The Goat as a Food Source and Symbol

Goats once featured prominently in the Bible, but they all but disappear from the New Testament. We know that both goats and sheep were seen fit for sacrificial slaughter, which the Old Testament contains several references to. 

Early Christians viewed the lamb as a sacred animal. The phrase “Lamb of God” features prominently in Christian beliefs and doctrine, but the goat was largely viewed as pagan. In Rome especially, where Christianity matured, the goat was considered sacrilegious. It’s likely that the changes to the Bible had to deal with a separation of those beliefs. 

We know that goat was consumed throughout the ancient period, especially in the cultures of Greece and Rome. Recipes seem to favor lamb, in the sense of there being more ways to prepare lamb, but we know that goats were kept as a dairy producing animal. This meant they were slaughtered only after they stopped producing milk, which meant their meat was probably tougher and less palatable.

The goat, along with the auroch, was the earliest domesticated animal by many standards. It’s likely that they wandered onto human-controlled land when crops were grown, and man penned them in with a rudimentary fence and raised the young who spawned since. 

 

The goat was sacrificed to honor Hera and Dionysus, in addition to a host of other gods from the ancient world. The Old Testament even mentions that God specifically intended on goats to remain sacrificial animals.