{A ransom for many} (lutron anti poll(936e)). The Son of man
is the outstanding illustration of this principle of
self-abnegation in direct contrast to the self-seeking of James
and John. The word translated "ransom" is the one commonly
employed in the papyri as the price paid for a slave who is then
set free by the one who bought him, the purchase money for
manumitting slaves. See examples in Moulton and Milligan's
_Vocabulary_ and Deissmann's _Light from the Ancient East_, pp.
328f. There is the notion of exchange also in the use of anti.
Jesus gave his own life as the price of freedom for the slaves of
sin. There are those who refuse to admit that Jesus held this
notion of a substitutionary death because the word in the N.T.
occurs only here and the corresponding passage in  Mr 10:45 . But
that is an easy way to get rid of passages that contradict one's
theological opinions. Jesus here rises to the full consciousness
of the significance of his death for men.