Galatians 3:13

13. Redeemed The Greek word signifies to buy off; to redeem, as from slavery. Here we are said to be redeemed out from ( εκ ) the curse of the law. Us Some commentators (including Alford) limit this us to the Jews, inasmuch as the law here quoted is Mosaic law. But the Mosaic law was the moral universal law brought out with particular manifestation. The decalogue was the absolute universal law itself, and all the Mosaic enactments were either special points of the decalogue, or special provisions for giving the decalogue efficiency. Hence the curse is of the universal law, and the us is all mankind.

A curse The object cursed, as being an embodiment of the condemnation, is energetically called the curse itself. See note, 2 Corinthians 5:21. Very probably, as Prof. Lightfoot remarks, the fewness of adjectives in the Hebrew produces this using the noun for the adjective.

Written Deuteronomy 21:23. Moses there enacted that when a malefactor was first executed and his body afterwards hung on a tree, he should be taken down and buried before night, “for he that is hanged is accursed of God.” Prof. Lightfoot gives upon this expression a very interesting but extended note. The word “accursed,” being susceptible of an active force, is by most Jewish authorities rendered maledictory, or insulting to God. Paul’s rendering is derived from the Septuagint, and accords with Judges 9:57. Lightfoot conjectures that the other rendering obtained currency in later times, when the Jewish patriots were often impaled by the Syrians or crucified by the Romans, and kept exposed until they putrefied and disintegrated on the cross. The literalism of the Jews would require, by the Septuagint translation, that all these were cursed; and the other rendering was adopted to avert such appalling consequences. Still later, this last rendering served against Christians, as it enabled the Jews to hold that the crucified Jesus was an insult to God. Nevertheless, notwithstanding Lightfoot’s putting of this last point, Paul’s translation would seem as suitable to the reproachful purpose of the Jews as the other.