Greek Key Terms:
Context: Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31:34's new covenant promise: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more" (v. 17). Then adds the decisive conclusion: "Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin" (v. 18). This divine forgetfulness is the ultimate fulfillment of the scapegoat's removal — sins are not just carried to the wilderness but erased from divine memory. The conclusion that "no more offering" is needed confirms the entire sacrificial system's obsolescence.
OT-to-OT Development:
Connections:
Christological Connection: Hebrews 10:17-18 reveals the scapegoat trajectory's ultimate destination: divine forgetfulness. The scapegoat carried sins to the wilderness — a physical location "out of sight." The prophets escalated: sins removed "as far as east from west" (Psalm 103:12), cast "into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:19), thrown "behind God's back" (Isaiah 38:17). But Hebrews cites the highest register of removal: God Himself choosing not to remember. This is not cognitive limitation but covenantal commitment — God, who knows all things, resolves to treat the sins of His people as though they never existed.
The mechanism is Christ's once-for-all sacrifice. God can "remember no more" because Christ's offering has actually and effectively dealt with sin — not symbolically (as the scapegoat's departure did) but substantively. The logic of v. 18 is devastating to the entire Levitical system: "Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin." If sins are truly remembered no more, there is nothing left for a sacrifice to address. The Day of Atonement's annual repetition (Hebrews 10:3, "in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year") is replaced by the anti-reminder: God's covenantal forgetfulness.
The escalation from the scapegoat is from physical relocation to divine obliteration. The scapegoat moved sins from one place to another; Christ's sacrifice removes sins from God's memory. The scapegoat's annual return reminded Israel that sins kept accumulating; Christ's once-for-all sacrifice means "there is no longer any offering for sin" — the system is permanently closed because the need it addressed has been permanently resolved. Already: God remembers the sins of believers no more; the certificate of debt has been "canceled, nailing it to the cross" (Colossians 2:14). Not yet: the full experiential realization of this forgetfulness awaits the new creation, where "nothing unclean will ever enter" (Revelation 21:27) and the effects of sin are entirely absent — "no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain" (Revelation 21:4).
Connection Method(s): Promise-Fulfillment, Typology (Direct, Forward-Looking) — God's new covenant promise that sins will be "remembered no more" (Jeremiah 31:34) fulfills and surpasses the scapegoat's physical removal with divine covenantal forgetfulness. ANTI-DEFAULT CHECK: Promise-Fulfillment is primary because Hebrews 10:17 is an explicit quotation of Jeremiah 31:34's new covenant promise; Typology is co-primary because the passage also consummates the scapegoat institution's trajectory from physical removal to cognitive obliteration.
Trajectory Table: 141 - Scapegoat (Removal of Sins)