Closed-Minded Hermeneutics? A Proposed Alternative Translation for Luke 24:45

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.) For these words have not been fashionably arranged by me, nor embellished by human technique, but rather David sang them, Isaiah preached them, Zechariah heralded them, Moses recorded them. Do you recognize them Trypho? They are stored up in your Scriptures, or rather not in yours but in ours, for we are obedient to them, but when you read them, you do not understand in them ....1 (Justin Martyr, Dial. 29.2) Given profound hermeneutical implications of Luke 24:45 regarding relationship between NT and OT, critical scholarship has paid surprisingly little attention to this verse in its own right.2 Yet Luke 24:45 gives what must be regarded as one of most important statements in NT regarding manner in which Christian readers appropriate Jewish Scriptures: .... In modern parlance, verse has been consistently translated across major modern research languages as something akin to following: Then he to understand scriptures (NRSV), Da offnete er ihnen das Verstandnis, so das sie die Schrift (Luther [1984]), or Alors il leur ouvrit l'esprit a l'intelligence des Ecritures (Bible de Jerusalem [1961]). The hermeneutical implications that derive from this reading are simple yet far-reaching. Put quite simply, it was necessary for Jesus to open minds of his disciples in order for them properly to interpret Scriptures. Apart from Jesus' special action, mental faculties were hermeneutically deficient. Moreover, there is a corollary to need for Christian illumination. As Michael Wolter states regarding Luke 24:45: Jetzt erst und endlich wird das Unverstandnis der Junger aufgehoben. . . . Indirekt wird damit nicht nur gesagt, dass das bisherige Unverstandnis der Junger auf einer Unkenntnis der heiligen Schriften Israels beruhte, sondern auch, dass die Abweisung der Christusverkundigung von Seiten der weitaus uberwiegenden Mehrheit des Judentums ihren Grund einzig und allein darin hat, dass sie ihre eigenen Schriften nicht richtig verstanden hat.3 Thus, granted traditional rendering, not only did disciples need to have their opened by Lukan Jesus, but corollary to this proposition is that Jews who have rejected Jesus are not able properly to understand own Scriptures unless Christ should happen likewise to open minds. In this way, seemingly, anyone who has not experienced mental reconditioning by Christ can not properly interpret-and this includes would-be disciples, Jews who have rejected Jesus, and all other non-Christians of whatever variety. A harmonizing explanatory appeal to Paul is not infrequently invoked by Lukan expositors at this juncture. Just as it is true for Paul that only in Christ is the veil taken away (2 Cor 3:16) so that Jewish Scriptures can be read adequately, so also for Luke.4 This principle of the need for mind to be opened in order properly to read OT extends beyond NT studies proper, impacting relevant subfields such as systematic theology and biblical hermeneutics.5 But is this principle on firm translational ground insofar as it depends on Lukan evidence? In this article I would like to suggest that an alternative translation of Luke 24:45 merits serious consideration: Then Jesus exposited Scriptures so that disciples could understand meaning [...]-that is, under proposed alternative rendering, in question is not a property of disciples, but rather of Scriptures. In light of my admittedly nonexhaustive scouring of secondary literature, I have not been able to find anyone who has suggested this translation in modern era.6 After presenting basic syntactical features of Luke 24:45, I will present an overview of early reception history of this verse in hope that such an exploration might throw further light on possibility of an alternative translation. …