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Geullah occurs eight times in Lev. 25: translated "redemption" and "redeem",
twice in Ruth, namely in 4: 6 "my right" and 4: 7 "redeeming", twice in Jeremiah,
namely in 32: 7, 8 and once in Ezekiel, namely in 11: 15 where it is translated
"kindred".
The words peduth, pidyom and padah which are translated "redeem" have as their root
meaning, separation or division. We remember the name of the land Padan-Aram, which
in the LXX becomes Mesopotamia and in both languages indicates the land severed off
by the two rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris. So where the Hebrew of Isa. 29: 22
reads padah "redeem" the LXX reads aphorizo "to separate". It is this word which is
used by the Psalmist when he said:
"None of these can by any means redeem his brother" (Psa. 49: 7).
and in Job when we read:
"Deliver him from going down to the pit" (Job 33: 24).
It is the "redemption" money of Numb 3: 49 and the "ransom" of Exod. 21: 30.
The word is used with special regard to its double significance in Exod. 8: 23:
"I will put a division between My people and thy people."
Added therefore to the rich teaching already imbedded in the doctrine of the
Kinsman Redeemer is this thought of the complete distinctiveness or separation that
redemption implies, together with a sense of cost.
Paraq means primarily "to break" and passing by the ideas of kinship and separation
emphasizes the mighty power that was put forth to deliver the Lord's people from the
hand of the enemy (Psa. 136: 24).
Qanah is only translated "redeem" once, namely in Neh. 5: 8, it is rendered many
times "buy" and "purchase" in connexion with the exercise of the right of redemption as
in Ruth 4: 4, 5, 8 and we are reminded in the New Testament that the redeemed have
been "bought with a price".
Coming now to the New Testament we have two words to consider. Lutroo and its
derivatives, and agorazo and its derivative.
Agorazo speaks of the market place, where buying and selling proceeded and it is used
of buying fields, victuals and other every day commodities, then of that great transaction
whereby we are "bought with a price" (I Cor. 6: 20) and so of those who were
"redeemed" (Rev. 5: 9; 14: 3, 4). Agorazo is used for the purchase of slaves in the will
of Attalus 3:, B.C.133, and the words "bought . . . . . with a price" are written on the
polygonal wall of Delphi in an inscription setting forth the freeing of a slave between the
years B.C.200-199 Exagorazo "to buy out of the market place" is found in Gal. 3: 13;
4: 5; Eph. 5: 16 and Col. 4: 5. In Galatians the allusion is to the freeing of a slave
upon the payment of a price, in Ephesians and Colossians, in the phrase "redeeming the