Foundation Text
Revelation 20:1-3, 10
Greek Key Terms
- G12 ἄβυσσος (abyssos) - "abyss/bottomless pit" - place of demonic confinement
- G1210 δέω (deō) - "bind" - restraining
- G906 βάλλω (ballō) - "cast/throw" - forceful removal
- G3041 λίμνη τοῦ πυρός (limnē tou pyros) - "lake of fire" - final judgment place
Context: Revelation 20 describes Satan's binding (vv. 1-3) and ultimate fate (v. 10). An angel seizes "the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan" and binds him for a thousand years, casting him into the abyss. After a final rebellion, Satan is "thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur" (v. 10) for eternal torment. The imagery echoes the scapegoat's removal: the source of temptation to sin is "cast" into progressively more final places of banishment — abyss, then lake of fire.
OT-to-OT Development
- Leviticus 16:21-22 - Scapegoat sent into wilderness — a place traditionally associated with demonic habitation; the term azazel itself may refer to a demonic figure, making the scapegoat's destination already associated with the realm of evil
- Isaiah 14:12-15 - The fallen one cast down from heaven — cosmic removal
- Ezekiel 28:16-19 - The fallen cherub expelled and destroyed
- Isaiah 24:21-22 - "the LORD will punish the host of heaven above" and imprison them — the binding motif
Connections
- TO: Leviticus 16:22 - Scapegoat sent to "azazel" (wilderness/demon)
- FROM OT: Isaiah 24:21-22 - "the LORD will punish the host of heaven above"
- FROM NT: Matthew 25:41 - "the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels"
Christological Connection: Revelation 20 consummates the scapegoat trajectory at the cosmic level. The Day of Atonement sent the sin-laden goat into the wilderness — the realm of desolation associated with azazel and demonic habitation. In the consummation, it is not merely Israel's annual sins that are removed: alongside them the source of sin is dealt with — Satan, "that ancient serpent" (Revelation 20:2), is bound, cast into the abyss, and finally thrown into the lake of fire. That is an associated event of the consummation, not a second scapegoat: the goat bore Israel's confessed sins away, whereas Satan bears no one's sins and is judged for his own. The trajectory reaches its terminus in what the removal was always for — a creation in which sin has no place, and therefore in which its author has none either.
Christ's victory over sin — accomplished at the cross and symbolized by the scapegoat — is the foundation for Satan's defeat. Hebrews 2:14 explains the mechanism: "so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil." The cross did not merely remove the effects of Satan's work (sin's guilt and penalty) but dealt a mortal blow to Satan himself. Revelation 20 depicts the progressive manifestation of that blow: binding (v. 2), imprisonment (v. 3), and final destruction (v. 10). The scapegoat carried sin to the wilderness; Christ carried sin through death; and the risen Christ ensures that the author of sin is permanently expelled from the new creation.
The trajectory's three stages map clearly. First, annual removal (scapegoat to wilderness) — symbolic, temporary, repeated. Second, decisive removal (Christ on the cross) — actual, once-for-all, effective. Third, eternal exclusion (sin abolished from the new creation, and its author cast out alongside it) — cosmic, irreversible, final. Each stage escalates the permanence and scope of removal until "nothing unclean will ever enter it" (Revelation 21:27) — not because sin has been carried to a remote place, but because sin and its source have been eternally dealt with. Already: Christ has "disarmed the powers and authorities" (Colossians 2:15); Satan is a defeated enemy. Not yet: the final casting into the lake of fire awaits Christ's return, when the removal the scapegoat foreshadowed reaches its absolute, irreversible consummation.
Connection Method(s): Redemptive-Historical Progression (primary) — the passage marks the endpoint of a three-stage progressive removal of sin (annual and symbolic → decisive and once-for-all → eternal and cosmic) that only the full scope of Christ's work — cross, resurrection, return — accomplishes. Longitudinal Theme (secondary) — the canon-wide sin-removal motif reaches its terminus here: the dwelling of God with a people from which sin has been permanently excluded. ANTI-DEFAULT CHECK: Typology is not the operative method for Satan's banishment, and Satan is not the scapegoat's antitype. The live goat bore Israel's confessed sins and was sent away carrying them; Satan bears no one's sins and is judged for his own — so analogical correspondence fails at the decisive point, and no NT text reads Satan's expulsion off Leviticus 16. The wilderness / azazel setting is a shared motif, not a typological warrant. The scapegoat's own typological fulfilment runs elsewhere in this trajectory — mediated through Isaiah's Suffering Servant to Christ's once-for-all sin-bearing (Hebrews 9:28). What Revelation 20 supplies is the answering environment of that removal: the new creation from which sin, and alongside it sin's author, are permanently excluded.
Trajectory Table: 141 - Scapegoat (Removal of Sins)