Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
RAN'SOM, the price paid to purchase the freedom of a captive or slave. Matt 20:28; Mark 10:45; 1 Cor 6:19-20; 1 Tim 2:6. Under the Levitieal law, an offering was required of every Israelite over twenty years of age at the time the census was taken. This offering is called a ransom or atonement-money. Ex 30:12-16. It amounted to half a shekel, or about twenty-five cents. It was to be made upon penalty of the plague; and every person, rich or poor, was required to give that sum, and neither more nor less. 1 Pet 1:18-19.
✦ Scripture References 6 references