Yeshua cannot be the Azazel Goat as some claim.
The term in the Bible is limited to three uses in Leviticus 16, where a goat is designated לַעֲזָאזֵֽל la-aza'zeyl; either "for absolute removal" or "for Azazel" and outcast in the desert as part of Yom Kippur.
Later Azazel was considered by some Jewish sources to be a supernatural being mentioned in connection with the ritual of the Day of Atonement (Lev. xvi.). After Satan, for whom he was in some degree a prototype, Azazel enjoys the distinction of being the most mysterious extrahuman character in Jewish sacred literature
The BrownDriverBriggs Hebrew Lexicon
[1] gives Azazel as a reduplicative intensive of the stem azel "remove", hence azazel, "entire removal". This is supported by the Jewish Greek Bible translation as the sender away. Gesenius in his Hebrew lexicon confers with this.
[2]According to some Rabbinic interpretatins Azazel is a theophoric name, combined of the words "Azaz" (rugged) and "El" (power/strong/of God) in reference to the rugged and strong rocks of the deserts in Judea. According to Talmudic interpretation, the term "Azazel" designated a rugged mountain or precipice in the wilderness from which the goat was thrown down, using for it as an alternative the word "Ẓoḳ" (Yoma vi. 4). An etymology is found to suit this interpretation. "Azazel" is regarded as a compound of "az", strong or rough, and "el", mighty, therefore a strong mountain. This derivation is presented by a Baraita, cited Yoma 67b, that Azazel was the strongest of mountains.
[3]The Jewish Encyclopedia (1910) contains the following entry:
The Rabbis, interpreting "Azazel" as Azaz ("rugged"), and el ("strong"), refer it to the rugged and rough mountain cliff from which the scapegoat was cast down on Yom Kippur when the Jewish Temples in Jerusalem stood. (Yoma 67b; Sifra, Aḥare, ii. 2; Targum Jerusalem Lev. xiv. 10, and most medieval commentators). Most modern scholars, after having for some time endorsed the old view, have accepted the opinion mysteriously hinted at by Ibn Ezra and expressly stated by Nachmanides to Lev. xvi. 8, that Azazel belongs to the class of "se'irim," goat-like spirits, jinn haunting the desert, to which the Israelites were accustomed to offering sacrifice. (Compare "the roes and the hinds," Cant. ii. 7, iii. 5, by which Sulamith administers an oath to the daughters of Jerusalem. The critics were probably thinking of a Roman faun.)
[4]Pre-Jewish sources
Despite the expectation of Brandt (1889)[16] to date no evidence has surfaced of Azazel as a demon or god prior to the earliest Jewish sources among the Dead Sea Scrolls.Brandt, "Mandäische Theologie,"
Dead Sea Scrolls and 1 Enoch. In the Dead Sea Scrolls the name Azazel occurs in the line 6 of 4Q203, the Book of the Giants. This is a part of the Enochic literature about fallen angels found at Qumran.
[5] According to the Book of Enoch, which brings Azazel into connection with the Biblical story of the fall of the angels, located on Mount Hermon, a gathering-place of demons from of old (Enoch xiii.; compare Brandt, "Mandäische Theologie," 1889, p. 38). Azazel is represented in the Book of Enoch as one of the leaders of the rebellious Watchers in the time preceding the flood; he taught men the art of warfare, of making swords, knives, shields, and coats of mail, and women the art of deception by ornamenting the body, dying the hair, and painting the face and the eyebrows, and also revealed to the people the secrets of witchcraft and corrupted their manners, leading them into wickedness and impurity; until at last he was, at the Lord's command, bound hand and foot by the archangel Raphael and chained to the rough and jagged rocks of [Ha] Duduael (= Beth Ḥadudo), where he is to abide in utter darkness until the great Day of Judgment, when he will be cast into the fire to be consumed forever (Enoch viii. 1, ix. 6, x. 4-6, liv. 5, lxxxviii. 1; see Geiger, "Jüd. Zeit." 1864, pp. 196204). The whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin.
1 Enoch 10:8
According to 1 Enoch (a book of the Apocrypha), Azazel (here spelled ăzāzyēl) was one of the chief Grigori, a group of fallen angels who married women. This same story (without any mention of Azazel) is told in Genesis 6:2-4: That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. [
] There were giants in the earth in those days; and also afterward, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
1 Enoch portrays Azazel as responsible for teaching people to make weapons and cosmetics, for which he was cast out of heaven. 1 Enoch 8:1-3a reads:
And Azazel taught men to make swords and knives and shields and breastplates; and made known to them the metals [of the earth] and the art of working them; and bracelets and ornaments; and the use of antimony and the beautifying of the eyelids; and all kinds of costly stones and all colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray and became corrupt in all their ways.
The corruption brought on by Azazel and the Grigori degrades the human race, and the four archangels (Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel) saw much blood being shed upon the earth and all lawlessness being wrought upon the earth [
] The souls of men [made] their suit, saying, "Bring our cause before the Most High; [
] Thou seest what Azazel hath done, who hath taught all unrighteousness on earth and revealed the eternal secrets which were in heaven, which men were striving to learn."
God sees the sin brought about by Azazel and has Raphael bind Azazel hand and foot and cast him into the darkness: and make an opening in the desert which is in Dudael and cast him therein. And place upon him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there forever, and cover his face that he may not see light.
Several scholars have previously discerned that some details of Azazel's punishment are reminiscent of the scapegoat ritual. Thus, Lester Grabbe points to a number of parallels between the Azazel narrative in 1 Enoch and the wording of Leviticus 16, including the similarity of the names Asael and Azazel; the punishment in the desert; the placing of sin on Asael/Azazel; the resultant healing of the land. Daniel Stökl also observes that the punishment of the demon resembles the treatment of the goat in aspects of geography, action, time and purpose. .Thus, the place of Asaels punishment designated in 1 Enoch as Dudael is reminiscent of the rabbinic terminology used for the designation of the ravine of the scapegoat in later rabbinic interpretations of the Yom Kippur ritual. Stökl remarks that the name of place of judgment (Dudael) is conspicuously similar in both traditions and can likely be traced to a common origin.
Azazel's fate is foretold near the end of 1 Enoch 2:8, where God says, On the day of the great judgement he shall be cast into the fire. [
] The whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin."
In 3 Enoch
In the 5th Century 3 Enoch, Azazel is one of the three angels (Azza [Shemhazai] and Uzza [Ouza] are the other two) who opposed Enoch's high rank when he became the angel Metatron. Whilst they were fallen at this time they were still in Heaven, but Metatron held a dislike for them, and had them cast out. They were thenceforth known as the 'three who got the most blame' for their involvement in the fall of the angels marrying women. It should be remembered that Azazel and Shemhazai were said to be the leaders of the 200 fallen, and Uzza and Shemhazai were tutelary guardian angels of Egypt with both Shemhazai and Azazel and were responsible for teaching the secrets of heaven as well. The other angels dispersed to 'every corner of the Earth.'
