“Hung on a tree is under God's curse”
Deuteronomy 21:23
Legal referenceSettledMoses
You must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. (Deuteronomy 21:23 BSB)
* A body displayed on a tree signaled a curse; Paul quotes this verse to explain the cross: 'Christ redeemed us... by becoming a curse for us' (Galatians 3:13).
What it sounds like today
A hygiene rule about not leaving a corpse hanging too long.
The cultural key
After execution, a criminal's body might be hung on a tree or post as a public sign of disgrace, but it had to be taken down and buried the same day so as not to defile the land, for such exposure marked the person as under God's curse. (This is why Jesus was buried in haste before sunset.) Paul seizes on the verse to interpret the crucifixion: by dying on a 'tree,' Christ took the curse of the law onto himself, redeeming those under it.
Recovered meaning
The law that a hanged body signals a curse becomes, for Paul, the key to the cross: Jesus bore the curse in the place of others. What marked ultimate disgrace is reread as the means of redemption.
Parallels: Galatians 3:13; John 19:31