Robertson Word Pictures - Galatians 3:13 - 3:13

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Robertson Word Pictures - Galatians 3:13 - 3:13


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Redeemed us (hēmas exēgorasen). First aorist active of the compound verb exagorazō (Polybius, Plutarch, Diodorus), to buy from, to buy back, to ransom. The simple verb agorazō (1Co 6:20; 1Co 7:23) is used in an inscription for the purchase of slaves in a will (Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 324). See also Gal 4:5; Col 4:5; Eph 5:16. Christ purchased us from the curse of the law (ek tēs kataras tou nomou). “Out from (ek repeated) under (hupo in Gal 3:10) the curse of the law.”

Having become a curse for us (genomenos huper hēmōn katara). Here the graphic picture is completed. We were under (hupo) a curse, Christ became a curse over (huper) us and so between us and the overhanging curse which fell on him instead of on us. Thus he bought us out (ek) and we are free from the curse which he took on himself. This use of huper for substitution is common in the papyri and in ancient Greek as in the N.T. (Joh 11:50; 2Co 5:14.).

That hangeth on a tree (ho kremamenos epi xulou). Quotation from Deu 21:23 with the omission of hupo theou (by God). Since Christ was not cursed by God. The allusion was to exposure of dead bodies on stakes or crosses (Jos 10:26). Xulon means wood, not usually tree, though so in Luk 23:31 and in later Greek. It was used of gallows, crosses, etc. See note on Act 5:30; note on Act 10:39; and note on 1Pe 2:24. On the present middle participle from the old verb kremannumi, to hang, see Mat 18:6; Act 5:30.