The term kinsman-redeemer is a combination of two words.
- The word kinsman has the same root as what we call next of kin today. It’s seen especially in documents involving inheritance, like in bank details. It requires information about your closest living blood relative or beneficiary of an investment.
- A redeemer is someone who buys back or regains the possession of a property or even a person that was sold to another. Normally, the redeemer pays the price or gives other property worth the value of what is being recovered.
A kinsman-redeemer is the result of putting those two words together and means the closest blood relative who willingly regains the possession of something or someone by paying their redemption price. This was practiced in the Israelite culture, God gave them directions on how to conduct it in the Levitical laws.
Kinsman-redeemer in the Bible
The Bible does not sanction slavery or even the acquisition of someone’s land forever. But there were some situations when someone became poor and sold their property to someone else. In such cases, provision was made for them to be redeemed (Leviticus 25:23).
During the year of Jubilee, which came after every fifty years, all slaves and pieces of land that had been sold were to be released back to the original owner. The command was given, “you shall return every man unto his possession…and unto his family” (Leviticus 25:9,25-28 NKJV).
But one didn’t have to wait for the year of the Jubilee to be released. It was possible to be released even before the Jubilee if “one of his brothers …. near of kin unto him” could redeem him by paying “the price of redemption” (Leviticus 25:48-49,51, NKJV).
But the duty of the kinsman was not only limited to the preservation of his relatives and their property. They were also required to ensure they got descendants in the case of death.
If someone died without having children, his brother was expected to marry the wife in order to preserve the name of the one who died through the first child born by the wife. (Deuteronomy 25:5,6).
These provisions were meant to reduce suffering and to keep poverty and slavery in check. Also, it gave hope to the widows, the poor, and orphans, secured their inheritance, and protected their interests.
Here is an example of how these principles were applied in Bible times.