Matthew 20:28

28 . a ransom ]=the price paid for the redemption of a captive from slavery. For the thought cp. Romans 3:24 ; 1 Corinthians 6:20 ; 1 Peter 1:19 . The English word is derived through the French rançon from Lat. redemptionem . for many ] Cp. 1 Timothy 2:6 , “Who gave himself a ransom for all .” for ] Not ὑπέρ , ‘on behalf of,’ but ἀντί , ‘in the place of.’

Matthew 20:28 . ὤσπερ , καὶ γὰρ in Mk.; both phrases introducing reference to the summum exemplum (Bengel) in an emphatic way.— περ lends force to ὡς = even as, observe.— ὁ ὑ . τ . ἀνθρώπου : an important instance of the use of the title. On the principle of defining by discriminating use it means: the man who makes no pretensions, asserts no claims.— οὐκ ἦλθε points to the chief end of His mission, the general character of His public life: not that of a Pretender but that of a Servant .— δοῦναι τὴν ψυχὴν , to give His life, to that extent does the service go. Cf. Php 2:8 : μέχρι θανάτου , there also in illustration of the humility of Christ. It is implied that in some way the death of the Son of Man will be serviceable to others. It enters into the life plan of the Great Servant.— λύτρον , a ransom, characterises the service, another new term in the evangelic vocabulary, suggesting rather than solving a theological problem as to the significance of Christ’s death, and admitting of great variety of interpretation, from the view of Origen and other Fathers, who regarded Christ’s death as a price paid to the devil to ransom men from bondage to him, to that of Wendt, who finds in the word simply the idea that the example of Jesus in carrying the principle of service as far as to die tends by way of moral influence to deliver men’s minds from every form of spiritual bondage ( Die Lehre Jesu , ii. 510–517).

It is an interesting question, What clue can be found in Christ’s own words, as hitherto reported, to the use by Him on this occasion of the term λύτρον , and to the sense in which He uses it? Wendt contends that this is the best method of getting at the meaning, and suggests as the most congenial text Matthew 11:28-30 . I agree with him as to method, but think a better clue may be found in Matthew 17:27 , the word spoken by Jesus in reference to the Temple Tax . That word began the striking course of instruction on humility, as this word ( Matthew 20:28 ) ends it, and the end and the beginning touch in thought and language. The didrachmon was a λύτρον ( Exodus 30:12 ), as the life of the Son of Man is represented to be. The tax was paid ἀυτὶ ἐμοῦ καὶ σοῦ . The life is to be given ἀντὶ πολλῶν . Is it too much to suppose that the Capernaum incident was present to Christ’s mind when He uttered this striking saying, and that in the earlier utterance we have the key to the psychological history of the term λύτρον ? On this subject vide my book The Kingdom of God , pp. 238–241.

(28) Not to be ministered unto. —The words found a symbolic illustration when our Lord, a few days afterwards, washed the feet of the disciples who were still contending about their claims to greatness ( John 13:3-4 ); and the manner in which St. John connects the act with our Lord’s manifested consciousness of His supreme greatness, seems to show that the words which we find here were then present to his thoughts. The Son of Man seemed to the beloved disciple never to have shown Himself so truly king like and divine as when engaged in that menial act. But that act, we must remember, was only an illustration; and the words found their true meaning in His whole life, in His poverty and humiliation, in the obedience of childhood, in service rendered, naturally or super-naturally, to the bodies or the souls of others. To give his life a ransom for many.—The word rightly rendered “ransom,” is primarily “a price made for deliverance,” and in this sense it is found in the Greek version of the Old Testament for “the ransom” which is accepted instead of a man’s life in Exodus 21:30, for the “price of redemption” accepted as an equivalent for an unexpired term of service in Leviticus 25:50, for riches as the “ransom of a man’s life” in Proverbs 13:8. No shade of doubt accordingly rests on the meaning of the word. Those who heard could attach no other meaning to it than that He who spake them was about to offer up His life that others might be delivered.

Seldom, perhaps, has a truth of such profound import been spoken, as it were, so incidentally. It is as if the words had been drawn from Him by the contrast between the disputes of the disciples and the work which had occupied His own thoughts as He walked on in silent solitude in advance of them. It is the first distinct utterance, we may note, of the plan and method of His work. He had spoken before of “saving” the lost (Matthew 18:11): now He declares that the work of “salvation” was to be also one of “redemption.” It could only be accomplished by the payment of a price, and that price was His own life. The language of the Epistles as to the “redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” our being “bought with a price” (Romans 3:24; 1Corinthians 6:20), “redeemed by His precious blood” (1Peter 1:19), the language of all Christendom in speaking of the Christ as our Redeemer, are the natural developments of that one pregnant word. The extent of the redemptive work, “for many,” is here indefinite rather than universal, but “the ransom for all” of 1Timothy 2:6 shows in what sense it was received by those whom the Spirit of God was guiding into all truth. Even the preposition in, “for many” has a more distinct import than is given in the English version.

Matthew 20:28 . Ὤσπερ , κ . τ . λ ., even as , etc.) The greatest example which could be adduced or imagined.— διακονῆσαι , to minister, to serve ) See Romans 15:8 .— καὶ , κ . τ . λ ., and , etc.) An ascending climax.— τὴν ψιχὴν Αὐτοῦ , His soul ) i.e. Himself ; see Galatians 1:4 ; Galatians 2:20 .— λύτρον , a ransom . ἀντὶ πολλῶν , for many ) A great ministry , and one of vast condescension. That for which a price is given, is in some sort more an object of desire to him who gives the price than the price itself. And the Redeemer spends Himself for many, not only taken as a whole, but also as individuals.

Matthew 20:28 . Ὥσπερ ] “summum exemplum,” Bengel. Comp. Php 2:5 ; Romans 15:3 ; Polyc. Phil . 5: ὃς ἐγένετο διάκονος πάντων . Observe here the consciousness, which Jesus had from the very first, that to sacrifice himself was His great divine mission. Comp. Dorner, sündlose Vollk. Jesu , p. 44 ff. διακονηθῆναι ] to be waited upon , as grandees are. καὶ δοῦναι ] intensive ; adding on the highest act , the culminating point in the διακονῆσαι ; but δοῦναι is made choice of, because the ψυχή ( the soul , as the principle of the life of the body) is conceived of as λύτρον ( a ransom ); for, through the shedding of the blood ( Matthew 26:28 ; Ephesians 1:7 ), it becomes the τιμή of the redemption, 1 Corinthians 6:20 ; 1 Corinthians 7:23 . Comp. note on John 10:11 . ἀντὶ πολλῶν ] ἀντί denotes substitution. That which is given as a ransom takes the place (is given instead ) of those who are to be set free in consideration thereof. The λύτρον (Plat. Legg. xi. p. 919 A, Rep . p. 393 D, Thuc. vi. 5. 4) is an ἀντίλυτρον ( 1 Timothy 2:6 ), ἀντάλλαγμα ( Matthew 16:26 ). Whether ἀντὶ πολλῶν should be joined to λύτρον , which is the simpler course, or connected with δοῦναι , is a matter of perfect indifference (in answer to Hofmann, Schriftbew . II. 1, p. 300) so far as the meaning of ἀντί is concerned.

In any case, that meaning is strictly and specifically defined by λύτρον ( בֹּפֶר ),[6] according to which ἈΝΤΊ can only be understood in the sense of substitution in the act of which the ransom is presented as an equivalent to secure the deliverance of those on whose behalf it is paid,—a view which is only confirmed by the fact that in other parts of the New Testament this ransom is usually spoken of as an expiatory sacrifice , Matthew 26:28 ; John 1:29 ; 1 John 4:10 ; Romans 3:25 ; Isaiah 53:10 ; 1 Peter 1:18 f., 1 Peter 3:18 . That which they are redeemed from is the eternal ἈΠΏΛΕΙΑ , in which, as having the wrath of God abiding upon them ( John 3:36 ), they would remain imprisoned ( John 3:16 ; Galatians 3:13 ; 2 Corinthians 5:21 ; 1 Peter 2:24 ; Colossians 1:14 ; Colossians 2:13 f.) as in a state of hopeless bondage ( Hebrews 2:15 ), unless the guilt of their sins were expiated. ΠΟΛΛῶΝ ] The vicarious death of Jesus may be described as having taken place for all ( Romans 5:18 ; 1 Timothy 2:6 ; 1 John 2:2 ), or for many (so also Matthew 26:28 ; Hebrews 9:28 ), according as we regard it as an objective fact (that fact being: Jesus has given His life a ransom for all men), or look at it in relation to the subjective appropriation of its results on the part of individuals (which happens only in the case of believers).