Lexicon

G0487 - antilytron

Strong's: G0487 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: an-til'-oo-tron Part of speech: noun, neuter Root: from anti (G0473, "in place of, instead of") + lytron (G3083, "ransom, price of release"). Strong's: "a redemption-price, ransom." LXX usage: none in the Septuagint. Thayer notes the word in an anonymous later Greek translation of Psalm 49 (LXX numbering 48:9), the psalm that says no man can pay a ransom for his brother (Psalm 49:7-8), and in the Orphic Lithica. NT occurrences: 1, 1 Timothy 2:6. It is a hapax legomenon, found nowhere else in the New Testament.

The 30-second version:

Antilytron means a ransom given in place of someone. Paul uses it once, in 1 Timothy 2:6, where Christ "gave Himself as a ransom for all." The word takes Jesus' own saying, that He came to give His life as a ransom for many, and packs the "in place of" into the noun itself. Christ did not just pay a price. He was the price, given in the place of those He set free.

Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG)

1. A ransom given in exchange for another, Thayer: "what is given in exchange for another as the price of his redemption, ransom." The anti- prefix makes the exchange explicit: the payment stands in the place of the person released.
2. A redemption-price, Strong's gloss; the price paid to free a captive or a forfeited life, the same field as lytron with the substitutionary element sharpened.

The word is rare in all Greek literature, so its sense is read from its parts and from its one NT setting rather than from a broad usage history. It is distinct from antallagma (G0465), "what is given in exchange", the word of Mark 8:37: antallagma names an equivalent value, antilytron a substitute ransom.

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Theological force, the ransom in place of all

The one occurrence

ho dous heauton antilytron hyper pantōn, "who gave Himself as a ransom for all" (1 Timothy 2:6)

The verse completes the confession of 1 Timothy 2:5: one God, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Three features of the wording carry the weight:

• The compound noun. Anti ("in place of") is built into the word. The ransom is not only paid for the captives' benefit; it is given in their place.
• The reflexive heauton. Christ gave Himself. The giver and the price are the same person, which no human ransom could ever be.
• The preposition hyper pantōn. Hyper ("on behalf of") names the beneficiaries, "all". The scope of "all" is debated between Reformed and Arminian readers; the substitutionary shape of antilytron is common ground between them.

The echo of Mark 10:45

Set side by side, 1 Timothy 2:6 reads as a Greek restatement of Jesus' ransom saying:

Joachim Jeremias argued that 1 Timothy 2:6 is a Hellenized form of the Mark 10:45 logion ("Das Lösegeld für viele (Mk. 10,45)", Judaica 3, 1947/48, pp. 249-264; reprinted in his Abba, 1966, pp. 216-229), and the parallel is widely noted in the commentaries. If so, the Pastoral Epistles preserve an early Christian confession grounded in Jesus' own words, with the "in place of" of lytron anti folded into a single noun.

The answer to Psalm 49

Psalm 49:7-8 states the problem: no man can redeem his brother or give to God a ransom (Hebrew kopher) for him, because the redemption of a soul is too costly. Jesus restates the problem in Mark 8:37: there is no antallagma, no exchange, a man can give for his soul. 1 Timothy 2:6 names the one man who could: the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as the antilytron. The one Mediator is the one ransom.

In the atonement debate

The lytron / antilytron sayings are standard exhibits for substitutionary readings of the atonement (see Penal Substitutionary Atonement and Atonement Theory Spread). Christus Victor and ransom-to-Satan readings take the same vocabulary as liberation from captivity; the patristic question of to whom the ransom was paid is treated under G3083 - lytron. Whatever the recipient, the word itself fixes two points: the release was costly, and the cost was borne by a substitute.

Notable verses

The literal occurrence

• 1 Timothy 2.6, "who gave Himself as a ransom (antilytron) for all"

The ransom word-group

• Mark 10.45 and Matthew 20.28, the Son of Man gives His life as lytron anti pollōn
• Titus 2.14, Christ "gave Himself for us to redeem (lytrōsētai) us from every lawless deed"
• Galatians 1.4, Christ "gave Himself for our sins", the same self-giving formula
• 1 Peter 1.18-19, redeemed (elytrōthēte) not with silver or gold but with precious blood
• Ephesians 1.7, redemption (apolytrōsis) through His blood

Old Testament background

• Psalm 49:7-8, no man can give God a ransom for his brother
• Isaiah 53.10 and Isaiah 53.12, the Servant whose life is an offering for sin and who bears the sin of many

Scholarly note

Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (1955), treats antilytron within the redemption word-group and reads the anti- compound as underlining substitution. David Hill, Greek Words and Hebrew Meanings (1967), covers the same lytron family. Jeremias's case for 1 Timothy 2:6 as a form of the Mark 10:45 saying is noted above.

Verses in this codex

See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here. Anchors: 1 Timothy 2.6 (the only occurrence), 1 Timothy 2.5 (the one-mediator confession it completes), Mark 10.45 (the saying it echoes), Psalms 49.7-8 (the problem it answers).

See also

• G3083 - lytron, lytron, the ransom-price; the root noun of this compound
• G0465 - antallagma, antallagma, what is given in exchange (Mark 8:37); a different word, often confused with this one
• G0629 - apolytrosis, apolytrōsis, redemption-deliverance
• H3724 - kopher, kopher, the OT ransom-price
• Atonement, the doctrine this word anchors
• Penal Substitutionary Atonement, the substitutionary reading of the ransom sayings
• Atonement Theory Spread, the multi-model atonement landscape