# Galatians 3.13 **Book:** [Galatians](/codex/galatians/) · NASB95 ## Verse > Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree', (Galatians 3:13, NASB95) ## Immediate context (±2 verses) **NASB95** ([NASB95](/codex/nasb95/)) > 11. Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, 'The righteous man shall live by faith.' > > 12. However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, 'He who practices them shall live by them.' > > **13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,'** > > 14. In order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. > > 15. Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man's covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it. (Galatians 3:11-15, NASB95) ## Setting - **Speaker:** Paul (with co-senders, Gal 1:1-2), writing the Galatians letter c. AD 48-55 (north Galatian / south Galatian dating debated; Acts-15-pre-Council early dating per F. F. Bruce + Hemer favors AD 48-49; Acts-15-post-Council mid-dating per most others favors AD 53-55). - **Audience:** the Galatian churches, Gentile-majority congregations Paul founded, now being pressured by *Judaizers* / "agitators" (Gal 1:7, 5:12) demanding circumcision + Mosaic-law observance as conditions of full church-membership. - **Location:** Paul's location at writing uncertain (Antioch / Ephesus / Macedonia all candidates depending on dating); recipients in the province of Galatia (Asia Minor). - **Time period:** Crisis-document. Galatians is Paul's most polemical letter (Gal 1:8-9 *"let him be accursed"*); the verse sits at the **structural pivot** of Paul's atonement-soteriology argument (Gal 3:1-14): the curse-of-the-law on all who fail to keep it (vv. 10-12) is exchanged for Christ's curse-bearing-on-our-behalf (v. 13) so that the Abrahamic promise extends to Gentiles (v. 14). ## Theological reading ### 1. *Exēgorasen hēmas*, "Christ redeemed us" The verb *exēgorasen* (G1805 *exagorazō*, "to redeem / buy out / purchase out of"; aorist active) is **commercial-marketplace vocabulary**: *agora* = "marketplace"; *ex-agorazō* = "to buy out of the marketplace." Christ's atoning death is figured as a price-payment that purchases us *out* of a previous condition (the curse of the Law). The verb appears 4× in NT, all in Pauline corpus (Gal 3:13; 4:5; Eph 5:16; Col 4:5). Cf. the parallel *agorazō* (G59) in 1 Cor 6:20 *"you have been bought with a price"* + 1 Cor 7:23 + 2 Pet 2:1 + Rev 5:9. The vocabulary draws on the OT ransom / *gā'al* + *pādāh* tradition (Lev 25 Jubilee redemption; Hos 13:14; Ps 49:7-9; Isa 35:10) and the slave-marketplace social-economic framework of the Greco-Roman world. Theologically: ransom-theory of atonement (Origen, Anselm precursors); the price is Christ's curse-bearing. ### 2. *Katara hyper hēmōn*, "having become a curse for us" The phrase *genomenos hyper hēmōn katara* ("having become a curse for us") is Paul's most concentrated **substitutionary-atonement formulation alongside [2 Corinthians 5.21](/codex/2-corinthians-5-21/)** (*"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf"*). The grammatical-conceptual structure is identical: - 2 Cor 5:21: Christ *made sin for us* (*hyper hēmōn*) → we *become righteousness of God* - Gal 3:13: Christ *became curse for us* (*hyper hēmōn*) → blessing-of-Abraham comes to Gentiles (v. 14) Both verses operate the same A:B::B':A' double-substitution: Christ assumes our condition (sin / curse) so we receive His condition (righteousness / Abrahamic blessing). The substitutionary-imputation force is preserved across both readings, Christ takes the legal-judicial verdict of cursedness that should have fallen on covenant-breakers, so that the Abrahamic blessing flows out to those who could not earn it. ### 3. *Hoti gegraptai*, Deuteronomy 21:23 cited The proof-text *"Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"* is **Deut 21:22-23** (LXX rendering): *"if a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day, for he who is hanged is accursed of God."* The original Mosaic statute was about post-execution corpse-display: those publicly displayed-after-execution bore visible covenant-cursedness. Paul's hermeneutical move: Jesus's crucifixion (a Roman execution-method that involved hanging on a wooden cross) places Him under the Deut 21:23 cursedness-formula, and Paul reads this as the substitutionary curse-bearing. The interpretive payoff is significant: at first glance, Deut 21:23 is the strongest Jewish argument *against* Christological-Messiahship, the crucified-Messiah is by Mosaic-law-definition cursed. Paul **inverts the argument**: Christ being-cursed under Deut 21:23 is precisely how the substitutionary-atonement works. The proof-text the Judaizers might wield against Christ becomes the very anchor of Pauline atonement-theology. ### 4. *Hina eis ta ethnē hē eulogia tou Abraam genētai*, the Gentile-Abrahamic-blessing payoff V. 14's *hina*-clause specifies the **soteriological-historical purpose**: Christ's curse-bearing makes the *Abrahamic blessing* reach the *ethnē* (Gentiles / nations). The trajectory: Gen 12:3 (*"in you all the families of the earth will be blessed"*) → Abraham's faith reckoned as righteousness (Gen 15:6, cited Gal 3:6) → the curse-of-the-law on covenant-breakers (Gal 3:10) → Christ's curse-bearing (Gal 3:13) → Gentile inclusion in Abrahamic blessing (Gal 3:14, 28-29). The verse is therefore not just an atonement-text but a **Gentile-mission justification text**, the canonical foundation for Pauline universalism (Gal 3:28 *"there is neither Jew nor Greek"*). ### 5. Patristic + Reformation reception **Origen** *Comm. on Galatians* (fragments), curse-bearing as apostolic antinomian-apologetic; **Athanasius** *De Inc.* 9, voluntary curse-assumption as ground of *theōsis* exchange; **Chrysostom** *Hom. on Galatians* 3 (distinguishes legal-curse from natural-evil); **Augustine** *Sermon* 156 + *De Trin.* 13.16: *"Christ undertook our curse without guilt that He might dissolve our guilt and end our curse"*; **Anselm** *Cur Deus Homo* (1098), satisfaction-theory built on substitutionary curse-bearing; **Aquinas** *ST* III q.46-49 + *Comm. on Galatians* 3.13. **Luther** *Lectures on Galatians* (1535), load-bearing for the *fröhlicher Wechsel* / "happy exchange"; **Calvin** *Inst.* 2.16.5-6 + *Comm. on Galatians*: *"Christ was made a curse for us, by undergoing our curse, that He might transfer to us His blessing"*; **Heidelberg Catechism** Q. 39, explicit Reformation catechetical engagement. Modern: F. F. Bruce NIGTC (1982); Richard Longenecker WBC (1990); Douglas Moo BECNT (2013); N. T. Wright *Climax of the Covenant* (1991) ch. 7; John Stott *The Cross of Christ* (1986) ch. 6; Leon Morris *Apostolic Preaching of the Cross* (1955). ## Key words (Greek) - *exēgorasen* (G1805 *exagorazō* aorist active, "redeemed / bought out of"), commercial-marketplace vocabulary; ransom-theory of atonement vocabulary; 4× Pauline. Theologically: Christ as price-payer purchasing us *out of* the curse-of-the-law condition. - *katara* (G2671, "curse"), the legal-covenantal-cursedness vocabulary; cf. Deut 21:23 LXX rendering of *qelālat* (Hebrew "the cursed-one"). Paul deploys it as the substitutionary-condition Christ assumes. - *epikataratos* (G1944 + G1909, "accursed"), the participial form in the Deut 21:23 proof-text quotation; literally "cursed-upon"; LXX rendering of the Hebrew passive participle. - *hyper hēmōn* (G5228 + G2257, "for us / on our behalf"), substitutionary preposition + genitive; Pauline atonement-formula identical to 1 Cor 15:3 and 2 Cor 5:21. - *eulogia* (G2129, "blessing"), the Abrahamic counterpart to *katara*; v. 14 specifies the soteriological-historical end. ## Cross-references - **Deuteronomy 21:22-23**, the proof-text Paul cites; the Mosaic curse-of-the-hanged-corpse statute Christ assumes - **Genesis 12:3** + **Genesis 15:6**, the Abrahamic blessing-promise + faith-reckoned-as-righteousness; Gal 3 cites both - **2 Corinthians 5:21**, companion substitutionary-atonement formulation (made-Him-sin parallels became-curse) - **Isaiah 53:5-12**, OT Servant-Song atonement-anchor (substitutionary suffering-bearing) (see [Isaiah 53.5](/codex/isaiah-53-5/)) - **Romans 3:21-26**, Pauline *dikaiosynē theou* + *hilastērion* propitiation parallel - **Romans 8:3**, Christ "as an offering for sin" parallel - **1 Peter 2:24**, *"He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree"*, Petrine echo of Gal 3:13 + Deut 21:23 - **Acts 5:30 + 10:39 + 13:29**, Petrine + Pauline kerygma referencing Christ's hanging-on-a-tree (Deut 21:23 echoes) ## See also - [Cursed Messiah Objection Defeater](/codex/cursed-messiah-objection-defeater/), the standalone defeater for the "Jesus was cursed therefore not Messiah / not God" objection - [2 Corinthians 5.21](/codex/2-corinthians-5-21/), companion substitutionary-atonement Pauline formulation - [Isaiah 53.5](/codex/isaiah-53-5/), OT Servant-Song atonement-anchor - [1 Corinthians 15.3-4](/codex/1-corinthians-15-3-4/), pre-Pauline-creed companion (Christ-died-for-our-sins kerygma) - [Atonement Theory Spread](/codex/atonement-theory-spread/), synthesis of penal-substitution / Christus Victor / satisfaction / moral-government - Luther *Lectures on Galatians* (1535), load-bearing Reformation engagement; *fröhlicher Wechsel* doctrine ## Quoted in **Arguments and defeaters:** - [Anointing Implies Subordination Objection Defeater](/codex/anointing-implies-subordination-objection-defeater/) - [Crucifixion Denial Refutation](/codex/crucifixion-denial-refutation/) - [Cursed Messiah Objection Defeater](/codex/cursed-messiah-objection-defeater/) - [Deuteronomy 28-68 Slave Trade Prophecy Objection Defeater](/codex/deuteronomy-28-68-slave-trade-prophecy-objection-defeater/) - [Flood Genocide Objection Defeater](/codex/flood-genocide-objection-defeater/) - [Gentiles Cannot Be Saved Objection Defeater](/codex/gentiles-cannot-be-saved-objection-defeater/), via [Galatians 3.13-14](/codex/galatians-3-13-14/) - [Imprecatory Psalms Objection Defeater](/codex/imprecatory-psalms-objection-defeater/) - [Jesus Has a God Therefore Not God Objection Defeater](/codex/jesus-has-a-god-therefore-not-god-objection-defeater/) - [No One Can Die For Another Objection Defeater](/codex/no-one-can-die-for-another-objection-defeater/) - [OT vs NT God Objection Defeater](/codex/ot-vs-nt-god-objection-defeater/) **Concepts:** - [Atonement](/codex/atonement/) - [Atonement Theory Spread](/codex/atonement-theory-spread/) - [Church in Galatia](/codex/church-in-galatia/), via [Galatians 3.10-14](/codex/galatians-3-10-14/), [Galatians 3.6-14](/codex/galatians-3-6-14/) - [Crucifixion Remains of Yehohanan](/codex/crucifixion-remains-of-yehohanan/) - [Federal Headship](/codex/romans-5-12-21/) - [Incarnation](/codex/incarnation/) - [Penal Substitutionary Atonement](/codex/penal-substitutionary-atonement/) - [Redemption](/codex/g0629-apolytrosis/) - [Sabbath](/codex/sabbath/) - [Zeitgeist - Astrotheological Claims](/codex/zeitgeist-astrotheological-claims/) **People:** - [Jesus](/codex/jesus/) **Lexicon:** - [G0629 - apolytrosis](/codex/g0629-apolytrosis/) - [G2435 - hilasterion](/codex/g2435-hilasterion/) - [G5547 - christos](/codex/g5547-christos/) - [H1350 - goel](/codex/h1350-goel/) - [H2764 - cherem](/codex/h2764-cherem/) **Passages:** - [1 Peter 2.24](/codex/1-peter-2-24/) --- _Scripture quotations taken from the **New American Standard Bible®** (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by **The Lockman Foundation**. Used by permission. All rights reserved. [www.lockman.org](https://www.lockman.org)_