/A
ISBN13: 978-1-4384-5583-9

Summary

Explores the paradoxical symmetry between the divine and demonic in early Jewish mystical texts.

Divine Scapegoats is a wide-ranging exploration of the parallels between the heavenly and the demonic in early Jewish apocalyptical accounts. In these materials, antagonists often mirror features of angelic figures, and even those of the Deity himself, an inverse correspondence that implies a belief that the demonic realm is maintained by imitating divine reality. Andrei A. Orlov examines the sacerdotal, messianic, and creational aspects of this mimetic imagery, focusing primarily on two texts from the Slavonic pseudepigrapha: 2 Enoch and the Apocalypse of Abraham. These two works are part of a very special cluster of Jewish apocalyptic texts that exhibit features not only of the apocalyptic worldview but also of the symbolic universe of early Jewish mysticism. The Yom Kippur ritual in the Apocalypse of Abraham, the divine light and darkness of 2 Enoch, and the similarity of mimetic motifs to later developments in the Zohar are of particular importance in Orlov’s consideration.

NB-- Yom Kippur "ritual in the Apocalypse of Abraham" aka the Day of Atonement aka something about Leviticus 16 with the goats.

[Secret Alias]

I don't know if my point is being appreciated but I am trying to rescue what I think was the original understanding of the gospel where the apostle (= the one sent forth) was the released goat. I think the peripsema in 1 Corinthians is key. In this proposed adaptation of the Jewish Day of Atonement ritual Paul is the released goat, the crucified one is his old self (= he is now the risen Jesus who transmigrated from the cross). The two identical goats exchanged souls as Philo notes:

On the tenth day the fast takes place which they take seriously--not only those who are zealous about piety and holiness, but even those who do nothing religious the rest of the time. For all are astounded, overcome with the sacredness of it; in fact, at that time the worse compete with the better in selfcontrol and virtue. The reputation of the day is due to two reasons: one that it is a feast and the other that it is purification and escape from sins for which anmesty has been given by the favors of the gracious God who has assigned the same honor to repentance that he has to not committing a single Sin. Therefore he declared that since it was a feast the sacrifices should be the same number as those of the feast which begins the sacred month: a young bull, a ram, and seven lambs. In this way he mixed the number one with the number seven and lined the end up with the beginning, for the number seven has been appointed the end of things and the number one the beginning. He added three sacrifices since it was for purification. For he ordered that two hegoats and a ram be offered. Then he said that it was necessary to offer the ram as a whole burnt offering, but to cast lots for the he-goats. The hegoat selected by lot for God must be sacrificed, but the other was to be sent out into a pathless and inaccessible desolate place carrying on himself the curses of those who had committed offenses, but who were purified by changes for the better and who have washed themselves from their old lawlessness with a new sense of loyalty to the law. (Spec 1.187)

[Secret Alias]

Of course the major difficulty for arguing that the gospel passion narrative was developed around the Yom Kippur offering (two goats) is that it is hard - no impossible - to reasonably reconcile this with a Passover dating in our gospel especially if you suppose it was all made up. What is so 'Paschal' about the narrative in the first place? God tells Moses to have the Israelites sacrifice many lambs. The high priest only sacrifices one goat (one is set free). It would almost seem as if the narrative would be better suited to the seventh month rather than the first - except for the fact that the gospel narrative says otherwise.

[Secret Alias]

Odd also that the description in Hebrews 9 has the Yom Kippur sacrifice in mind, not the Paschal offering - https://books.google.com/books?id=CwE8I ... 22&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=oszD1 ... 22&f=false

How could the author have developed Yom Kippur imagery if - as the gospels now claim - Jesus was EXPLICITLY sacrificed on another holiday? Very strange?