Gohling, Calvin's Jub, p. 579, ' It is a pity to see what man is ; for he is so frauglit \\-ith evill, that assoone as he hath a litle lihertie given him, by and by he raungeth out on the one side or on the other, and will not hold the right way, but gaddeth astray, ye even or ever he tliinke it.'
The subst. signifies: (1) files or rows of soldiers, 2K 11«-", 2Ch 23'* ('Have her forth of the ranges,' Heb. nn-iif) ; (2) the extent of one's rang- in>; or roaming, Job 39* ' The range of the moun- tains is his pasture ' (nsn;) ; and (3) a grate or stove with rows of openings on the top for carrying on several processes at once, Lv 11"' ranges for pots ' (::•"!■;, R V ' range,' RVm ' stewpan '). Cf. Spenser, FQ. II. ix. 29—
' It was a vaut ybuilt for great dispence. With raany raunges reard along the wall, And one great chimney, whose long tonnell tkeoce The smoke (orth threw.'
J. Hastings. RANSOM is the tr. in OT of the Heb. words
iri, from ir? ' to cover,' hence ' to propitiate,' ' to appease ' (so AV and RV in Ex 30'-', Job 33-" 36'», Ps 49', Pr &<■ 13» 21", Is 43^ ; and RV alone in Ex 21»", Nu 35"- '-, 1 S 12^ where AV renders respect- ively 'sum of money,' 'satisfaction,' and 'bribe') ; and i'i5, from nis ' to redeem ' (so AV in Ex 21™, RV ' redemption ').* The verbal form .ti3 is also occasionally rendered by ' ransom ' instead of by the more usual ' redeem ' (so AV and RV in Is 35'", Hos 13'S and RV in Ps 69'^ Is 51", Jer 31"), and the same is true in two cases (AV in Is 51'", Jer 31") of the parallel term hni.
In NT the word occurs only in Mt 20^ = Mk I0« (where it renders the Gr. Xirrpoi'), and 1 Ti 2" (where it takes the place of the rare word avTiKurpov). In both cases it is used of Christ's gift of Himself for the redemption of men. ' The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.' ' There is . . . one Mediator between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all.'
For the understanding of these NT passages the OT oilers us two possible conceptions, correspond- ing in general to tlie difl'erent Heb. equivalents of the Gr. \vTpoi>.\ On the one hand, if regarded as taking the place of some word from the stems ms or '?KJ, it may refer to the money payments re- quired under the law to secure the release of persons from slavery (e.g. Ex 21", Lv 25""" ; cf. 1 P 1 '»•'», Gal 3'^ and the passages cited under Redemption). On the other hand, if taken as the equivalent of isa (lit. ' covering,' hence ' pro- pitiatory gift ' — restricted, however, by usage to a gift offered as a satisfaction for a life ; see art. Propitiation, § 6), it may denote the ransom paid by an ott'ender either to man (Ex 21*", Nu 35S0. 32_ Pr 635) or to God ( Ex 30'-, Ps 49') in order to save the life which he has forfeited by his v/rongdoing. J
• Elsewhere only Ps 498 (av and RV ' the redemption of their •oul [life] ') ; oL D^'•;^ noj Nu S"- »l (Kethibh) [all], EV • redemp- tion-money.'
t This word stands in the LXX for derivatives of ms in Ex Sisob, i,v 1920, Nu 8«-«« " (cf. V.12) 18i»; of ^Ki in Lv 25M. 26. M. 62 27»i ; tor 153 in Ex 21*'« StP^, Nu 8531. m p, e" 188 ; and for Tn? ' price ' in Is 4518,
1 The distinction between the Heb. terms is not alwayi main- tained, (or P;; I'"15 is virtually = 1?S; see Ex 2130, Ps iV», tlM Job 83» if (as is probable) i.iynEl is an error for ;ni^.
Those exegetes who regard \vTpov as suggesting ma or '7XJ, interpret Mk 10"" after the analogy ol 1 P !"• '", and understand Jesus as teaching that His life is the ransom [nice by which He redeems His disciples from liondage (so Wendt [Teaching of Jesiis, ii. p. 226 ff.], who tliinks of deliverance from suffering and death ; Beyschlag [NT Theol. i. p. 153], who thinks of freedom from sin). This view is possible even if we take XiW-poK as the tr. of ir3 (so Briggs [Mess. Gosp. p. Ill], who cites Is 43^ ' I have given Egypt as thy ransom,' where tlie context makes it clear that the thought is ol deliverance from captivity. The irj paid by J* to Cyrus releases Israel ; cf. the parallel ' Seba instead of thee'). In this case we must regard the ransom as paid to the one who holds the prisoners captive. The older interpreters, taking the figure literally, taught that Christ's death was a ransom paid to Satan. Modern exegetes either think of the recipient as an impersonal power, such as death (Wendt), 'sin and evil' (Briggs), or ' that ultimate necessity which has made the whole course of things what it has been ' (Sanday, Romans, p. 86), or else, relying on the figurative character of the language, refuse to raise the question at all (cf. Westcott, Hebrews, p. 296).