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Continuing our discussion from part three, it is interesting to note that Jesus' reference to the rebellious unbelievers as goats is not only found in the New Testament. In the Book of the Prophet Zechariah, while describing the waywardness of the inhabitants of Judah, the Lord also inspired the Prophet to refer to them as rebellious goats whom He had to punish. Consider the following set of verses which prove this point:

"Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd. Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I PUNISHED THE GOATS: for the LORD of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle."


Because the Lord did make a very clear distinction between the hungry sheep and the rebellious goats in the previous examples, although the same word "probaton" is used in the following verses -- which could mean sheep or goats -- it only seems to make sense that He is identifying Himself as the Shepherd of the sheep, and NOT as the Shepherd of the goats:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers . . . Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture . . . I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep . . . I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd."


As I point out in articles such as "The Blood Atonement: In Jesus' Own Words", the Holy Scriptures clearly tell us that we are all bought with a price; and as we learned earlier, that price is the very blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ Himself. Please consider the following verses which firmly establish this point:

"Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life A RANSOM for many."


"For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life A RANSOM for many."


"Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, WHICH HE HATH PURCHASED WITH HIS OWN BLOOD."


"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? FOR YE ARE BOUGHT WITH A PRICE: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."


"YE ARE BOUGHT WITH A PRICE; be not ye the servants of men."


"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; WHO GAVE HIMSELF A RANSOM FOR ALL, to be testified in due time."


"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR IT; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."


"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were NOT REDEEMED WITH CORRUPTIBLE THINGS, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; BUT WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,"


In addition to the fact that the Prophet Isaiah appears to have been describing Jesus as a sheep, and not as a goat, as well as the fact that Jesus Himself clearly aligned Himself with the sheep, as opposed to the goats, in His Parables, from the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, to the very end of the Book of Revelation, we are repeatedly told that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. Consider the following verses:

"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world . . . And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God . . . And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!"


"The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:"


"And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth . . . And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints . . . Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."


"And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see . . . And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:"


"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb . . . And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb . . . For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."


"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death."


"And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."


"And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads . . . These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb . . . The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:"


"And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints."


"These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful."


"Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready . . . And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God."


"And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife . . . And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof . . . And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life."


"And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:"


Taking into consideration everything we have now discovered in this series, rather than be adamant and insist that Jesus should absolutely be viewed as a symbolic lamb -- that is, as the offspring of a ewe -- allow me to suggest that it may be wiser to accept the true Scriptural view, in which the word "lamb" really means a young goat or a young sheep, which was slain during the various Jewish feast days. Of course, we can still refer to Jesus as the Lamb of God, for indeed He truly is, but let us keep in mind the literal meaning of the word, according to its Biblical context.

Like the Apostle Paul, let us bear in mind that while Jesus is symbolized as a goat which was offered as an atonement for sin, what is most important to remember is the fact that He can die no more; because He offered up Himself as the Final Sacrifice for sin; and thus He has become the High Priest of a better Covenant. Consider some of the key verses which are found in the Apostle Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews:

"Wherefore in all things it behoved him [Jesus] to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people."


"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;"


"Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."


"So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec."


"Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec."


"Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;"


"But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood . . . Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself . . . So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."


"For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins . . . By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all . . . For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."


Before concluding this series, I feel it is important to offer a few admonitions. The first one is this: In studying God's Word, it is extremely important that we are Spirit-led in our understanding and interpretation of it. While I have always cautioned my readers to not accept any doctrine or tradition of men unless it is fully backed by the Scriptures -- as the Bereans did in the Book of Acts -- we should also exercise caution and be very careful with regards to our usage of extra-Biblical resources, which serve to enhance our understanding of the Scriptures.

Not only does this rule apply to secular resources, but it also applies to the information which is contained in the various study Bibles one might use, as well as in the Bible dictionaries, and even in the Hebrew and Greek lexicons one might utilize. Of course, I include my own writings in this category as well. Why do I say this? Consider the following.

Just because certain information is found in such resources, does not guarantee that it is necessarily accurate or true. As with my own writings, some of it is quite doctrinal in nature; and is written from the personal perspective of a particular author, priest, minister, church or organization. Such seems to be the case with the Greek word "probaton".

As we have seen, while the Greek lexicon clearly states that this word can mean sheep, goats, or any small grazing animal, Joseph H. Thayer -- or perhaps someone before him -- took the liberty to state that "probaton" always means sheep in the New Testament. Everything I have shared in this series seems to indicate otherwise. As such, it occurs to me that this comment may have been based upon Thayer's personal bias, and may be an attempt to steer the reader in a certain direction regarding their understanding of the Scriptures, instead of allowing God's Spirit to be their guide.

To be honest, while it is easy to attribute such things to human error, because of the information we have discovered in this series, I have begun to wonder if this very minimal mention of goats in the Books of the New Testament, might not be a deliberate attempt by the translators, to sanitize the New Testament. In other words, is it possible that they intentionally removed most indications that Jesus Christ was associated with a sacrificial goat -- by always translating "probaton" as "sheep" -- so that they could replace the goat image with the more acceptable image of a sacrificial pure, white lamb?

Of course, I honestly do not know the answer to my question. However, if we consider for a moment how Great Britain has long been steeped into such occult practices as witchcraft, satanism, necromancy, druidism, etc., and that the goat plays an important role in some of these practices, it is easy to understand why the KJV translators may have felt it necessary to disassociate Jesus from such things as much as possible; and by so doing, avoid offending the sensitivities of the puritanical court of King James.

While many of us will agree that the KJV Bible is a work of the inspiration of God's Spirit, at the same time, we would be fools to deny that there were possibly -- and probably -- political and religious forces in the court of King James who controlled and manipulated its translation. In other words, while the KJV Bible is indeed an inspired work, and the only Bible which I personally trust, the dear men who translated it into our English tongue were just as human as you or I. In other words, they were not perfect.

So while the KJV Bible is indeed an inspired work, as I point out in my series entitled "Is the KJV Bible the Inerrant Word of God?", that does not necessarily mean that it is a perfect work, because the men who translated it were not perfect. In my view, not every single word is "Thus saith the Lord", and to believe otherwise is to deceive oneself. If we take into consideration the puritanical spirit which was prevalent in England at that time, it seems quite possible to me that the translators may have been the victims of a certain degree of political correctness; because they had to produce a "clean" work which would be acceptable to the King.

Now, I already know that there are certain KJV Bible purists, extremists, or whatever you want to call them, who will just outright reject my previous comments, and probably label them as blasphemous or heretical. Such individuals are absolutely convinced that the KJV Bible is the pure, inspired, inerrant Word of God, and nothing you say will change their minds. In fact, they will erroneously point to a particular verse that is found in the Book of Psalms -- which, by the way, really has absolutely nothing to do with the KJV Bible -- to try to validate their misguided belief.

However, just as the word "probaton" has been translated in a particular way in the New Testament, allow me to remind you of a somewhat similar situation which I mention in the series called "The International Jew and the Protocols of Zion". It may interest you to know that while the Greek word "doulos" is found one hundred and twenty-seven times in the KJV New Testament, not one single time do we find the word translated into its primary English equivalent; which happens to be the word "slave". For your information, one hundred and twenty times, "doulos" is translated as "servant". Six times it is translated as "bond". One time it is translated as "bondman". So my question is this: Why is "doulos" never translated as "slave" in the New Testament of the Authorized King James Bible?

The Old Testament follows the very same pattern. Even though we are all aware of the fact that slavery was a very common practice during Biblical times, just as it still is today -- although it is now cleverly called by different names -- not one single time do we find the Hebrew word "ebed" translated as "slave" in the Old Testament; even though that is in fact its primary definition. The word "ebed" is used eight hundred times. Of those eight hundred times, a total of seven hundred and forty-four times, it is translated as "servant". Let me give you one example. Consider the following verse where Noah curses Ham's son, Canaan. Noah was cursing his grandson, and his descendants, the Canaanites, into a life of absolute slavery. Yet look at how the verse has been translated for us:

"And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren."


For your information, as noted above, that phrase "servant of servants" is actually translated from the Hebrew word "ebed", which is repeated twice in the verse, in order to emphasize the absolute lowly state of subjection and slavery to which Canaan was cursed. In other words, the verse actually reads "ebed ebed" in the Hebrew text.

So allow me to share my personal thoughts on the matter. You don't have to agree with them if you don't want to. Could it be that the reason why we don't find the word "slave" in the Authorized King James Bible, except for one time in italics in the second chapter of the Book of Jeremiah -- meaning it was inserted by the translators as a means to clarify what the verse means -- is because "slavery" was, and still is, a politically sensitive word? Could it be due to the fact that England was heavily indulged in slavery at the time that the KJV translation was made, and using such a word in the Bible might have been offensive to the King, as well as to others?

I obviously don't know the answer to my question, but it is an interesting theory. But the main point I would like for you to consider from this example, is that it appears to be yet more evidence of intentional manipulation, insofar as the translation of the KJV Bible is concerned.

Return to the issue concerning the word "goat", let us now carefully weigh the evidence. In the Old Testament, the word "goat" is mentioned a total of thirty-five times. The word "goats" is also mentioned ninety-one times. The word "kid" is found forty-two times. That is a total of one hundred and sixty-eight times. In addition, the word "lamb" is mentioned seventy-four times, and the word "lambs" is used a total of seventy-nine times. In some cases it means a goat, while in others, it means a sheep. Even if we choose to just ignore the words "lamb" and "lambs", we still have one hundred and sixty-eight examples which all emphasize the importance of sacrificial goats in the Old Testament, as an atonement for sin.

Furthermore, as we've already discussed, we know that goats were still being used as sacrificial animals prior to Jesus' Final Sacrifice in the New Testament. In fact, it is likely that those stubborn Jewish elders probably kept up animal sacrifices until 70 A.D., when Roman general Titus and his army completely burned down and destroyed Herod's temple; exactly as Jesus had prophesied forty years earlier, as we can determine by the following group of verses:

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."


"And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here! And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."


"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."


"And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down . . . And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh."


Despite these facts, in the New Testament, this mysterious lack of the mention of sacrificial goats is very obvious. In fact, in this series, I've mentioned the only examples where goats are even found in the New Testament. The first one is found in the Lord's Parable regarding the separation of the sheep from the goats. In that Parable, the word "goats" is used twice. But please notice that it is used in a negative context, and that it is in no way associated with the image of Christ being a sacrificial goat. Perhaps it is for this reason that it was left intact. Who knows.

The second example is found in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. However, Jesus actually mentions a kid; and unless the reader fully understands the story as I have explained it in this series, he will not make any association with Christ being represented by a sacrificial goat. Finally, in the verses I shared earlier from Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, Paul uses the word "goats" four times in order to show how the sacrificial goat is no longer necessary. This is the only time where we see a close association between Christ and the sacrificial goat in the New Testament.

That, my friends, is the evidence. I am sure the disparity is quite obvious to you. In my view, the fact that goats are clearly mentioned at least one hundred and sixty-eight times in the Old Testament, and only three times in the Books of the New Testament, seems to indicate possible manipulation, for the purpose of molding people's minds, and branding the politically-correct, more acceptable, and more respectable image of a little, soft, white sacrificial lamb in the minds and hearts of the Believers. It is a cleaner, more sanitized version of our faith. Could there be any truth to this speculation? I will leave it up to you to decide.

With these thoughts, I will bring this article to a close. It is my hope that you have found it informative, enlightening, and I pray that it has been a blessing in your life as well. If you have an account with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or with any other social network, I would really appreciate if you'd take the time to click or tap on the corresponding link that is found on this page. Thanks so much, and may God bless you abundantly!

For additional information and further study, you may want to refer to the list of reading resources below which were either mentioned in this article, or which contain topics which are related to this article. All of these articles are likewise located on the Bill's Bible Basics web server. To read these articles, simply click or tap on any link you see below.

Child of the Lamb Or Child of the Goat?
Christian Witnessing: Winning the Sheep and Waging the Warfare!
Dead to the Law: God's Laws Written on Our Hearts
Famous Forties: One of God's Special Numbers?
Free From the Fear of Death: Law and Works vs Grace
History of the Authorized King James Bible
In Defense of the KJV Bible
Is the KJV Bible the Inerrant Word of God?
Judgment of Azazel: Scapegoat of the High Priest
Once Upon a Time: A True Story
Speak the Pure Language of Truth
The Blood Atonement: In Jesus' Own Words
The Kings of the North and the South
The Two Sackcloth Witnesses of Revelation 11

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