myBibleHistory

Echoes Across Civilizations

Sending evil away

Did other ancient peoples remove sin, plague or impurity by sending an animal away?

What the relationship labels mean
  • Possible historical contact: The cultures were in contact, so one tradition could have known the other.
  • Shared literary world: The stories appear to share older roots or a common cultural setting.
  • Similar human experience: Different peoples responding to similar realities, such as river floods.
  • Resemblance only: A real similarity worth noticing; no historical connection has been established.
  • Modern speculative theory: A modern interpretation, not an ancient source. Not supported by authenticated evidence.

Ebla · Northern Syria

The purification of the royal mausoleum (ARET 11)

Shared literary world
Composed
24th century BC
Earliest surviving copy
Clay tablets from the palace archive of Ebla (Tell Mardikh)

Before a royal wedding ritual, a goat with a silver bracelet around its neck is driven out to "the steppe of Alini" to carry impurity away from the palace.

Similar

  • A goat driven into an uninhabited place
  • Purification of a sacred or royal space
  • Part of a larger ritual of renewal

Different

  • No confession of sins
  • For a royal household, not a whole people

Read it: I. Zatelli, "The Origin of the Biblical Scapegoat Ritual," VT 48 (1998)

Hittite · Anatolia

Rituals of Ashella, Pulisa and Uhhamuwa

Possible historical contact
Composed
14th–13th centuries BC
Earliest surviving copy
Tablets from Hattusa

To end a plague in the army, rams and a decorated woman (Ashella), or a decorated ram (Uhhamuwa), are sent toward the enemy's land, carrying the god's anger away from the camp.

Similar

  • Transfer of evil onto an animal
  • Hands laid on or the animal adorned
  • Sent beyond the community's boundary

Different

  • Sent to the enemy, to harm them
  • Appeases an angry deity
  • Can include a human carrier

Read it: D. P. Wright, The Disposal of Impurity (1987)

Babylonian · Mesopotamia

The New Year (Akitu) purification

Possible historical contact
Composed
1st millennium BC (copies)
Earliest surviving copy
Late Babylonian tablets

During the New Year festival, a sheep is beheaded, its body rubbed against the temple of Nabu to absorb impurity, and then thrown into the river; the men who handled it must leave the city until the festival ends.

Similar

  • Annual purification of a sanctuary
  • The carrier is removed from the city
  • Handlers become impure (compare Leviticus 16:26)

Different

  • The animal is killed, not sent alive
  • Part of a festival for Marduk and the king

Read it: A. Sachs, tr., "Temple Program for the New Year's Festivals at Babylon," ANET 331–334

Greek · Ionia and Athens

The pharmakos

Resemblance only
Composed
6th century BC onward
Earliest surviving copy
Hipponax fragments; later authors

In times of crisis, or annually at the Thargelia festival, a person chosen as a pharmakos was led around and driven out of the city to carry away its pollution.

Similar

  • A carrier expelled to purify the community

Different

  • A human, not an animal
  • No confession to God

Full investigations

Back to the story

  • The Day of Atonement →Once a year the high priest enters the most holy place with blood and incense to cleanse the sanctuary. Two goats are chosen by lot: one is sacrificed for the LORD, the other, bearing Israel's sins, is sent into the wilderness "for Azazel." This is the center of Leviticus, and of Jewish and Christian ideas of atonement.
  • The Ark Returns →After seven months the Philistine priests and diviners send the ark back on a new cart drawn by two nursing cows, with five golden tumors and five golden mice as a guilt offering. The cows go straight to Beth-shemesh. The people rejoice, but some look into the ark and are struck down: 70 men, or 50,070, depending on the text. The ark goes to Kiriath-jearim.