Dating the Book of Job (PDF) - Ancient Hebrew Research Center

40 Appendix A: The Azazyel Goat
(John 6:53 NKJV). Consumption of the sacrifice is key to the whole atoning ritual as will be discussed
shortly. Eating the goat that had all the sins of the people placed on it undoubtedly didn’t
set well with the high priest though. I believe this is the motivation behind the introduction of the
Azazyel goat. The high priest would have known that the second goat was “superfluous”, so to
speak, with respect to the original command that a lamb or goat be sacrificed during the first month
of each year in remembrance of the Exodus. Note that the Day of Atonement, when the high priest
enters the “tabernacle of meeting to minister in the holy place” (Exodus 29:31, Hebrews 9:7), is
associated with remembrance of the exodus in Exodus 29:46. The high priest, having an “extra”
goat and not desiring to eat a “sin-laden” goat, looked for a way to send the “sinful” goat away and
found in the ancient text of I Enoch the principle of banishment.
There are major problems with the doctrine of Leviticus 16 though. םיהלֹ ִ א ֱ “ascribed the whole
crime” (I Enoch 10:12) of the antediluvian chaos to Azazyel because he was directly involved in
the crime (before the flood, angels were permitted to take on physical forms and interact directly
with mankind). Azazyel has had no interaction, direct or indirect, with mankind since the flood
though because he has been incarcerated “in chains of darkness” (Jude 1:6) the whole while. How
then can Azazyel be held responsible for the sins of mankind since the flood? The simple answer
is that he can’t. Even Satan cannot be held entirely responsible for the actions of mankind as is
best illustrated in the garden of Eden episode – even though Eve was following the advice of Satan
and Adam was complying with Eve’s suggestion, both Adam and Eve were still cursed for their
actions. A penalty can be taken, but a penalty cannot be arbitrarily assigned. The simplest analogy
that I can come up with to illustrate this point is the analogy of a speeding ticket.
Figure 5: Redemption Analogy
Figure 5 above depicts a speeding violation being caught in the act. There are two people in
the car. For the sake of the argument, the car is being driven by the green stick-man but the car is
owned by the yellow stick-man. Who – green or yellow – gets the ticket? The answer is yellow –
the owner of the car. The reason yellow gets the ticket is because yellow permitted green to drive
the car. Yellow cannot make green pay the fine even though yellow may think that green bears the
guilt. This analogy maps to real life where the car represents one’s body with which they interact
with this physical universe, yellow maps to your soul/spirit, green to Satan’s soul/spirit (or any
other external influence), the red cop maps to םיהלֹ ִ א, ֱ the blue bystander maps to Christ the king,
the speed sign maps to the law that leads to death, and the road represents life.
While you cannot make anyone pay your fine, someone who has sufficient wealth can volunteer
to pay your fine for you. Even if Satan were willing to pay your fine, he cannot because he lost
all that he had in Eden (even his life though that penalty hasn’t been “collected” yet). In a sense,
the fine is all that one has, regardless of how great one’s possessions are. This is why Christ had