What Does Redemption Mean in the Bible?

Summary

BibleProject Podcast: What Does Redemption Mean in the Bible? — Detailed Summary

Release Date: June 9, 2025

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Introduction to Redemption

In the episode titled "What Does Redemption Mean in the Bible?", hosts Tim Mackey and John Collins delve deep into the biblical concept of redemption. Drawing from the full transcript, they explore the multifaceted meanings of redemption, its linguistic roots, and its pivotal role in the narrative of the Bible.

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Defining Redemption: Tim and John’s Perspectives

The discussion begins with Tim Mackey introducing the central theme:

Tim Mackey [00:05]: "There's an important word in the Bible that's connected to the Exodus story. It's the word redemption."

John Collins prompts a deeper reflection on the term:

John Collins [00:22]: "Really, stop and think about that. Why are we talking that way?"

Tim elaborates on the essence of redemption:

Tim Mackey [00:26]: "To be redeemed is to be reclaimed. You were lost, but now you're found. You were a slave to death, but now you're a son of God."

They establish that redemption involves a transfer of possession, moving individuals from one state to another—a foundational aspect of the biblical narrative.

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Redemption vs. Rescue: Economic Metaphors

To illustrate redemption, Tim and John use the analogy of redeeming tickets at an arcade:

John Collins [03:18]: "You use the coupon."

Tim Mackey [03:47]: "But if I'm in an arcade... I think I would use, maybe use redeem there."

This leads to a discussion on how redemption differs from mere rescue. While rescue involves saving someone from danger without an exchange, redemption typically involves an exchange of value or purchase to transfer possession. For example, purchasing a gallon of milk involves transferring ownership through payment, paralleling the biblical act of redemption where value is exchanged to reclaim possession.

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Hebrew Terms for Redemption: Gaal and Padah

The hosts transition to examining the Hebrew words that underpin the Greek term "lutron," commonly translated as "ransom" in the New Testament.

1. Gaal (גָּאַל):

   • Meaning: Rooted in family obligation, gaal refers to a family member rescuing another from dire circumstances, often involving debt or slavery.
   • Biblical Example: In the Book of Ruth, Boaz acts as a goel (kinsman-redeemer), marrying Ruth and purchasing land to rescue her family from poverty and ensure lineage continuity.
   • Quote:

     John Collins [33:10]: "Gaal is a word that comes from traditional family practice. You would even call it family law."

2. Padah (פָּדָה):

   • Meaning: Primarily denotes the act of releasing someone from a bad situation, sometimes through economic means.
   • Biblical Example: In Exodus 6, God speaks to Moses about rescuing Israelites from Egyptian bondage using padah, emphasizing liberation without a transactional exchange.
   • Quote:

     John Collins [38:16]: "Padah is very similar to lutron. It's actually spot on almost. For lutron, it refers primarily to releasing someone out of a bad situation."

Tim and John highlight that while both gaal and padah involve liberation, gaal is more about familial obligation without explicit payment, whereas padah can imply an economic exchange but not always.

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Biblical Examples and Applications

The hosts explore how these concepts manifest in various biblical texts:

1. Exodus Story:

   • Gaal is used to describe God's act of rescuing Israel from Egypt, portraying it as a familial reclamation rather than a transactional purchase.
   • Quote:

     Tim Mackey [31:51]: "But it's in this sequence of I'm going to release you from slavery, I'm gonna grab you out of slavery, I'm gonna take you."

2. Book of Romans:

   • The Apostle Paul discusses redemption not just as liberation but as a declaration of righteousness through Jesus.
   • Quote:

     John Collins [19:09]: "Everyone has been declared righteous as a free gift by God's grace through the redemption that came through the Messiah, Jesus."

3. Hebrews:

   • Jesus is depicted as the high priest who achieves eternal redemption through his sacrifice.
   • Quote:

     John Collins [22:55]: "He obtained eternal redemption. There's our word again, Lutrosis."

Through these examples, the hosts illustrate that redemption in the Bible encompasses both liberation from oppression and a transformation of status, moving individuals from slavery or sin to being part of God's treasured possession.

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Theological Insights and Future Exploration

Tim and John reflect on the implications of redemption as both a rescue operation and an economic transaction. They emphasize the importance of understanding the linguistic and cultural contexts to fully grasp the depth of redemption in scripture.

John Collins [24:19]: "It's become a long introduction to why I think this series is important and why I have learned so much in studying to prep for this."

They acknowledge that while everyday language differentiates between rescuing and redeeming, the Bible merges these concepts, enriching the theological narrative.

Looking ahead, the hosts plan to continue their exploration by examining redemption language in the Torah, the Book of Ruth, the Psalms, and among the New Testament writings, aiming to provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of redemption's role in the biblical story.

Tim Mackey [46:04]: "That's it for today's episode. Next week we continue exploring the theme of redemption in the story of the Bible by looking at where the word occurs most often in the Torah."

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Conclusion

This episode of the BibleProject Podcast offers an in-depth examination of redemption, unraveling its biblical significance through linguistic analysis and scriptural examples. By distinguishing between the Hebrew terms gaal and padah and their Greek counterparts, Tim Mackey and John Collins provide listeners with a richer, more nuanced understanding of how redemption operates within the Bible—from the liberation of the Israelites to the sacrificial act of Jesus Christ. This foundational episode sets the stage for further exploration, promising deeper insights into the integrated theme of redemption throughout the biblical narrative.

Transcript

[Tim Mackey]

There's an important word in the Bible that's connected to the Exodus story. It's the word redemption. Israel was a slave to Egypt and God redeemed them. So what does this mean, to be redeemed? I mean, you can redeem a coupon, you can redeem a day, but people can be redeemed.

[John Collins]

Really, stop and think about that. Why are we talking that way?

[Tim Mackey]

To be redeemed is to be reclaimed. You were lost, but now you're found. You were a slave to death, but now you're a son of God. And this reclaiming occurs when you're transferred from one state to the other. That transfer, that is the redemption.

[John Collins]

There's something the biblical authors want us to see, that human beings are the rightful possession of their creator. God calls Israel his treasured possession.

[Tim Mackey]

In the story of the Bible, humanity becomes the possession of something else. This is illustrated in the Exodus story, where Israel wrongfully becomes the possession to Egypt as slaves. But the Bible takes this idea further and thinks about how all of humanity has become slaves to some other ruler called sin and death. And so the act of bringing people back to where they belong, that's what the Bible calls a redemption. And this word is not simply an interesting way to think about the story of the Bible. This word is gets to the heart of how Jesus saw himself as a redeemer.

[John Collins]

Whatever this word means. We're at the heart of understanding why Jesus died, about how his death and resurrection are somehow beneficial to other people. We're talking about why the language of debt and payment and redeeming or purchasing is a part of how Christians talk about Jesus, life, death and resurrection.

[Tim Mackey]

Today we begin a theme study on the concept of redemption and the story of the Bible. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Hey, Tim.

[John Collins]

Hello. John Collins.

[Tim Mackey]

Hello. Tim Mackey. Yeah, we're using surnames.

[John Collins]

Why not? Why not?

[Tim Mackey]

Hey, we're starting a new theme study.

[John Collins]

We are. These are good days.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah, it's always fun.

[John Collins]

I like these days. We are in a season of creating content inspired by the Exodus scroll.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. And in the Exodus scroll, there is a key word.

[John Collins]

Yes. Introduced.

[Tim Mackey]

Introduced.

[John Collins]

Introduced. Once it's introduced, it is central to the ideas that are the heartbeat of the biblical story. And that is the word redemption. Yeah, Redemption.

[Tim Mackey]

Redemption.

[John Collins]

Or that's a noun. And then the verb is redeem.

[Tim Mackey]

Redeem.

[John Collins]

And it's core to understanding the whole story. But it doesn't appear everywhere. And so in the main place where redemption first appears and where it gets its basic definitions within the story of the Liberation of the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt. There you go. Redemption. Yeah. Pretty classic religious word.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. You know what makes a real good classic religious word is where it has so much religious meaning but you don't otherwise use it.

[John Collins]

You don't use the word.

[Tim Mackey]

I don't? Yeah. In normal everyday language, even the verb redeem, Redeem.

[John Collins]

Gosh, there's no context for you to use redeem.

[Tim Mackey]

There is, there is a context, like I'll redeem a token or I can redeem a coupon at the store. I don't think I ever say I redeem a coupon. I go use a coupon.

[John Collins]

You use the coupon.

[Tim Mackey]

But if I'm in an arcade. Right. You bring your kids to an arcade and they get the tickets, redeem the tickets and you redeem the tickets for like prizes. I think I would use, maybe use redeem there.

[John Collins]

Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[John Collins]

Yep. Okay. So we have by our house in Southeast Portland is one of Portland's oldest classic video arcade. Yeah. It's called Avalon. The building's a hundred years old and it smells and feels like it when you go inside. And they have accumulated this collection of, it's like three big rooms. It's actually now when I go with my kids, which I've really limited how often they can go, they love going, they love going. But you go into these dark rooms, it's like a kid's version of a casino. There's no windows, there's no external light, it's dark. And the only light there is is purple and blue and green and red from the games. And it's just a cacophony of noise. And for me it's oppressive.

[Tim Mackey]

And then you spend $20 and you end up with like 200 tickets.

[John Collins]

Exactly. But many of the games, some of the classic ones like skeeball and the basketball hoop, either prints out tickets or now it all happens on these little cards, digital, digital cards.

[Tim Mackey]

Tickets.

[John Collins]

And if you get tickets, tickets, then they'll accumulate on your card. And so then the end of the ritual, it's like a liturgy, is how.

[Tim Mackey]

Many Tootsie Rolls can I get going from the Easter?

[John Collins]

And then they stand there and these poor workers at the arcade, God bless them, just these indecisive wishy washy 10 year olds being like, do I want them mint Tootsie Roll or the blueberry or the chocolate? And they're so patient. So what they're doing in that moment is that my kids have played these games and they've earned tickets. This value they've generated Value, Right?

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[John Collins]

Isn't that right?

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[John Collins]

In the economy of the arcade, they've generated value by winning these games. And then they can take that value and then go look at a glass case with, like, cheap plastic laser guns or Tootsie Rolls. And what they do is they lay a claim to that they've accumulated value, and they see something else of value, and they're like, I want that to be mine. And then you exchange the Exchange.

[Tim Mackey]

I'm exchanging my tickets for the laser gun.

[John Collins]

That's it.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah, but you need, like, 2,000 tickets for the laser gun. You're not gonna get that one.

[John Collins]

It's so ridic. You actually pay $30 for a cheap toy laser gun that breaks in a week anyway. So it's that exchange of value.

[Tim Mackey]

An exchange of value, yeah.

[John Collins]

There's something that I'm going to lay claim to, and that will be mine. And then I go through some process of transferring it into my possession. And that whole process is, I think, what the word redemption and. Or redeem classically means in English.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay. Is that the main meaning of the word that we're translating from Hebrew or Greek?

[John Collins]

Well, that's what we're going to talk about for the next, like, 10 hours.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[John Collins]

It's really fascinating, but the core idea is transferring possession from one to another. I go lay claim to something and make it my own possession.

[Tim Mackey]

You're using that phrase? It's an important phrase. You lay claim to something.

[John Collins]

Lay claim to. Yeah. Or meaning take possession of. Maybe that's a little maybe. Lay claim to it.

[Tim Mackey]

Makes me. Yeah. Makes me feel like settlers or something.

[John Collins]

To claim this land, take possession of, to mark and take as one's possession.

[Tim Mackey]

What else would you do? This. Mark something. To take possession of it.

[John Collins]

In a way, you do it every time you go grocery shopping. Right. There's like, aisle.

[Tim Mackey]

As soon as you take it off the shelf, put it in your cart, you're taking claim to it.

[John Collins]

Yeah. Here's the thing.

[Tim Mackey]

You have not yet redeemed it.

[John Collins]

Here's the thing. Somebody else owns that while it's in your cart. But I'm walking around with it in my cart as if it's mine.

[Tim Mackey]

So when it's in your cart, you've laid a claim to it.

[John Collins]

You've laid a claim to it. And then when I go to the checkout counter, you redeem it. I redeem the gallon of milk.

[Tim Mackey]

So we just say purchase.

[John Collins]

Exactly. That's exactly right.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[John Collins]

And interestingly, purchase is a synonym of redeem in biblical thought. You buy it, you buy it. You buy it.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[John Collins]

So at the heart of this is a transfer of possession. It belonged to another. Now I make it belong to me.

[Tim Mackey]

Oh, it belonged to Kroger.

[John Collins]

Yeah, exactly right. And I'm going to make it now belong to me. And that transfer of possession often happens through an exchange of value, something valuable. So that process can be called buying, purchasing, redeeming. Less often, ransom. The idea of ransom in English means somebody took possession of something that's mine and it was not legitimate.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[John Collins]

They stole it, or it's wrongfully in the possession of somebody.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[John Collins]

Like theft. Theft, yeah. So I think we still have the phrase ransom to refer to when somebody.

[Tim Mackey]

Hostage situation.

[John Collins]

A hostage situation. Yeah, yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

And they demand, if you want this person back, give me a million dollars.

[John Collins]

Yeah, that's a. So someone has taken possession of an other and it's wrong. Like it's illegitimate.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay. So when you pay the price to purchase something that that person illegitimately has, you can use the word ransom.

[John Collins]

Yep. The word ransom refers to that. Okay. So we have a network of words to buy, to purchase, redeem or ransom.

[Tim Mackey]

Oh, boy.

[John Collins]

And they all have a little bit different of a nuance in English.

[Tim Mackey]

Yep.

[John Collins]

And there is a corresponding set of words in biblical thought that are rendered in the two languages that the Bible. Two main languages. So there's a network of words, two main words that refer to this set of ideas. And then there's one main word network in the Greek New Testament.

[Tim Mackey]

Two words in Hebrew.

[John Collins]

One in Greek, one word in Greek. Well, multiple words in Greek, but they come from one root. So maybe there's two root words in Hebrew and there's one root word in English, but in the Greek New Testament. So what I wanted to do is put in front of us just a short list of really important. I'm going to call them load bearing. Passages from the New Testament that have this word at the center of them.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay. Load bearing. You're using an architectural metaphor.

[John Collins]

Yeah. These are passages that, once we read them, probably you will be familiar with them, having grown up John Collins and a. Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

In a Bible.

[John Collins]

In a Bible church household. Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

Or.

[John Collins]

Or home.

[Tim Mackey]

Yep.

[John Collins]

Yeah. And the question will be. It's like, oh, I know it, but.

[Tim Mackey]

Does it actually mean. What does it mean?

[John Collins]

Okay, so first let's a little sampling of redemption language in important passages in the New Testament. In the Gospel according To mark, chapter 10, there's a moment when two of Jesus's disciples, two of the 12, Jacob and Yohanan, John in English, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, the fishermen, come up to Jesus and they say, jesus, we want you to do for us whatever we ask you.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah, I've had my kids do that.

[John Collins]

Me, too.

[Tim Mackey]

Can you just say yes to what I'm about to ask you?

[John Collins]

Yeah. So Jesus said, yeah, what is it that you want me to do? And they said, could you grant to us that when you sit in your glory, that is, in your messianic, glorious kingdom, that we could sit, one of us at your right hand and one of that at your left? And he's just like, well, my God.

[Tim Mackey]

We want to reign with you. We want the power.

[John Collins]

We want the power and the glory. Power and the glory. And Jesus knows that the power and the glory is going to come through suffering and death and torture. And so he says, you don't know what you're asking for. So he goes on this thing, and they're like, yeah, yeah, we do. Really? We do. And then verse 41, when the other disciples heard this, they were really angry at James and John. It's like, what. What are you trying to, like, get a leg up on us? Like, what is this? And Jesus called him to himself and he said, you know that those who think they rule, who are considered the rulers among the nations, they love to dominate over people, to act like a Lord over them.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. They love their power. They love to show their power.

[John Collins]

And people in high positions, they love to exercise authority.

[Tim Mackey]

It feels good to tell people what.

[John Collins]

To do, because it's true, in a way.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[John Collins]

He says, it is not supposed to be that way among y' all. And by that he means in the kingdom of God, community, that is his disciples. Rather, whoever wants to become the Great One among you must become your servant. And whoever wants to be the first among you must become the slave of all, for even the Son of Man. And here he's echoing Daniel 7, which is all about a human figure who's exalted to divine, sits at God's right hand, sits to rule in glory on a throne, which is exactly what James and John asked him.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[John Collins]

So that's kind of wrapping back around to their request. So even the one who's going to share the divine throne with the Father didn't come to be served, but to be a servant and to give his life as a ransom. Ransom for many.

[Tim Mackey]

Ransom.

[John Collins]

And what's interesting, in the English translation tradition of Mark 10, verse 45, that phrase, ransom is pretty, pretty fixed going back to the King James for ransom for many. But the new American standard English Standard niv. They all nrsv. All do ransom for many.

[Tim Mackey]

This is the name of the character in C.S. lewis's space trilogy. Yeah.

[John Collins]

Ransom.

[Tim Mackey]

Ransom.

[John Collins]

Such a good story.

[Tim Mackey]

It's a cool name.

[John Collins]

Yeah. So again, just taking our conversation beforehand. We use redeem in, like, some narrow context of, like, redeeming a coupon or a token. We use ransom in contemporary English, at least you and I do. To talk about freeing a hostage.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[John Collins]

So the question is, what's supposed to come into my mind here? Because this is saying, the son, the incarnate God, become human who will suffer and die, and then be exalted to rule in glory and share the divine throne that one will give his life for many. So there's our substitution idea there. And the word then used gets translated as ransom. It's the Greek word lutron. And this is our key word in Greek. In the Greek New Testament, lutron. It's a compound word made of two parts. Lu comes from luo, which means to release. Oh, yeah. And then tron is a common compound part of a word you stick on to a verbal root to indicate the means or the instrument, the thing by which you do the verb. So a lutron is the means of releasing.

[Tim Mackey]

Luo.

[John Collins]

Luo, to release means to release. Tron is a Greek affix, meaning that marking the thing by which you do the verb.

[Tim Mackey]

The thing by which the release can happen.

[John Collins]

Yeah, the means of release, the instrument of release. The thing by which you release someone.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[John Collins]

There's some way or thing that affects somebody's release.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[John Collins]

Yep.

[Tim Mackey]

All right.

[John Collins]

So that's the meaning of this word in terms of its, like, parts. Okay, so what does it mean? That someone gives their life as the.

[Tim Mackey]

Thing in which creates a release.

[John Collins]

Release for many.

[Tim Mackey]

And what is the release?

[John Collins]

Released from what?

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah, released from what?

[John Collins]

Or from whose possession. And into whose possession. Right. Because, remember, this is all about possession. So when I go to the grocery store, I want to possess the gallon of milk, but right now, the grocery store possesses it. So I give a means of release in the form of money, currency for it to be released from their possession.

[Tim Mackey]

So in that situation, the money is the lutron.

[John Collins]

Is the lutron. That's right.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[John Collins]

Yep, that's right. Now, this whole passage is packed with hyperlinks and language taken from the suffering servant poem in the book of Isaiah about a servant who serves, who gives his life for many. Except in Isaiah 53, the servant gives his life for the sins of the many. And here in Mark 10, it's the son of man gives his life as a lutron for the many. So somehow this network of ideas is that people, Israel has sinned, they've failed in some significant way, and that has brought them into possession of some other.

[Tim Mackey]

Some sort of slavery that they're experiencing.

[John Collins]

Yeah. At least being possessed. Yeah. Which is the essence of slavery, being the property of another and its wrongful ownership. And so the God of Israel sends or appoints the servant to release the many, and the servant does so by dying, giving his life anyway. So that seems like a fairly important passage. This is, other than the Last Supper, this is the one place where Jesus focuses on and explains the meaning of his coming death. He actually doesn't give lectures on the meaning of his death.

[Tim Mackey]

You know, I've thought about this a number of times, because that's what we care about. Right. And like by we Christianity.

[John Collins]

That's right. And it is important.

[Tim Mackey]

It is very important.

[John Collins]

Super important.

[Tim Mackey]

And it's just. So it's just the more interesting that in the Gospels it isn't talked about more.

[John Collins]

Yeah, but he talks about it here. He does talk about it, and this is the language that he uses. Another important passage, say in Paul's letter to the Romans. That's an important part of the Bible. The end of Romans, chapter 3, verse 23. Everyone has sinned and has failed to attain the glory of God. A common translation has fallen short.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[John Collins]

But what that means is if you fall short of something, it means you didn't get there.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. Which is also kind of the idea of sin.

[John Collins]

Right. Yeah. You missed the mark.

[Tim Mackey]

Missed the mark. It's a moral missing.

[John Collins]

Everyone has fallen short of the glorious image of God ruling over creation and love and wisdom, purpose for which we are made. Yeah, that's my paraphrase.

[Tim Mackey]

Great.

[John Collins]

So we've all fallen short of that. But here's the great surprise. Everyone has been declared righteous as a free gift by God's grace through the redemption that came through the Messiah, Jesus. And here Paul uses the root word, our root word, lutron, but he's added another affix to it. So it's apollutroceos, Apollo, lutron.

[Tim Mackey]

There's a. There's an apo before it.

[John Collins]

Yep, there's an apo, which is a preposition, away from.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[John Collins]

And then lutroseos, which is referring less to the means of redemption and more to the act of the release. Okay. So to be released away from, the liberating, away from, or the freeing from. So once again, the connection of sin and failure lands humans in A bad situation. But God has provided through Messiah, Jesus a liberation out of, a redemption out of. And what's the good thing? That you're redeemed into a standing of being declared as being right with God, offered as a free gift. So there's a little story. Paul has some story in his mind about how what Jesus did affected a redemption of people who were in the possession of some other. Yeah. Hebrews, chapter nine. Hebrews is depicting Jesus as a high priest who is going into, not the temple in Jerusalem and certainly not the tabernacle, Israel's tabernacle in the wilderness. But Hebrews does present Jesus as like a priest.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay. Because a priest will. When you say goes into a temple or tabernacle, their purpose is to go on behalf.

[John Collins]

Yeah. As a representative.

[Tim Mackey]

A representative. Everyone else who can't go in doesn't have access.

[John Collins]

Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

And on behalf of the people, present some sort of offering.

[John Collins]

Yeah. Of ultimate value.

[Tim Mackey]

Of value.

[John Collins]

Of value. The greatest value.

[Tim Mackey]

The greatest value.

[John Collins]

Yeah. Yep. That sacrifices and offerings are a symbol of surrendering something of utmost value to God. Which in a farming community is your animals.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. Or your produce.

[John Collins]

Or your produce. That's right. And so Hebrews describes Jesus in his resurrection and ascension as entering the most holy place once for all by his own blood.

[Tim Mackey]

Holy place, referring to the inner sanctum of the tabernacle.

[John Collins]

He's using. Yeah. The phrase used to describe the innermost sacred space where God lives in the tabernacle. But he's using that phrase to describe where Jesus ascended to after his resurrection.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[John Collins]

And he entered in there by his own blood. He's referring to how the high priest of Israel would come with the lifeblood of a blameless animal and offer that before God to represent the non blameless people outside the tent.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay. So the blood in the animal ritual.

[John Collins]

Is the currency, is the thing of value.

[Tim Mackey]

It's the thing of value.

[John Collins]

Yeah. Because it's the life. Life is of ultimate value in the story of the Bible. And when he entered by his own blood with that thing of value, he obtained eternal redemption. There's our word again, Lutrosis. So it's not referring to the means of redemption, it's referring to the fact of redemption. And notice he calls it eternal once and for all. So whatever this word means, we're at the heart of understanding why Jesus died, about how his death and resurrection are somehow beneficial to other people. Yeah. We're talking about why the language of debt and payment and redeeming or purchasing is a part of how Christians talk about Jesus Life, death and resurrection. Why do we use economic words, money words, to talk about the death and resurrection of a human? When you're in a Christian community, it just becomes so common. But to really stop and think about that, why are we talking that way? Comes from the Bible. But what does it really mean in the story of the Bible?

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[John Collins]

It's become a long introduction to why I think this series is important and why I have learned so much in studying to prep for this. It's brought a lot of clarity to where I can see were foggy or blurry areas in my own thinking about the meaning of Jesus death and resurrection.

[Tim Mackey]

So you're saying central to how biblical authors think about the meaning of Jesus death is this embedded metaphor of purchasing something, exchanging value in order to.

[John Collins]

To possess.

[Tim Mackey]

Possess something.

[John Collins]

Yeah, A transfer of possession.

[Tim Mackey]

Transfer of possession.

[John Collins]

And the means or the thing that facilitates the transfer of possession is something of value.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[John Collins]

Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

And that metaphor is embedded and an ancient Near Eastern marketplace reality where there was animal sacrifices. And so we are going to have to kind of enter into that ancient context mentally. But then the question becomes, why has that become this predominant metaphor to talk about what Jesus did?

[John Collins]

Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

And I think one way that helps that land for me is to think, let's say there was a natural disaster. They've talked about this happening in Portland, the big one. The big one, yeah. It's a earthquake and then floods, and just everything's collapsed. And now we're just like. It's a mess. Like, there's not enough food. There's not enough shelter. There's just chaos. And if then the government, I suppose, came in and saved us from that situation, we wouldn't call that a purchase.

[John Collins]

Yeah. Or a redemption.

[Tim Mackey]

Or a redemption. It would just be an act of rescue. When a firefighter comes into a house and, like, takes a person out.

[John Collins]

That's right. Okay, yeah, let's use that example. I think that'll really help us.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay, cool.

[John Collins]

So you have somebody trapped in a room and the house is on fire.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay, simpler.

[John Collins]

The firefighter comes in, like, chops down the door with an axe. A beam collapses. Firefighter's holding up the beam and is like, run, run, go, go. And the person's like, no, you have to come. And they're like, no, it'll collapse. Like, go, you run. The person runs out of the house, and then it collapses. The firefighter dies.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[John Collins]

So there, one has given their life for another. Yeah, but we don't use economic language.

[Tim Mackey]

We wouldn't use economic language.

[John Collins]

We would Just say he laid down his life.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. You can even say sacrifice.

[John Collins]

They sacrificed their life. That's right.

[Tim Mackey]

But yeah, you wouldn't use it economically.

[John Collins]

We wouldn' the firefighter purchased their life or ransomed them. That's language we use for when we buy things. We would say they rescued them.

[Tim Mackey]

They rescued them.

[John Collins]

So there's some merging in.

[Tim Mackey]

Or saved them. And that's also a biblical word.

[John Collins]

Exactly. Yeah. So saving is about rescuing from danger. Ransoming or redeeming is about purchasing from possession. And what's happening by applying the language of redemption to this rescue story is we're merging two metaphorical schemes, two story worlds, and turning them into one. And that is what Jesus is doing when he says the Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many for their sins. So how did those two story worlds become merged? What does it mean to merge them? And is it possible that within the biblical story itself there actually is a way to understand it? Because in our minds, they're separate, even though we use the merged language all the time in our language and songs and liturgy about Jesus. So we're trying to tease them apart.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay. There's a difference between rescuing someone, which that word often translates to salvation, save, save, and redeeming someone. Yeah, there's a difference.

[John Collins]

There's a difference, but for good reason. They've become merged in the way to.

[Tim Mackey]

Talk about what Jesus did for us.

[John Collins]

That's right. And so I think it's helpful just to tease them apart, think about them separately, not to keep them apart, so we can put them back together again and really, I think, appreciate the beauty and the power of this language in the Bible, both to appreciate what Jesus did, but also to appreciate what it means for me to be connected to the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. So that was a long setup. We've talked about the lutron word in the New Testament. Let's spend the rest of our time, at least in this part, a conversation talking about the Hebrew words that are underneath this Greek word. So Jesus and the apostles were raised on their scriptures, the Torah and prophets and writings, and they encountered them, most likely in a bilingual form of their original language in Hebrew, but also hundreds of years old now, by the time of Jesus and the apostles, was a Greek translation. Actually, multiple Greek translations were available. Those translations were called the old Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible. That's what scholars call them today, or the Septuagint. It's a common way. And so what's interesting is that that word lutron, that Jesus and the apostles use Lutron in the Septuagint is the most common Greek word that Greek speaking Jews used to translate two Hebrew words. Oh, double duty, double duty. So there's two Hebrew words, and underneath the one word, lutron in biblical vocabulary. And those two words are, one is Gaal and the other is Padah. Let's talk about Gaal first.

[Tim Mackey]

All right. Okay, great. These are two new words for me.

[John Collins]

Yeah, yeah. New territory, man.

[Tim Mackey]

Here we go.

[John Collins]

Solely. So Gaal means to. This is so foreign. Maybe. I don't know. So the word gaal is introduced in the Exodus story. That's where it appears for its first times. And in a well known speech from God to Moses about the liberation of Israel. This is in Exodus, chapter 6. God says to Moses, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites whom the Egyptians are making to work. But I have remembered my covenant. That is my promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So say to the Israelites, I am Yahweh and I will bring you out from under the forced labor of Egypt. I will make you go out, bring you out, I will snatch you from out of their slavery. It's the word to, like, seize, take hold of you. I will gaal you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of justice, and I will take you as my people and I will be your God. Hmm.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay, so, okay, this is interesting. I have no idea what this word means.

[John Collins]

Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

But it's in this sequence of I'm going to release you from slavery, I'm gonna grab you out of slavery, I'm gonna take you. So I would imagine it's a synonym to grab, take, seize.

[John Collins]

Exactly. Yeah. A transfer of possession. So what's interesting about Gaal is it typically gets translated redeem, but there's no mention of like, a payment.

[Tim Mackey]

Sure.

[John Collins]

Like, who does God owe? When I go to the grocery store and I redeem the gallon of milk, it rightfully belongs to the grocery store, and I want it to belong to me, so I give them something of value. In this story, Egypt thinks that Israel belongs to it as slaves, right?

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. Functionally, they do.

[John Collins]

They do. But it's wrongful possession. Like they wrongfully and oppressively unjustly, but practically are possessed. That's right. So God is taking Israel out of the possession of Egypt.

[Tim Mackey]

And then we would just call that a rescue.

[John Collins]

But we would call that a rescue. But this word gaal is used and it gets translated redeem, making you think that God's buying Israel. It's really interesting, but we're like, God doesn't owe Pharaoh anything.

[Tim Mackey]

Sure.

[John Collins]

It's not like he's paying Pharaoh. There's no story of God paying Pharaoh. The point is, redeem as an English translation kind of muddies the waters here. So at its root, gaal refers to when a family member comes to help another family member out of a dire situation, often debt or debt slavery to another. But it can refer to any situations of danger or just bad circumstances.

[Tim Mackey]

Say that again. Gaal is like a family member.

[John Collins]

Gaal is a word that comes from traditional family practice. You would even call it family law. Almost like a legal term. Okay. Let's say I have a cousin and that my aunt and uncle died.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay. Orphaned cousin.

[John Collins]

An orphaned cousin. And there's no other aunts or uncles. There's no other relatives. Maybe the aunt and uncle didn't write anything into their will or whatever, and they're like they're 12 years old.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[John Collins]

In our cultural setting, it's a good next of kin. Next of kin, yeah. Yes. Okay. Actually, we do have categories for this. And it would be not only just morally the right thing to do.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. But it's also practical.

[John Collins]

But we also have this sense that there's an obligation.

[Tim Mackey]

Oh, okay. Yeah. An obligation.

[John Collins]

First for family members to take responsibility, to take possession of. To take that family member into their care or possession. That's what Gaal means.

[Tim Mackey]

Gaal, okay. Is the obligation of next of kin to take care of their family.

[John Collins]

Yep. Specifically by taking them into their responsibility and care. Possession.

[Tim Mackey]

Sure.

[John Collins]

Yep.

[Tim Mackey]

Interesting.

[John Collins]

That's what Gaal means in the story of Ruth. We'll do a whole conversation on the story of Ruth. This is what Boaz, the character of Boaz in the Book of Ruth, he's a landowner, he's a farmer, but he's single, he's not married, and he has a relative who's a widow. And then her daughter in law, Ruth, is also widowed, and they're destitute, and they're just, like, hanging on for dear life to survive. And so what he does is he buys the land the family owned that used to belong to this widow and her deceased husband, and he also marries the young daughter in law, Ruth. And that whole process is called Gaal. In the book of Ruth, he is actually called the Goel, which, it gets translated, kinsman, redeemer.

[Tim Mackey]

And there's that word, kin.

[John Collins]

Yeah. In the King James, kinsman, redeemer. So through an act of marriage and buying land, he Gaals this family from death. And then all of a sudden, it's productive land. And A productive family, and they begin to have children. And out of that family comes the lineage of King David.

[Tim Mackey]

So Gaal's more about the obligation of a family member, less about whether there's currency involved or purchasing involved.

[John Collins]

Exactly. It's about the act of a family member rescuing another family member out of a really bad situation, usually financial ruin, but also life ruin in general. So that's what kaal means. So that's the word used to describe what Yahweh does for Israel. And so this language of I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God. That's language that we also know from the Song of Songs. I am my beloved, my beloved is mine, you will be my people, and I will be your God. It's marriage, family language. So I will gaol you.

[Tim Mackey]

Oh.

[John Collins]

And I will marry you, and I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God. It's family language. Yeah. It's a rad word.

[Tim Mackey]

And in Greek, they translate that with lutron.

[John Collins]

Lutron, yeah. Greek just didn't really have a word.

[Tim Mackey]

We don't really have a word, a.

[John Collins]

Distinct word for the family. Redemption.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[John Collins]

This is a wonderful example of how when you're doing word studies, the most important thing is the idea which you look at by studying word in many contexts. And the words are vehicles of ideas, and ideas are shaped by. Anyway, okay, so here's what's really interesting is that there is another word. There's one more word. Remember, there's two in Hebrew. The second word is padah. Padah is very similar to lutron. It's actually spot on almost. For Lutron, it refers primarily to releasing someone out of a bad situation. Often. Not always often through an economic exchange. For example, In Exodus chapter 21, there's a case study law about damages. And what do you do if something you own damages something somebody else owns? Or how do you compensate for wrongs done in the community?

[Tim Mackey]

If you hit someone's car with your car. Yeah, kind of thing.

[John Collins]

Yeah. Well, so in this case, if you have an ox and your ox actually attacked somebody in the past, and you know that ox is like something wrong with it.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay, we have this with dogs.

[John Collins]

Yeah. Oh, okay. There you go. That's it. That's it. Okay. And so this law is. But if the owner doesn't keep it in a pen, but he lets it wander freely on the road still after it's gored someone, after it's already hurt someone and then it kills someone, the ox needs to be put to Death. And the owner should be put to death. A life for a life.

[Tim Mackey]

The owner has the obligation of having nothing. Let that ox kill a neighbor.

[John Collins]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So the owner is liable for that death. That death is the owner's responsibility because he knew. He knew. Now, there's a law right before this of if an ox has never hurt anyone before and does it randomly, then the owner is still responsible, but not with his life. He just has to pay a large monetary fine. But here, now his life is forfeit. In other words, the idea is justice is life or life. He has given up. He's forfeited the possession of his own life. He doesn't possess his life anymore.

[Tim Mackey]

If you've taken someone else's life, you've lost the rights to your own life. Yep, that's the.

[John Collins]

We're gonna have a whole conversation just on that idea right there.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[John Collins]

Because that's key to how this works later in the biblical story.

[Tim Mackey]

That's good, because intuitively I kind of get it. But then in a modern intuition, it feels not quite right.

[John Collins]

Yeah, I'm with you.

[Tim Mackey]

So let's dig into it later.

[John Collins]

We'll get there later. However, in this law, it says. But let's say the family member of the person who got killed says, we don't need another person to die in our community.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[John Collins]

Another death won't solve this.

[Tim Mackey]

Right.

[John Collins]

So let's say that. But they do demand a redemption.

[Tim Mackey]

A padah.

[John Collins]

Yes. He can give a redemption for his life, whatever is demanded for him. Okay, so here it's a symbolic amount of money. That's a symbol of.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah, what's your life worth, financially speaking?

[John Collins]

Yeah, yeah, totally. So this feels strange to us, actually.

[Tim Mackey]

No. Once you move into the world of I'm not going to actually kill you, but I need to be compensated.

[John Collins]

Yes.

[Tim Mackey]

Now we're squarely in how our justice system still works.

[John Collins]

Exactly. Right. So here, money can be given for a life. It is a ransom. It is given as a ransom for someone. It's the same phrase Jesus uses to say the son of man gives. It's the same concept.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah, same concept.

[John Collins]

Except here, it's the Hebrew equivalent of lutron padah. Padah is the root, and then pidyon is the noun that comes from the root. Okay, so the question is here, clearly a payment.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[John Collins]

Something of value is given right to transfer possession. Padah is also used to describe what God did for Israel in Egypt. Here's Deuteronomy 7. Because the Lord loved you, because he kept his oath that he swore to your ancestors. He brought you out of Egypt with a mighty hand and he paddad you from slavery, from the power of Pharaoh. But God didn't pay Pharaoh.

[Tim Mackey]

He did release. He released from Pharaoh's power.

[John Collins]

Yes. He released Israel from Pharaoh's possession.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[John Collins]

He didn't do it by paying off Pharaoh.

[Tim Mackey]

But the word used is a word that very oftentimes is used in situations where a payment is actually used. Is that fair to say?

[John Collins]

Yeah, sometimes a payment is used sometimes or most times. Okay. So if you go through and look at most of the uses of pada, most of them don't seem to involve a payment. For example, 2 Samuel, chapter 4, David is talking to a guy named Rekava and his brother Baanah. And he's telling them stories about how God rescued him. Rescued him in the days of Saul. And he describes it, he says, as surely as Yahweh lives, the one who paddad me out of every trouble. Okay, so David's been in a lot of trouble with other kings in battles running from Saul. In none of those stories did God rescue David by floating a pallet of gold bricks.

[Tim Mackey]

Hey, kings, take this. I'm taking David.

[John Collins]

Yeah, okay. Leave David alone. Because God paid them off.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah, yeah.

[John Collins]

So here it just means to release, to free.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[John Collins]

To liberate or to rescue.

[Tim Mackey]

Cool. I get it. You're using an economic term, but really as a metaphor, the metaphor, because it costs something to do the rescue.

[John Collins]

That's right. And so then it raises the question, well, what does it cost God to rescue David? What does it cost God to rescue Israel?

[Tim Mackey]

Right.

[John Collins]

God is the source of all value. So he's not losing value to redeem Israel. But it is a metaphorical way to say God went over and above. He did something that was generous, that was valuable.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah, that's so interesting.

[John Collins]

So that's God in the Exodus for Jesus to say the Son of man gives his life as a ransom. He's talking about his life, which is really valuable.

[Tim Mackey]

Right. When you get to Jesus, it becomes very concrete.

[John Collins]

That's right.

[Tim Mackey]

But when you talk about an all powerful creator God, source of all value in life.

[John Collins]

Yes, Their creator God.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[John Collins]

The first event that's described with these words is the liberation of the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. And that's where these words begin, life. And then as we're going to see, the ransom, redeem, purchase gets applied to all kinds of things where God's not paying. But it does refer metaphorically to how God is rescuing or liberating.

[Tim Mackey]

So the Word, though, then draws attention to the transfer of ownership.

[John Collins]

Yeah. And actually I think, and I'm open minded here as we go, even as I've prepped like, I've also, I want to hone my understanding as we talk because it always happens anyway. So what I want to do in the conversation that remains is go through the main way that this word works. We've looked at it in the Exodus story, but this redemption language gets used in a number of different ways throughout the Torah. First five books connected to the year of jubilee, connected to the liberation of Israelite slaves in the seven year cycles. So I want to look at that because that's going to teach us about what these words mean. We're going to look at this in the book of Ruth. It's central to the book of Ruth. It's central to the book of Isaiah. God is called Redeemer, more in the book of Isaiah than any other book of the Bible. We're going to look at it in the Psalms. Just loaded in the Psalms. And then we'll turn to the story of Jesus and Luke, then the letters of Paul, letters of Hebrews and Peter. Great thorough tour of redemption language. The transfer, possession, the surrender of value and the cost. And the cost. Yeah. So there you go. I'm excited to have these conversations. I think I know I'm going to learn a lot. I think other people can all along.

[Tim Mackey]

Absolutely.

[John Collins]

Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

That's it for today's episode. Next week we continue exploring the theme of redemption in the story of the Bible by looking at where the word occurs most often in the Torah.

[John Collins]

If you just do a word search, there's places where redemption language gets concentrated in the Torah. One is the Exodus story and references to describe God freeing Israel from Egypt. Another is about the practice of the Jubilee year.

[Tim Mackey]

What does the Jubilee year have to teach us about the theme of redemption and what is the Passover night all about? That's what we'll look at next week. Bibleproject is a crowdfunded nonprofit and we exist to experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. And everything that we make is free because of the generous support of thousands of people just like you. Thank you so much for being a part of this with us.

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[Tim Mackey]

Sam.