To redeem
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The Greek verb exagorazō means to buy out of the marketplace, to purchase with a price in order to remove someone from a particular condition or ownership. It is built from the preposition ek (out of) and agorazō (to buy in the agora, the marketplace), and its compound form emphasizes the completeness of the transaction: the purchased person is taken out, removed, no longer available for that market.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐξαγοράζω (G1805) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Greek verb exagorazō means to buy out of the marketplace, to purchase with a price in order to remove someone from a particular condition or ownership. It is built from the preposition ek (out of) and agorazō (to buy in the agora, the marketplace), and its compound form emphasizes the completeness of the transaction: the purchased person is taken out.
The BSB source-word alignment has 4 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include redeeming (2), redeemed (1), to redeem (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Galatians 3:13. Its strongest book concentrations include Galatians (2), Colossians (1), Ephesians (1).
The Greek verb exagorazō means to buy out of the marketplace, to purchase with a price in order to remove someone from a particular condition or ownership. It is built from the preposition ek (out of) and agorazō (to buy in the agora, the marketplace), and its compound form emphasizes the completeness of the transaction: the purchased person is taken out, removed, no longer available for that market.
In Paul's two uses in Galatians, the word carries the full weight of what Christ accomplished on the cross. Galatians 3:13 states the mechanism with stark precision: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. The price of exagorazō here is not silver or gold but the curse itself; Christ absorbed it substitutionally so that those under it could be brought out.
Galatians 4:5 extends the scope: the redemption aims at adoption. The redeemed are not merely freed slaves; they become sons. That double movement; out of bondage, into sonship; is the pastoral heart of this word. The same root (agorazō) appears in Revelation 5:9, where the redeemed are purchased from every nation by Christ's blood, and in 1 Peter 1:18, where redemption is contrasted with corruptible things; the price was not currency but the precious blood of Christ.
Exagorazō thus belongs to the cluster of words that describe salvation as a costly transaction accomplished entirely by God in Christ, not by human achievement.
The local Greek index currently counts about 4 occurrences for exact Strong's ID G1805. Galatians 3:13 and 4:5 carry the full redemptive-theological sense, while Ephesians 5:16 and Colossians 4:5 use the word for making the most of the time or opportunity. The Galatians uses are the theologically definitive ones. The closely related agorazo appears in Revelation's worship hymns as the word for Christ purchasing the redeemed by his blood.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
The most theologically concentrated verse in Galatians for exagorazō. The structure is substitutionary: Christ redeemed us by becoming what we were under; the curse. The Deuteronomy citation (Deut. 21:23) identifies crucifixion as the precise form of cursed death that makes this exchange possible. The price of redemption is not external to the redeemed condition but internal: the Redeemer enters the curse and absorbs it.
To redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons.
Exagorazō here names the purpose of the incarnation: the Son came under the law in order to redeem those under the law. The goal is not simply freedom from bondage but positive reception of adoption (huiothesia). Redemption in Galatians is not a neutral transaction; it is the purchase that enables a new family relationship with God.
And they sang a new song: “Worthy are You to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slain, and by Your blood You purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
Revelation's throne-room hymn uses agorazō (the base verb) for the cosmic scope of redemption: every nation purchased by blood. The 'new song' picks up the Exodus redemption-hymn pattern (Exod. 15) and declares that Christ's cross is the definitive exodus: the redeemed come from every tongue and people, not Israel alone. This is the fullest display of what exagorazō is reaching toward in Galatians 3; universal redemption through one substitutionary act.
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers,
Peter's use of the redemption vocabulary makes explicit what is implicit in exagorazō: the price was not corruptible currency but the precious blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:19). The contrast with silver and gold situates the word against the background of the slave market and the ransom-price; both of which the NT writers use to describe what Christ accomplished, while insisting the price exceeded anything humans could offer.
He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
Titus uses the related verb lutroō (to ransom/redeem) in a context that shows the double purpose of redemption: release from lawlessness and purification for God's own possession. This mirrors the Galatians 4:5 pattern: out of bondage, into belonging. The redeemed are not neutrally freed but become a particular people, zealous for the kind of life that befits those purchased by such a price.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Redemption through costly purchase, particularly buying back what was enslaved or lost to reclaim it.
Redemption through costly purchase, particularly buying back what was enslaved or lost to reclaim it.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
4 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I ransom, redeem
Read verseI ransom, redeem
Read verseI ransom, redeem
Read verseI ransom, redeem
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
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Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 4 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 4 lexical occurrence verses.
ἐξαγοράζω is built from these roots:
Exagorazō teaches the preacher that salvation has a specific shape: it is a purchase, accomplished at a specific price, that removes someone from one ownership and places them under another. The marketplace imagery is deliberate; Paul uses it because it captures both the transaction (something was paid) and the transfer (someone moved out of one sphere into another).
What the preacher must hold together is both the cost and the destination. Galatians 3:13 is all cost: Christ became a curse. Galatians 4:5 is all destination: we received adoption. The preacher who dwells only on the cost risks a redemption-theology that stops at forgiveness without arriving at sonship. The preacher who moves too quickly to the destination risks trivializing the magnitude of what the cost required.
Both verses need each other. The pastoral application of exagorazō is also a word about identity: the redeemed are people who have been bought out of one sphere of existence and placed in another. They are no longer under law as a condemnation-system; they are sons and heirs. That identity shift; from slave to son; is what Galatians 4:1-7 unpacks and what the preacher can help congregations inhabit.
Too many Christians live practically as though they are still in the condition from which they were redeemed.
Gal.3.13
Exagorazō is a compound verb: ek (out of) + agorazō (to buy in the agora/marketplace). The preposition ek adds the sense of complete removal; not just purchasing but buying out of the condition entirely. The agora was the public marketplace where goods, and in the ancient world sometimes people (slaves), were bought and sold. Paul's use of marketplace language for salvation is deliberate: it captures both the price dimension (something was paid) and the ownership-transfer dimension (the purchased person belongs to the purchaser).
The related verb agorazō without the prefix is used in Rev. 5:9 and 14:3-4 for the redeemed purchased by Christ.
The OT background of exagorazō is the Hebrew concept of ge'ullah (redemption) and the go'el (kinsman-redeemer). In the OT, redemption involves a near relative who has the right and responsibility to buy back a family member from slavery, recover sold land, or avenge blood. Boaz acting as go'el for Ruth and Naomi (Ruth 4) is the narrative embodiment of the concept.
The Exodus itself is Israel's defining redemption-event, described using the verb pada (to ransom/redeem) and ga'al (to act as kinsman-redeemer). Isaiah picks up this language for the new exodus: 'I have redeemed you' (Isa. 44:22); 'the Lord has redeemed Jacob' (Isa. 44:23). Paul stands in this tradition when he uses exagorazō in Galatians: Christ is the ultimate Go'el who enters the condition of the enslaved (becoming a curse, Gal.
3:13; Born under law, Gal. 4:4) in order to purchase those in that condition and bring them out. The NT extends the scope beyond Israel to every nation (Rev. 5:9) and declares the price: not silver and gold but Christ's own blood (1 Pet. 1:18-19). The goal is not merely Exodus-liberation but adoption into God's family; a transformation that exceeds anything the OT redemption-events pointed to, while fulfilling what they anticipated.
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