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Bible Dictionaries
Goat (2)
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (τράγος)
The Greek word signifies a ‘he-goat’ (Lat. hircus), and is used in the Septuagint as the equivalent of the Heb. words עַתּוּד, צָפִיר, תַּיִשׁ (all = ‘he-goat’). The only NT references to the ‘goat’ outside the Gospels are in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 9:12-13; Hebrews 9:19; Hebrews 10:4). In Hebrews 9:12; Hebrews 9:19 it is associated with calves (i.e. bullocks), and there is doubtless an allusion in these two passages to the sacrificial rites of the Day of Atonement. On this occasion, the high priest offered up a bullock as a sin-offering for himself (Leviticus 16:11), and a goat as a sin-offering for the people (Leviticus 16:15). The usual phrase to designate sacrifices in general is used in Hebrews 9:13; Hebrews 10:4, ‘bulls and goats’ or ‘goats and bulls.’
The general meaning of Hebrews 9:12 ff. is quite clear. The writer says: ‘if-and you admit this-the blood of goats and bullocks, as on the Day of Atonement, could sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh, how much more could the Blood of Christ, the Divine-Human sacrifice, cleanse the conscience from dead works to serve the living God!’
In Hebrews 10:4 the writer abandons his rhetorical style and categorically asserts that ‘it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.’ He here uses the general term for sacrifices, and thereby denies that any of the sacrifices of the old Law ever did or ever could ‘take away sins.’
Many different breeds of domesticated goats are known in Syria, the most common of which is the mamber or ordinary black goat. These animals attain a large size, and pendent ears about a foot long are their most characteristic feature. Their peculiar ears are apparently alluded to in Amos 3:12. They generally have horns and short beards. Another breed found in N. Palestine is the angora, which has very long hair. Goats supplied most of the milk of Palestine (cf. Proverbs 27:27), and the young were often killed for food, being regarded as special delicacies, as they are to-day (cf. Genesis 27:9, Luke 15:29). Their long silky hair was woven into curtains, coverings of tents, etc. (cf. Exodus 35:26, Numbers 31:20), and as goat’s-hair cloth, called cilicium, was made in the province of which Tarsus, the birth-place of St. Paul, was the capital, and was exported thence to be used in tent-making, it is reasonable to suppose that the Apostle was engaged in this very trade (Acts 18:3). Their skins were sometimes used as clothing, and doubtless the hairy mantle of the prophets (cf. Zechariah 13:4) was made of this material (cf. also Hebrews 11:37), but they were more often converted into bottles. The early inhabitants of Palestine (cf. Genesis 21:19, Joshua 9:4, 1 Samuel 25:18, Matthew 9:17, Mark 2:22, Luke 5:37), just like the modern Bedouins, utilized the skins of their cattle and their flocks for the purpose of storing oil, wine, milk, or water, as the case might be. The animals whose skins were generally chosen for the purpose were the sheep and the goat as at the present day, while the skin of the ox was used for very large bottles. The legs, or at all events the lower part of the legs, together with the head, are first removed, the animal is next skinned from the neck downwards, great care being taken to avoid tearing the skin; all apertures are then carefully closed, and the neck is fitted with a leather thong which serves as a cork.
In view of the numerous uses which the goat has been made to subserve, it is not surprising to find that it was highly valued in ancient times even as it is now. A large part of the wealth of Laban and of the wages he paid to Jacob consisted of goats, while ‘a thousand goats’ is mentioned as one of the principal items in Nabal’s property (1 Samuel 25:2). They thrive in hilly and scantily watered districts, where they are much more abundant than sheep, and pasture where there is much brush-wood, the luxuriant grasses of the plains being ‘too succulent for their taste’ (Tristram in Smith’s Dict. of the Bible 2 1200b). They are largely responsible for the barrenness of the hills, and the general absence of trees in Palestine.
Literature.-H. B. Tristram, Natural History of the Bible10, 1911, p. 88ff.; Smith’s Dict. of the Bible , s.v.; SWP [Note: WP Memoirs of Survey of Western Palestine.] vii. 6; E. C. Wickham, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 1910, p. 68; B. F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews2, 1892, p. 258ff.; R. Lyddeker, in Murray’s Dict. of the Bible , s.v.; Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) ii. 195f.; Hastings’ Single-vol. Dictionary of the Bible , p. 298f.; Encyclopaedia Biblica ii. 1742ff.; J. C. Geikie, The Holy Land and the Bible, 1903, pp. 40, 80-85, 113.
P. S. P. Handcock.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Goat (2)'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/g/goat-2.html. 1906-1918.
