Today the word aphesis seems so important. It is the word Paul and much of the New Testament uses for forgiveness. Well, maybe I should say that translators translate the word as forgiveness. It is the same Greek word that means Jubilee and the 7-year release from debt and slavery in the LXX, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which convinces me that it has to mean more than just forgiveness.

Jubilee is in Leviticus 25, and it occurs every 50th year in Israel. All the land is supposed to be returned to the family that inherited it from Joshua. The 7-year release is in Deuteronomy 15. There we learn that every 7 years and all Hebrew slaves were (supposed to be) released and all debts canceled.

Scholars all agree aphesis is primarily associated with “Jubilee language” in the LXX, but they differ on how much Paul was trying to convey Jubilee thoughts when he used it. An important example of aphesis is Ephesians 1:7:

“In him we have our release by ransom through his blood, the _aphesis_ of our trespasses, according to the riches of his favor.”

The combination of apolutrosis, release by ransom, and aphesis in the same verse establishes, in my opinion, that Paul meant much more than forgiveness in this verse. Yes, it also means forgiveness, but aphesis primarily means “release,” which is why it is used for Jubilee and the 7-year release. Land was released from other owners back to the family to which it was due at Jubilee, and debts and slavery were released (at least to Hebrews) every 7 years.

We have not just been forgiven by Jesus’ ransoming blood; we have been freed from everything that held us bound and given access again to our ancestral homeland, God’s temple garden, Eden.

One final note. Aphesis is used twice in Luke 4:18 where Jesus tells a synagogue why the Spirit of the Lord was put upon him. He was to give aphesis to the captives and brokenhearted. Obviously, Jesus was not just forgiving captives, he was releasing them, and in some way he was freeing the brokenhearted as well, not just forgiving them.

Rejoice in being forgiven, but do not limit what Paul said to forgiveness. He describes the fullness of aphesis, the fullness of what he meant by “forgiveness,” in Romans 6.

Notes for Readers of My Blog

I use jstor.org to search for scholarly articles on just about anything that interests me. They allow me to read 100 journal articles for free every month, and I rarely read more than 3 or 4. A lot of months I don’t read any.

That is where I find scholar level (journal articles reviewed by other scholars) articles, often just to check my own interpretations of Scripture. One article suggested that Paul chose aphesis over another possible Greek word for forgiveness, charizomai, because he did not want to limit what Jesus did for us. It is a bigger word, carrying the idea of release and not just forgiveness into his understanding of the atonement.

I think that is important, and I think that Romans 6 and many other descriptions of the atonement emphasize our  freedom from sin every bit as much as forgiveness. Ephesians 2:8-10 is a passage that is clear about this. We are not just forgiven, we are created in Christ Jesus to do good. Being created all over again, becoming a new creature (2 Cor. 5:15-21), is certainly a much bigger idea than mere forgiveness.