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Translation of τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν in Romans 8:23

By Kevin Montgomery

What does the phrase“τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν” (ten apolutrosin tou somatos hemon), mean? Even more precisely, what does the word “ἀπολύτρωσιν (apolutrosin)” mean? Both of these issues must be established to understand the meaning of Romans 8:23. There exists a certain possibility for ambiguity in the passage. Hence, the New World Translation (NWT) translates this passage “release FROM our bodies by ransom” while many other translations, such as the New American Standard (NASB) translate this phrase “redemption OF our bodies.” The discussion of the differences during the whole of this essay will be on a linguistic/grammatical basis rather than a theological one. This essay will be arguing by comparing word use and grammatical structure of the phrase in question with other closely related texts. While an essay concerning theological reasoning for one translation or the other might be helpful, this falls beyond the scope of this particular study.

I.Preliminary Information:

A.Original Text of Romans 8:23:

Nestle-Aland 27th Edition:

οὐ μόνον δέ, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτοὶ τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τοῦ πνεύματος ἔχοντες, ἡμεῖς καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐν ἑαυτοῖς στενάζομεν υἱοθεσίαν ἀπεκδεχόμενοι, τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν.

B.Translations of the Text:

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update

"And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. "

The vast majority of other English translations also have “the redemption of our body” or “the redemption of our bodies,” including the following (New International Version, American Standard Version, King James Version, New Revised Standard, Young’s Literal Translation, and the International Standard Version)

New Living Translation:

"And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us."

New Century Version:

"Not only the world, but we also have been waiting with pain inside us. We have the Spirit as the first part of God’s promise. So we are waiting for God to finish making us his own children, which means our bodies will be made free."

Today’s English Version:

"But it is not just creation alone which groans; we who have the Spirit as the first of God’s gifts also groan within ourselves, as we wait for God to make us his children and set our whole being free."

New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures: 1981 Edition

“Not only that, but we ourselves also who have the firstfruits, namely, the spirit, yes, we ourselves groan within ourselves, while we are earnestly waiting for adoption as sons, the release from our bodies by ransom.”

C.Manuscript Evidence:

Although there are minor variations in the preceding phrases (regarding including/excluding the word “υἱοθεσίαν”) in the verse, the phrase τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν has no optional readings or manuscript problems. I have personally checked other Greek texts—textus receptus, et al.—and all have the exact phrase. I have also looked at Meztger’s Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament on the verse. It too indicates no question as to the authenticity and accuracy of this particular text. Thus, without further adieu, we can proceed with confidence that the difference of translation is not due to differing manuscripts.

II.Ambiguity of the Word Apolutrosis:

As will be shown below, the meaning of the word itself is somewhat broad because of the nature of the concept it is conveying. This openness leaves room for several different translations.

A.Lexical Definitions:

Most lexicons give the following basic meanings: [1-3 below taken from BAG mentioned above which reflects others; see also Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) entry]

1.Buying back a slave or a captive, making him free by payment of a ransom

2.Literally a release offered in turn from apostasy

3.Figuratively a release from sin and finiteness that comes through Christ

a.redemption, acquittal, or state of being redeemed.

b.Abstract of the concrete Redeemer (cf. 1 Cor. 1:30)

4.The actual redemption payment (TDNT section 3d under root word λύω)

Notice that apolutrosis includes the concept of release/separation as well as buying back/reunification. The very nature of the word almost includes opposite meanings—depending upon one’s vantage point. This is part of the ambiguity that leads to differing translations of Romans 8:23.

B.Word Use:

1.This word is used very little outside of the NT (cf. Baurn, Arndt, and Gingrich Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature)

2.It is used only once in the Septuagint (LXX) – an optional reading from Daniel 4:34

3.The word is never used by Apostolic Fathers (but found in later Christian writers-but I did not do an exhaustive study of the later authors-only Apostolic Fathers)

4.It is usedin the New Testament in the following locations: The italicized is the NASB and the regular script is the NWT

a.Luke 21:28

"“But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

“But as these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift YOUR heads up because YOURdeliverance is getting near”

b.Romans 3:24

"being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; "

“and it is a free gift that they are being declared righteous by his undeserved kindness through therelease by the ransom [paid] by Christ Jesus.”

c.1 Corinthians 1:30

"But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption”

“but it is due to him that YOU are in union with Christ Jesus, who has become to us wisdom from God, also righteousness and sanctification and release by ransom”

d.Ephesians 1:7

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace "

“By means of him we have the release by ransom through the blood of that one, yes, the forgiveness of [our] trespasses, according to the riches of his undeserved kindness”

e.Ephesians 1:14

"who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. "

“which is a token in advance of our inheritance, for the purpose of releasing by a ransom[God’s]own possession, to his glorious praise.”

f.Ephesians 4:30

"Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. "

“Also, do not be grieving God’s holy spirit, with which YOU have been sealed for a day of releasing by ransom”

g.Colossians 1:14

"in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. "

“by means of whom we have our release by ransom, the forgiveness of our sins.”

h.Hebrews 9:15

"For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. "

“So that is why he is a mediator of a new covenant in order that, because a death has occurred for [their] release by ransom from the transgressions under the former covenant, the ones who havebeen called might receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance.”

i.Hebrews 11:35

"Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; "

“Women received their dead by resurrection; but other [men]were tortured because they would not accept release by some ransom, in order that they might attain a better resurrection.”

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C.A Word about the Use of Compound Words

1.The word apolutrosis is what is referred to as a compound word, that is, a word made up of a base and a prefix and/or suffix. Such words are not, however, simply the prefix and the stem meanings crammed together. Often an entirely new word is created. Thus the word apolutrosis is not necessarily the meaning apo-away/from and lutrosis forcing a meaning of separation. Three reasons this is not necessarily the case: 1) numerous examples of compound words that are not made up of their individual parts could be shown. One example will suffice, I hope. The word gnosko means “I know.” When the prefix ana(meaning up/above/again) is added to gnosko the meaning becomes “I read” rather than I know up/above/again. 2) The word lutosis is used without the need for apo to show a separation. The very meaning of lutrosis has separation involved (as mentioned previously any discussion of release/redemption by very nature involves some kind of separation).[1] 3) One writer even notes specifically on apolutrosis that “The prominence of ἀπολρωσις[apolutrosis]in the New Testament is due to the Hellenistic liking for compounds, cf. ἀντίλυτρον and λύτρον, ἀπλκαταλλάσσειν and καταλλάσσειν, etc.”[2] Thus, most likely the use of this compound has nothing to do with the individual parts, instead a simple tendency of writers/speakers during the time period.

2.Even in cases where a compound word has a meaning derived from its prefix and base, many times an independent preposition will be used as clarification. For example, if one says, “I enter into the house” in Greek, it would be written eiserchomai eis ton oikon. The word eiserchomai is a compound word (eis and erchomai) made up of the prefix meaning “into” and the base meaning “go.” Yet, the Greeks were still compelled to put another eis in the text as an independent pronoun to clarify the concept of entering into. The tendency to use pronouns becomes more common as one moves from Classical Greek to Koiné (in which the New Testament was written) and even further as one moves into Modern Greek.

D.Related Words

If time permits, one could study out the following for a more complete comparison. We will touch on some of these in the grammatical section below. (I did more study on each of these terms that I am not including in this research simply because it did not directly addto the discussion).

1.Apoluoἀπολύω

2.Apolusis ἀπόλυσις

3.Lutrosisλύτρωσις

4Lutrooλυτρόω

5.Lutronλύτρον

6.antilutronἀντίλυτρον

In conclusion, the ambiguity lies primarily in what the author intended to convey. The very concept of redemption/release involves separation of thing/person “A” fromthing/person “B,” on one hand. While on the other, it conveys reunification of thing/person “A” to yet a third thing/person “C” by means of payment to thing/person “B.” Thus, depending where the author is standing, he might have different aspects of the word in mind. He may be wishing to communicate how A was separated from “B” (“A” ransomed FROM “B”). Or he may be wishing to communicate how A was reunited with “C” (ransoming OF “A” to “C”). Now that everyone concerned is thoroughly confused, let’s move forward.

III.Ambiguity of the Genitive Case:

The meaning of the individual word is only as valuable as the context. Thus, we will have a discussion on how the phrase including apolutrosis is used in the text under question as well as in related texts.

A. Objective Genitive or Ablative:

The basic differences between translating the phrase “redemption OF our bodies” or “release FROM our bodies by ransom” in Romans 8:23 is primarily dependent upon whether or not the word that follows “redemption/ransom” should have the meaning “FROM” or “OF.” This is the critical issue between the two translations (NASB et al. and NWT). Before moving onward, bear in mind that in Romans 8:23 there are NO prepositions in the text. In the original there is no independent word which means “of” or “from” which would end the debate.

The Greek language has different cases to express different meanings/uses of nouns. If you are familiar with German, for example, you know that it too uses such a grammatical system. One case (nominative) tells what noun is the subject. Another case (Accusative) indicates what noun is acting as the direct object. Each of the cases (5 in all) is marked by different endings on the word itself.

In our study, the genitive case is under question. Unfortunately for us, the genitive has several functions, and thus can cause confusion. The basic translation of the genitive is the English word “of.” This, however, is not the only way the case is translated. Another possibility is translating the genitive as an “ablative-genitive.” This means that it shows some kind of separation (one thing from another). The crux of the controversy over Romans 8:23 lies in whether Paul intended the objective genitive case – leading to the translation “redemption OF our body”—or if he intended an ablative-genitive case—leading to the translation “redemption/release by ransom FROM our bodies.” Objective genitives are the object of the action. For example I can say, “We enjoy the love of Christ,” meaning we enjoy Christ’s love FOR/OF us (cf. Mk. 11:22 and Acts 2:42). We are the object of Christ’s love. Ablative, on the other hand, describes separation from something (cf. Mt. 10:14; Eph. 2:12). From my understanding at this point BOTH translations (as much as neither side wishes to admit) are technically possible. Our job is to find the most probable from a grammatical-linguistic basis.

1.Ambiguityof Case in Related Words

I will just include one example to demonstrate a typical pattern of ambiguity for brevity’s sake.

Apoluoἀπολύω

The verb form from the same base as apolutrosis is apoluo (ἀπολύω) and might be helpful in our understanding of the noun form found in Romans 8:23. Because this word is so common I limited my research to the NT and Septuagint (henceforth LXX)—time simply didnot permit me to do a more exhaustive study.

The natural way of expressing deliverance of someone from something with a verb is typical here with apoluo. For example, I free someone [accusative case (acc.)] from something [ablative (abl)]. This is the usual way all Greek verbs work. The direct object is typically in the accusative case and the thing from which it is separatedis also typically ablative. Typically, but not always, a preposition is used to show motion from (apo or ek) in LXX to clarify the ablative meaning. This might help us as an indicator that it was unclear even in that time period without the preposition (the very problem we’re facing ourselves!).

a.Use in the Septuagint (LXX)

The LXX uses apoluo with and without prepositions as we shall see below.

Without Preposition:

2 Macc. 4:47 “discharged Menelaus FROM charges” Menelaus is accusative, while“charges” is simply in the ablative case. (cf. 3 Macc. 7:7 “have released the manner of all types of charges” Manner/way is acc. Types of charges is gen/abl)

2 Macc.6:22 That he might be released from death (NO prep.) see also 6:30

2 Macc. 12:45 “περὶτῶντεθνηκότωντὸνἐξιλασμὸνἐποιήσατοτῆςἁμαρτίαςἀπολυθῆναι”On behalf of the dead he made atonement to release (them) from sin/make redemption of sins (This is exactly the same ambiguity we will see when considering Hebrews 9:15)

WITH Preposition:

1 Macc. 10:29 I release you (acc.) from all types of taxes –again apo to show from present

2 Macc. 7:9 you take us/deliver us out (ek) of this present life

Tobit 3:13 release me from (apo)/free me from (apo) the earth

Tobit 3:17 Raphael was sent to scale away the whiteness from (apo) the eyes of Tobit

Siriach 27:19 As you free a bird (acc.) from you hand (uses prepositionek)

Tobit 3:6 “release/take me away FROM the face of the earth” from has preposition apo

Later in the verse says “command that I be delivered from the distress” (Acc./infinitive Construction again using apo to show separation.)

b.New Testament:(I am not included the examples where this word was used without being followed by some kind of gen/abl. Thus, only twice is the verb found in the NT followed by a Gen/Abl.

Lk 13:12 Jesus said to her “woman be released from/free of your illness” from your illness is simply in gen/abl.case without any preposition. Again question remains of whether it is ablative or objective-both are equally possible. In verse 18 He says that the woman was released from the bonds and uses the verb luo and the preposition apo—while not being conclusive, this might point to an ablative sense in verse 12.

Acts 15:33 they were sent away/released from the brethren (uses apo)

2.Possible Ambiguityof apolutrosis seen in New Testament

There are two texts from the New Testament that shed a certain amount of light on the study of the phrase in Romans 8:23. Besides Romans 8:23 there are two texts in which a word follows apolutrosis and is in the genitive or ablative case, Hebrews 9:15 and Ephesians 1:14. Again, neither text contains prepositions, just as the Romans passage did not have any prepositions.

a.Hebrews 9:15

"Καὶδιὰτοῦτοδιαθήκηςκαινῆςμεσίτηςἐστίν, ὅπωςθανάτουγενομένουεἰςἀπολύτρωσιντῶνἐπὶτῇπρώτῃδιαθήκῃπαραβάσεωντὴνἐπαγγελίανλάβωσινοἱκεκλημένοιτῆςαἰωνίουκληρονομίας."

"For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. " NASB

“So that is why he is a mediator of a new covenant in order that, because a death has occurred for [their] release by ransom from the transgressions under the former covenant, the ones who have been called might receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance.” NWT

The underlined section, of course, is the corresponding translations of the underlined Greek phrase (which is the topic of discussion below).

As you read the two translations, again one will notice immediately we have the question of redemption/release from or of the transgressions. It is precisely the same ambiguity as found in the Romans passage. Therefore, this passage will be of less help than the Ephesians passage. If it is read as an ablative, we would see “redemption/release FROM the transgressions.” The sense of releasing transgressions from us on account of the death of Christ has certain merit.[3] This possibility, however, is only one of a couple of possibilities. One could also translate the passage as “with a death having taken place for ransom moneyof/for the sins having taken place under the first covenant.” This would make the genitive following apolutrosisan objective genitive. We must look at a couple of texts to show first that apolutrosis can mean “ransom money” rather than simply the act of redeeming/ransoming.[4] Secondly, it will be shown that when someone uses ransom money to pay for sins, the thing paid for is in the genitive case acting as the object, hence an objective genitive.