Escaping Scapegoating

by Caroline Wickens.

It was William Tyndale who gave us the word ‘scapegoat’. Translating the Bible into English in 1530, he ran up against the complex account of the rituals of the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16. Two goats were involved, one sacrificed for the sins of the people, the other sent away into the desert to cleanse the people, bearing the high priest’s confession of all their sins (Lev.16:21). Reflecting on the Greek and Hebrew descriptions of this goat, sent out into the wilderness, Tyndale came up with a new word: the goat who escapes, the scapegoat.

Since then, the word has picked up a life of its own. In literature (think Lord of the Flies or Animal Farm) and in real life, societies have responded to pressure by identifying individuals or groups to be ‘sent away’, pushed out into the wilderness.

The philosopher René Girard put the scapegoat concept at the heart of his account of how societies work.[1] Social conflict arises from our tendency to be jealous of each other, seeking to achieve some goal that we see, and desire, in others. This rivalry intensifies when societies experience economic pressure or other factors which limit opportunity. Violence follows, in a cycle of revenge which endangers the wellbeing, stability and survival of the community.

Girard believed that human communities cope with this by externalising their anger into blame directed towards a group or single individual, who is then pushed outside the boundaries of society, expelled (playground bullying) or even killed (witch hunts, mob lynching). This process, he argued, is usually driven by unconscious bias. The result of the violence is the short-term restoration of peace to the troubled community, as everyone shares in approving the scapegoating of the victim. Yet this peace does not and cannot last, for it depends on a mistaken analysis of society’s problems.

Christian tradition, from the Gospels onwards, has acknowledged that this account creates a powerful framework for describing the death of Jesus, the innocent, scapegoated victim. John Wesley saw this, linking Leviticus’ teaching with Isaiah 53:6 ‘the Lord has laid on him the iniquities of us all’.[2]

Girard understands the Gospels’ teaching, more radically, as a move which demolishes the scapegoat model altogether. By refusing to accept their community’s attribution of blame to Jesus, the Gospel writers show that the model explains nothing and changes nothing. Instead, they set out Jesus’ offer of an alternative and far better route towards social cohesion.

The background to Jesus’ message is the strand of Old Testament prophecy in which God longs for ‘mercy, not sacrifice’ (Hosea 6:6). This informs Jesus’ own vision of a kingdom where there is no need to compete for limited goods or limited love. The kingdom banquets symbolise a new society where all have enough (Mark 6:42) so that competition and rivalry are irrelevant. Therefore, says Jesus, you can take the risk of turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:39) and live at peace. Yet he recognises too that this is controversial in a community hard-wired to respond to crisis with violence, and knows that he will bring not peace but division (Luke 12:51).

Why does the ancient account of the scapegoat continue to matter? In contemporary societies across the world, people live under increasing pressure, competing for goods and opportunities, facing crises of many kinds. Girard argued that whenever people react by locking themselves into a given identity, the pressure to create scapegoats is strong.

So where do we recognise scapegoating at work in our own communities?

And what, as Jesus’ disciples, can we do about it?

In a divided society, Girard was adamant that judging others is inexcusable (Romans 2.1) and that the answer is not to ‘practise a hunt for scapegoats to the second degree, a hunt for hunters of scapegoats’.[3]

And Jesus shows us an alternative when he engages with Zacchaeus, the Roman collaborator ostracised by his community (Luke 19:1-10). Reconciliation happened through honest conversation in Zacchaeus’s space; and everything changed.

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[1] René Girard, I see Satan fall like lightning (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis 2001), esp.chapter 12, ‘Scapegoat’

[2] https://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/john-wesleys-notes-on-the-bible/notes-on-the-third-book-of-moses-called-leviticus/#Chapter%2BXVI, accessed 24.08.2025

[3] Girard, I see Satan fall, p.158.