"...and it has further been taught: 'For forty years before the destruction of the Temple the thread of scarlet never turned white but it remained red'. - Rosh HaShanah 31b, Babylonian Talmud, Soncino Press Edition.""...but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God... Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin." (Heb 10:12-18 NAS)
"Here is the basic story: Forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the scarlet cord stopped turning white showing that Yom Kippur sacrifice was not accepted by God. This is by far the most interesting of the Jewish sources that has to do with the legend of Azazel. The Azazel is the Jewish name for the scapegoat.
In the ritual for the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, two goats were brought into the Temple, one was killed as a blood sacrifice, the other after the laying on of hands was chased out into the wilderness symbolically carrying the year's sins. That was the scapegoat. According to Jewish writing of this period, it became the custom to tie a red ribbon around the scapegoat, and when the goat was sent out to the wilderness the ribbon turned white. The changing of the color of the red ribbon to white signified that God had forgiven the sins of Israel for that year. The Jewish legend goes on to say that the red ribbon stopped turning white, 40 years before the destruction of the Temple. So, as of the year 30 AD, God was no longer forgiving the sins of Israel by means of the Yom Kippur sacrifice of the slaying of on goat, and the sending forth of the other in to the wilderness" http://www.aboutbibleprophecy.com/odds.htm
A couple clarifications on the above, I understood there to be two scarlet threads, one tied on each goat. The ribbon on the goat that was sacrificed was hung on the temple door, and the ribbon on the scapegoat remained on the goat. As the scapegoat ran away the ribbons turned white.
Regarding laying hands on the animal: While the priest laid his hands on the animal, he would confess the sins of the people. The sins would then be symbolically transferred to the animal. When the animal was put to death or released it into the wilderness, the sins were atoned for as they died with the animal and were taken into the wilderness. The goat would serve as the people's substitutionary atonement.
The imagery was clear to Israel. Jesus became both our sacrificial lamb (substiutionary atonement) and our scapegoat, taking our sins away, as we place our hands on him and in faith confess and repent of our sins. Like with the animal sacrifice, our sins are symbolically transferred to him), In His death, Jesus atones for our sin. When Jesus was raised from the dead, it demonstrated that God the Father had accepted His death as payment for our sin and because he lives, no further atonement is necessary.
Because He lives, His atonement made in AD 30 can be applied to our hearts and atone for our sins today! There is no need for a cord in a temple to change color to tell us God accepted our confession of faith, because when our sins are atoned for, it is our hearts that change, they become white as snow! Now that is a miracle!
"Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. (Isa 1:18 NAS)
When we discover the historical context behind some of these O.T. concepts, the Bible takes on a new richness and deeper meaning!
The Talmud and other Jewish writings provide a cultural and historical insight when placed next to the light of inspired scripture and often provide a deeper perspective into key theological concepts like the day of atonement.
"The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah (Hebrew: משנה, c. 200 CE), a written compendium of Rabbinic Judaism's Oral Torah, and the Gemara (c. 500 CE), an elucidation of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Hebrew Bible. "Talmud" translates literally as "instruction" in Hebrew, and the term may refer to either the Gemara alone, or the Mishnah and Gemara together.
The entire Talmud consists of 63 tractates, and in standard print is over 6,200 pages long. It is written in Tannaitic Hebrew and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and contains the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis (dating from before the Common Era through the fifth century CE) on a variety of subjects, including Halakha (law), Jewish ethics, philosophy, customs, history, lore and many other topics. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law, and is widely quoted in rabbinic literature."
