Scapegoat Mechanism In The Stories Of Joseph Job, And Abraham

Girard presents the stories of Joseph, Job, and Abraham as examples of the scapegoat mechanism in his writings. Joseph grows up with twelve brothers who resent that their father treats Joseph as the favorite son. Joseph is victimized by his brothers as a result of Jacob’s favoritism and they sell him into slavery in Egypt. This demonstration of non physical violence towards Joseph characterizes him as a scapegoat. The sacrificial victim is chosen from a perceived injustice caused by the brothers’ fears and desires for respect and is intended to bring temporary reconciliation for what is regarded as inequity amongst brothers

In Egypt, Joseph gains a reputation for his dream interpretation. He reaches the pinnacle of his influence by interpreting

Just before Abraham kills his son, an angel intervenes and provides a ram for Abraham to sacrifice instead. God tested Abraham’s faith, and Abraham responded with complete trust in God’s message. Abraham reflects the way individuals should approach the violence perpetuated by the scapegoat mechanism; rather than approaching violence with power, God illustrates that the scapegoat mechanism can be interrupted by making the gift of His love effective. It is in Christ’s death, foreshadowed by the sacrifice of Isaac, that the gift of this love is

Resisting violence by using a sacrificial victim allows the community to victimize itself and criticize on the basis of an ideology rather than encountering a problem at its root. Accordingly, rallying a group behind a coordinated ideology and identifying a scapegoat as a dissenter creates a sense of prestige around the violence of the community (40). As the violence and victimization become associated with power, the scapegoat will admit guilt without actually being guilty in response to mimetic pressures. The Gospels illuminate the idea that the scapegoat is killed and later falsely idolized as the reason for the reconciliation of the group when, in fact, this sense of peace and unity is temporary. The structure of the Gospels parallels the structure of the myths of sacrifice, beginning with a crisis that results in a collective murder and religious revelation to further reflect the framework for the scapegoat mechanism