What do we think of Christ as both goats of the Day of Atonement?

By CopticBot.ai (Coptic Space Inc.) · Last reviewed 2026-10-10

In the Coptic Orthodox tradition, the ritual of the two goats on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16) is viewed as a profound "type" or prophetic shadow of the one Mission of our Lord.

Following the Alexandrian Fathers, specifically St. Cyril of Alexandria, we do not see these as two different entities, but as two aspects of the one Savior. This is a crucial point of Miaphysite theology: just as Christ is one Nature out of two, the two goats represent the one Mystery of His death and His immortality.

1. The Slain Goat: The Sacrifice for Sin

The first goat was slaughtered as a sin offering, and its blood was brought into the Holy of Holies.

• The Fulfillment: This represents Christ in His capacity to suffer and die in the flesh.
• The Blood: As we pray in the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil, He is the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." His blood was shed to pay the "debt of death" that we owed.
• The Humanity: It highlights the reality of His human nature, which was "passible" (able to suffer) for our sake.

2. The Scapegoat (Azazel): The Removal of Sin

The second goat, onto which the sins of the people were confessed, was not killed but was sent alive into the wilderness, "bearing away" the sins.

• The Fulfillment: This represents Christ as the Living One who remains immortal even while carrying our sins. As St. Cyril explains in his Scholia on the Incarnation, the "living goat" represents the Divinity of Christ, which remains impassible (incapable of suffering or death) even though the Word suffered in the flesh.
• The Wilderness: Sending the goat into the remote wilderness symbolizes the total removal and "casting away" of our sins from the presence of God. As the Prophet Micah says, "He will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."

3. St. Cyril of Alexandria’s Interpretation

St. Cyril provides the definitive Coptic Orthodox explanation. He argues that if there were only one goat, we could not see both the death of Christ and His eternal life.

• The slain goat shows us that He truly died for our salvation.
• The scapegoat shows us that He remained alive and is the "Lord of Life."

In his Letter to Acacius, St. Cyril writes that the two goats are a "type of the one Christ." He says the living goat is the Word who "bore our sins in His own body" but remained alive because He is life by nature. This perfectly mirrors our Miaphysite confession: one Christ, one Lord, one Nature of the Word of God Incarnate, who is both the Victim and the Priest.

4. The Moral and Ontological Reality

By being "both goats," Christ does two things simultaneously:

1. Expiation: He pays the price of death (the slain goat).
2. Propitiation/Removal: He carries the sin away so that it no longer exists between God and man (the scapegoat).

This is why, in the Coptic Church, we do not view the Day of Atonement as a mere legal transaction. It is the restoration of humanity. Christ took the "sting of corruption" upon Himself as the slain goat, but as the living goat, He leads us out of the "wilderness" of sin and back into the Paradise of Joy.

During the Holy Pascha week, we sit in the presence of Him who is the True Sacrifice, reflecting on how He "bore our griefs and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53), fulfilling the type of the two goats in His one, life-giving sacrifice on the Cross.