Corpus-Paul

["Stephen.Finlan" <Stephen.Finlan AT durham.ac.uk>]

> dia. tês apolutrwsew in verse 24.

An important lexical study of APOLYTRWSIS and LYTRON-words,still
useful still cited, was B. Warfield's in Princeton Theological 
Review 15 (1917) 201-49.  He says the root means "release," 
while LYTROW specifically means ransom (p 208), and includes 
the ransoming of captives and/or the "redemption" of slaves 
(whereby they purchase their freedom).

D. Hill wants to emphasize the Exodus connotations (Greek Words, 55-59),
but overstates his case in his eagerness to deny that NT taught "the 
ransom theory" of atonement.

Lightfoot (Notes on the Epistles, 271) and Wright (in Pauline Theology, 
volume III, 38) preserve both meanings of the term: economic ransoming 
and the Exodus rescue.

Stephen Finlan
University of Durham