Redemption of the Firstborn

Biblical Text and Content

The redemption of the firstborn is a provision of the Law by which the first son born in an Israelite household was set apart as belonging to God and then bought back through payment of a fixed price. To redeem is to recover something by paying a price in its place.

• Exodus 13:1-2, 11-16: Every firstborn male, whether of man or of beast, belongs to God. The firstling of a donkey is to be redeemed with a lamb, and every firstborn son must be redeemed. The same command is repeated in Exodus 34:19-20.
• Numbers 3:11-13, 40-51: God takes the Levites in place of Israel's firstborn sons. Because the firstborn outnumbered the Levites by 273, redemption money (the price paid to buy them back) was collected for that number at five shekels apiece and given to Aaron and his sons.
• Numbers 18:15-16: Once a child is a month old, he is to be redeemed for five shekels of silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

Background

Exodus 13:14-15 grounds this ordinance in the last of the ten plagues. When God struck down the firstborn of Egypt, He spared the firstborn sons of Israel; from then on, the firstborn son was regarded as belonging to God. The ordinance also served to keep the Passover and the Exodus in remembrance from generation to generation.

The Hebrew verb padah carries the sense of releasing someone by paying a ransom. In later Judaism this provision developed into the ceremony known as pidyon haben ("redemption of the son"). In this custom, once a firstborn son is thirty days old, he is redeemed by giving silver coins to a descendant of the priestly line; the practice is reported to continue to the present day.

In the New Testament and Scripture as a Whole

Luke 2:22-24 records how Mary and Joseph of Nazareth brought the infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. Here Luke, following Exodus 13, cites the words "Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord." In the same scene, Simeon and Anna recognize who the child is.

The New Testament extends the language of redemption to the work of Christ. 1 Peter 1:18-19 states that believers were redeemed not with silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ. Colossians 1:15 and Romans 8:29 call Jesus the "firstborn." Some read this title in connection with Exodus 4:22, where Israel is called God's "firstborn."

Interpretation and Issues

• Luke does not say whether Joseph and Mary paid the five shekels, and the Law does not require a visit to the Temple for the redemption. Some interpreters therefore read Luke's account as a "presentation" similar to Hannah's dedication of Samuel to the Lord, while others hold that the redemption was also carried out on that occasion.
• The offering of doves in Luke 2:24 is not the redemption price but the purification offering for a mother after childbirth prescribed in Leviticus 12:6-8. Because the two ordinances appear together in a single scene, they are often confused. The offering of doves rather than a lamb is frequently cited as evidence that Jesus' family was poor.
• Christians generally regard this ceremonial law as fulfilled in Christ and do not observe it literally. Interpreters differ on how much emphasis to place on the taking of the Levites in place of the firstborn, and on the payment of a redemption price, as a shadow prefiguring Christ's substitutionary atonement.

In the Korean Church

Churches that follow the liturgical calendar, including the Anglican Church of Korea, traditionally observe February 2, the fortieth day after Christmas, as a feast commemorating the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple. Some churches, citing Luke 2 and the account of Samuel, hold child dedication services in which infants are presented to God. Such services are found in churches that do not practice infant baptism, such as Baptist congregations.