dissertation here. We refer to the relation of `money' with `redemption' for another

purpose. Solomon, in Ecclesiastes says "Money answereth all things" (10: 19). Gesenius

points out that in this passage we have `the accusative of the thing' "Money answers with

all things". As a participle, the Hebrew translated "answer" denotes "respect, relation,

answering or corresponding". While in some ways the introduction of money to take the

place of payment in kind or service became a snare to the avaricious and an instrument of

oppression to the strong, yet of itself it made life easier and enlarged man's borders

considerably. An official disc of metal, or an official piece of paper today "answereth all

things". The pound passed over the counter at the railway booking office is in lieu of so

much work done, or so much material exchanged. If the subscription to The Berean

Expositor had to be paid in kind, then its issue would automatically cease, for such a

method would be unworkable.

Now this is an important fact to keep in mind when contemplating the underlying

principle of the Atonement.

Here "money answereth" to the penalty of death, revealing the important principle of

the Atonement, namely the acceptance of an equivalent. Both the words "a sum of

money" and "ransom" are the Hebrew kopher derived from the verb kaphar "to make

an atonement".  So, in Exod. 30: we find "atonement" made upon the horns of the

altar with the blood of the sin offering (Exod. 30: 10) and in the same chapter a

`ransom' or `atonement' effected by the payment of half a shekel (Exod. 30: 12-16). In

Numb. 35: 31, 32 the same word kopher is translated `satisfaction', "Ye shall take no

satisfaction for the life of a murderer . . . . . he shall be surely put to death". Here the law

of Moses allowed no `equivalent'. The Lord Jesus Christ has offered a "corresponding

price" for so the word anti-lutron is rendered by Dr. Young: "He gave Himself a ransom

(antilutron) for all" (I Tim. 2: 6). We have, indeed, been `bought with a price'. Peter,

who knew the law of Moses better than many of his critics, had these thoughts in mind

when he said:

So, the prophet Isaiah, leading our thoughts onward and upward to the fifty-third

chapter, said to Israel: "Ye shall be redeemed without money", for he was to reveal that

the Messiah was to make His soul an offering for sin, an offering beyond the estimate of

mortal man.

This great redemption was the subject of `good tidings', then, in the days of Isaiah, as

it will be when the deliverance is accomplished in the days to come: