Sacrifice, scripture, and substitution: readinga in ancient Judaism and Christianity is divided into two parts. The first opens with a conversation in which René Girard and Sandor Goodhart explore the relation between imitation and violence throughout human history, especially in religious culture. It is followed by essays on the subject of sacrifice contributed by some of the most distinguished scholars in the field. The second part contains essays on specifric scriptural texts. The authors explore new ways of applying Girardian analysis to episodes of sacrifice and scapegoating, deomonstrating that fertile ground remains to further our understanding of violence in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.