The Atonement of the Scapegoat

Atonement

Part of Speech: Noun, mass

Meaning: 1. Making up for past misdeeds, transgressions; making amends for an injury or offense. 2. Reconciliation, especially the reconciliation between God and humans.

Notes: Today, September 18, 2018, is Yom Kippur, the final day of the Jewish High Holidays (literally, the Days of Awe), and part of the ten days beginning with Rosh Hashanah (the New Year) and ending with Yom Kippur.

In Hebrew Yom Kippur means “Day of Atonement” and it is the holiest day of the Jewish year when religious Jews go to Temple and hear if their name is written in the Book.

According to Leviticus, the high priest chose two goats on Yom Kippur. One is sacrificed and the other served as the Azazel or (e)scapegoat. The high priest laid his hands upon the Azazel, symbolically endowing it with the sins of Israel.  He then sends the goat into the desert, carrying all those sins with it.That is why today scapegoat refers to someone who is blamed for the sins of others.  In Christian theology, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is our scapegoat — for he accepted all our sins, he atoned in that he made us whole.

                                                            Word History

Atonement  is an early 16th century creation from at + one under the influence of Latin ad-una-mentum “unity”. It was assisted by the prior existence of the verb, to one “to make one, unite”.

Onement was already used by the Bible translator John Wyclif in the 14th century. This noun was influenced by such frequent phrases as “set at one” and “put at one”, so thatatonement began to replace onement early in the 16th century.

Atone, formed by back derivation from atonement, began to replace the verb to one about 1550. Later on, at + one was reanalyzed as a+tone, giving the current misleading pronunciation.