One of the earliest systematic atonement theories: Christ’s death is a ransom paid to the Devil (or to Death/Hades) to free humanity from bondage. Humanity, having fallen into sin, is held captive by the Devil who has a legitimate claim on sinners. God, in Christ, offers the sinless Son as a ransom — but the Devil is deceived, because he cannot hold the sinless one. Origen (~184–253 AD) develops this most fully, though echoes appear in Irenaeus and the broader patristic tradition. Gregory of Nyssa uses the famous ‘mouse-trap’ analogy: the Deity was hidden beneath the humanity of Christ like bait on a hook — the Devil swallowed the bait (the humanity) and was caught on the hook (the Divinity). Anselm critiques this theory sharply in Cur Deus Homo (1098): it gives the Devil too much ontological status and makes God subordinate to a bargain with evil. The Ransom theory largely disappears from mainstream theology after Anselm, though it feeds into the Christus Victor framework.