"Outside Are the Dogs and the Sorcerers ..." (Revelation 22:15)

Abstract

Scholars usually understand the "dogs." listed among those outsiders to the holy city in Revelation 22:14-15, as a metaphor for false teachers or immoral practitioners. I suggest that they might also be understood in relation to the next category on the list, the "sorcerers" who, in fact, can be understood as scapegoats. The article examines the role of dogs in rituals of purification, especially those used in the cult of Hecate, an underworld goddess often associated with dogs. I suggest that Revelation 22 rejects her cult and claims that purification is only through those who have washed their clothes in the blood of the Lamb.