BIBLICAL CONTRADICTION: WHO IS A RANSOM FOR WHOM? (PROVERBS 21:18)

This internet contradiction is based on the problem in reconciling the statement in Proverbs 21:18 (“The wicked is a ransom for the righteous and the faithless for the upright.”) with New Testament statements to the effect that Jesus was a ransom for many (Mark 10:45; I Timothy 2:5-6).

Concerning this second verity, John Stott points out that “Paul, Peter, Matthew, Luke and John – the major contributors to the New Testament – together allude to at least eight of the chapter's [referring to the Suffering Servant description in Isaiah 53] twelve verses...It was from this chapter more than any other that he [Jesus] learnt that the vocation of the Messiah was to suffer and die for human sin, and so be glorified.” For a thorough study of what the Bible has to say regarding Jesus' substitutionary death, I highly recommend Stott's classic book The Cross of Christ. Since therefore there are a number of additional NT quotes to confirm this last fact, we need to concentrate on Proverbs 21:18 instead to make sure we are rightly understanding what it says. And on this point, it turns out that there is much controversy. As C.G. Martin says, “It has caused perplexity among translators.” And Washington says, “The meaning of ransom here is obscure.”

Wakely has reviewed the opinions in the scholarly literature to come up with several proposed interpretations of this difficult verse:

    In some sense the wicked literally become a ransom for the righteous.

Wakely points to a possible parallel to this idea in Isaiah 43:3-4 “where Yahweh announces that he is giving Egypt, Ethiopia, and Arabia as ransom for Israel. By this kind of substitution, the ransom paid by the wicked secures the freedom of the righteous.” If that is true, then statements such as I Peter 3:18 express a purposeful reversal of that condition with the coming and suffering of Christ, rather than an out-and-out contradiction. Walls similarly says, “This makes the picture of the just suffering for the unjust (I Pet. 3:18) stand out starkly.”

Horton points to that same OT text in which “There is a kind of substitution; a ransom is paid to enable the righteous to escape, and the ransom is the person of the wicked.”

But not all commentators by far endorse that meaning to Proverbs 21:18. For example, Martin says “It is unlikely that the wicked and unfaithful suffer for the benefit of the righteous and upright...it might mean that the righteous escape and the wicked suffer, but the two happenings are not related, certainly not in a substitutionary way.”

And Waltke chimes in by saying, “Certainly literal 'ransom money' is not intended because the righteous has no debt to pay.”

    The wicked often get the good things of this world instead of the righteous.

Whybray points out this interpretation only to reject it, “This saying has been interpreted in two opposite ways. The word ransom implies that the wicked man is in some sense substituted for the righteous, but there is nothing to indicate whether the circumstances which the author has in mind are good or bad. If the saying means that the wicked man often gets the good things of life which ought to go to the upright man it is a despairing plea for justice for those who are wronged. This point of view is found elsewhere, especially in Job [and Ecclesiastes], but it is at variance with the usual teaching of Proverbs...”

    Of the total evil allotted to the world, God gives most of it to the wicked.

This idea, which is also echoed in Proverbs 11:8, is found in the notation in the Jerusalem Bible: “The proverb apparently assumes that there must be a certain quota of misery in this world from which, however, God shields the virtuous and to which he condemns the wicked.” Thus, in Martin's words, “it turns the proverb into a meditation on the mystery of freewill.”

This is apparently the meaning that Packer assigns to the verse when he states, “The thought is that God in providence expends the wicked to preserve the upright (cf. Isa. 43:3f.), a pattern of procedure which Christ's cross entirely reversed (cf. I Pet. 3:18).”

Washington holds to this explanation also, and it would fit somewhat with the immediate context of Proverbs 21:18 since similar sentiments are found in verses 16-17 and Waltke treats all three verses as constituting a complete sub-unit. But keep in mind that context in most of the book of Proverbs generally does not serve much as a guide since a number of miscellaneous sayings are commonly found together.

    The evil planned by the wicked against the righteous will be visited on the plotters instead.

Two popular paraphrases take this approach in their renderings:

    The Message: “What a bad person plots against the good, boomerangs; the plotter gets it in the end.”

    TEV: “The wicked bring on themselves the suffering they try to cause good people.”

Waltke explains in more detail: “The metaphor represents the righteous as in the place of the penalty (i.e. distress) because the wicked plotted it, not because the righteous deserved it. But the wicked comes in his stead into the place of distress, and the righteous go free (see 11:8)...The metaphor should not be pushed to walk on all fours by asking to whom the ransom is paid (cf. 6:35; 13:8). The proverb teaches that the merciful Righteous One (v. 12) turns the tables against the expendable wicked and pops them into the place of the righteous whom they oppress, not that sinners pay the debt of the righteous (cf. 21:12; Ps. 49:7-9,15).”

It turns out that this explanation was first offered by the Jewish commentator Rashi (AD 1040-1105), who cited the example of Haman who suffered the fate he had planned for Mordecai instead (see Esther 7:10). Other prominent commentators who hold to this interpretation include Whybray and Scott.

In any case, there is no contradiction with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross on our behalf. And in a way, we could say that His example actually bears out the literal understanding of Proverbs 21:18 in that (1) Jesus actually “became sin” and (2) His action ransomed the righteous (i.e. those who chose to accept that sacrifice). This amazing fact is clearly spelled out in II Corinthians 6:21.