Redemption
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ἀπολύτρωσις is the NT's word for redemption — not in the loose modern sense of 'being rescued' but in the precise economic-legal sense of being purchased out of bondage. The image is the slave market: a person is bound, owned, without self-determination, and the only path to freedom is payment by another.
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Full entry for ἀπολύτρωσις (G629) · Open the biblical lexicon
ἀπολύτρωσις is the NT's word for redemption — not in the loose modern sense of 'being rescued' but in the precise economic-legal sense of being purchased out of bondage. The image is the slave market: a person is bound, owned, without self-determination, and the only path to freedom is payment by another.
The BSB source-word alignment has 10 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include redemption (6), [the] redemption (1), of redemption (1), redeem [them] (1), release (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 21:28. Its strongest book concentrations include Ephesians (3), Hebrews (2), Romans (2), 1 Corinthians (1).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
ἀπολύτρωσις is the NT's word for redemption — not in the loose modern sense of 'being rescued' but in the precise economic-legal sense of being purchased out of bondage. The image is the slave market: a person is bound, owned, without self-determination, and the only path to freedom is payment by another. Paul uses the word in Rom 3:24 to describe what God does freely in Christ: justification is received as a gift, and the mechanism that secures it is ἀπολύτρωσις — the ransom paid.
Eph 1:7 identifies the price: 'in Him we have redemption through His blood.' The blood is not incidental; it is the payment. The word also has a future dimension: Rom 8:23 speaks of the redemption of our bodies at the resurrection, the full completion of what was purchased at the cross. Redemption is both already secured and not yet fully received.
ἀπολύτρωσις occurs about 10 times in the NT, concentrated in Paul's letters (7 occurrences) with one in Luke, one in Hebrews, and one in Heb 11:35 where it means physical release from captivity (the non-soteriological use that shows the word's secular background). Every Pauline use is soteriological.
And are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
The programmatic statement. Justification (the verdict) is received as a gift; the mechanism securing it is ἀπολύτρωσις (the purchase). The two are inseparable: free to the recipient, not free in its cost. This is the theological summit of the word's NT use.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
The price is identified: blood. ἀπολύτρωσις is the result; Christ's blood is the ransom paid. Paul links redemption directly to forgiveness, showing the two are the same event viewed from different angles — ransom and pardon are not sequential but simultaneous.
Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
The eschatological dimension: ἀπολύτρωσις is not only past (paid) but future (received in full). The Spirit is the firstfruits — the down payment — of a redemption that will be complete at the resurrection. Sin's full claim is broken at the cross; the body's full freedom awaits the renewal of all things.
It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
Paul's compressed list of what Christ 'became' for believers. ἀπολύτρωσις is not one benefit among equals — it describes Christ's entire person and work as the act of purchase. Righteousness, sanctification, and redemption are the same reality from different angles.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
The seal of the Spirit points forward to the 'day of ἀπολύτρωσις' — the final completion of what was purchased. The Spirit is the guarantee (Eph 1:14) that the full redemption will arrive. Grieving the Spirit is inconsistent with belonging to a purchased people awaiting their full inheritance.
Therefore Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that He has died to redeem them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
Hebrews frames ἀπολύτρωσις as the hinge between covenants. The death that occurred (cf. Heb 9:11-14) accomplishes what the כָּפַר of the Day of Atonement pointed toward: release from the accumulated transgressions that the old covenant could not finally remove.
Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused their release, so that they might gain a better resurrection.
The one non-soteriological occurrence: physical release from captivity or torture, refused in hope of resurrection. This preserves the word's secular meaning (release from bondage by payment/arrangement) and shows its range. The martyrs refused earthly ἀπολύτρωσις in hope of the ultimate ἀπολύτρωσις.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Deliverance from sin and evil through Christ's ransom payment, not merely release or forgiveness alone.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
10 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
redemption, deliverance
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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 this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 5 selected witnesses from 10 lexical occurrence verses.
ἀπολύτρωσις is built from these roots:
It highlights the costly deliverance accomplished by Christ. Colossians 1:9–14
Refers to the future redemption of the body promised to believers. Luke 21:25–28
Refers to final deliverance secured by Christ. Romans 3:21-26
Highlights the substitutionary and liberating nature of Christ’s saving work. Romans 8:18-27
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
ἀπολύτρωσις insists that salvation has a price and that someone paid it. This is not abstract accounting language — it is the slave market as metaphor for a real transaction. The Greco-Roman congregation hearing Paul would know exactly what ἀπολύτρωσις meant: the payment that freed a slave and changed their legal status permanently. Paul says: that is what Christ did.
The 'free gift' (Rom 3:24) is free to the recipient because the ransom was paid by another. Pastoral weight rests here: grace is free but not cheap. The blood of Eph 1:7 is the price tag that makes the gift astonishing rather than casual.
Rom.3.24
The compound ἀπολύτρωσις (ἀπό + λύτρον) is stronger than the simplex λύτρωσις: the ἀπό prefix indicates release away from, suggesting finality and completeness. This is not merely a release but a decisive freedom from bondage. The related verb λυτρόω and the agent noun λυτρωτής (redeemer, Acts 7:35 — applied to Moses as a type) ground the word in concrete acts of rescue.
In Eph 1:14, the Spirit is called the ἀρραβών (pledge/down payment) of our inheritance 'until the ἀπολύτρωσις of the possession' — showing that the word carries both a present reality (purchased) and a future completion (fully received).
The OT background is layered. Exod 6:6 uses λυτρώσομαι (I will redeem you) for the Exodus — God as Redeemer of the enslaved people. Ruth and the kinsman-redeemer legislation (Lev 25; Ruth 3-4) give the גָּאַל background: the obligation of a relative to buy back what a family member lost. Isaiah 40-55 calls YHWH Israel's גֹּאֵל repeatedly. Paul's ἀπολύτρωσις in Rom 3:24 stands at the end of this trajectory: the God who redeemed Israel from Egypt, who obligated Himself as kinsman-redeemer, now redeems from sin itself through the blood of His Son.
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