📖 Biblical Definition
To ransom is to purchase liberation — to deliver someone from bondage, captivity, or death by paying a price. The LORD ransomed Israel from Egyptian slavery: "I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments" (Exodus 6:6). Job confessed: "I know that my redeemer liveth" (Job 19:25). Christ Himself owns the role: "the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45; cf. 1 Timothy 2:6). The price was real — His blood — and the Ransomer paid it Himself. Ransom is the courtroom-economic side of salvation: not free in the sense of cheap, but free to us because dear to Him.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
To deliver by paying a price.
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To redeem from captivity, slavery, or punishment by payment of a price. In Scripture especially of YHWH ransoming Israel from Egyptian bondage (the Passover) and Christ ransoming His people from sin's bondage (the cross). The price is the Ransomer's own blood.
📖 Key Scripture
Mark 10:45 — "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."
1 Timothy 2:6 — "Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."
Hosea 13:14 — "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern usage is mostly hostage-negotiations; the theological depth of ransom-as-substitution has thinned in popular vocabulary.
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Modern "ransom" calls hostage-crisis movies. Scripture's ransom is theological: the Son's life given to liberate the captives held by sin and death. The price is paid by the Ransomer at the cost of Himself.
Recover the substitution: ransom is not generic deliverance; it is purchase. Christ paid; we are bought. The price was His blood.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew padah; Greek lytroō.
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['Hebrew', 'H6299', 'padah', 'to ransom, redeem']
['Greek', 'G3083', 'lytron', 'ransom price']
['Greek', 'G3084', 'lytroō', 'to ransom, redeem']
Usage
"Christ gave Himself a ransom for many."
"The price was His blood."
"Ransom is purchase, not generic deliverance."