Can you please explain to me why the scapegoat in the old testament was taken out into the wilderness after having the sins of the people put on its head, rather than being sacrificed in atonement for them?
God required two goats: one was sacrificed, the other was led into the wilderness (cf. Lev. xvi, 8-10), and both were figures of Christ. How was the emissary-goat or scapegoat a figure of Christ? St. Alphonsus explains in his essay, “The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ” (and I quote from this edition of his ascetical works):
The sacrifices of expiation were established to obtain the pardon of sin. This kind of sacrifice was specially represented in the Feast of the Expiation by the emissary-goat,[1] which, having been laden with all the sins of the people, was led forth out of the camp of the Hebrews, and afterwards abandoned in the desert to be there devoured by ferocious beasts. This sacrifice was the most expressive figure of the sacrifice of the cross. Jesus Christ was laden with all the sins of men, as Isaias had foretold: The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.[2] He was afterwards ignominiously led forth from Jerusalem, whither the Apostle invites us to follow him by sharing in his opprobrium: Let us go forth therefore to him without the camp, bearing his reproach. He was abandoned to ferocious beasts; that is to say, to the Gentiles, who crucified him.
1 Lev. xvi. 8.
2 Et posuit Dominus in eo iniquitatem omnium nostrum." Is. liii. 6.
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