@inbook{10.14321/j.ctt7zt9h5.11, ISBN = {9781611860634}, URL = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.14321/j.ctt7zt9h5.11}, abstract = {“Ultimately, everything we say here is an attempt to understand the semantic evolution of the word and evaluate its impact,” Girard writes. “Our whole hypothesis has existed silently in common language since the emergence of what is called rationalism.”¹ The huge importance he assigns the scapegoat proceeds from a theoretical intuition—ventured in the late 1970s without benefit of the facts uncovered in this monograph—that the word becomes a signifier of emergent historical truth when it splits to reveal a second meaning. What the new evidence allows us to see is that this truth quickly explodes the theological matrix}, bookauthor = {David Dawson}, booktitle = {Flesh Becomes Word: A Lexicography of the Scapegoat or, the History of an Idea}, pages = {89--98}, publisher = {Michigan State University Press}, title = {A Figure in Flux}, year = {2013} }