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“What is Opened in Luke 24:45, the Mind or the Scriptures?” – JBL Article

“What is Opened in Luke 24:45, the Mind or the Scriptures?” – JBL Article

I was pleased to see an article I originally submitted in February of 2015 finally appear in the Journal of Biblical Literature, 135 no. 4 (Winter 2016): “What is Opened in Luke 24:45, the Mind or the Scriptures?” My abstract is as follows:

Until recently, virtually all known readings of Luke 24:45 took for granted a particular underlying Greek syntax that yields the translation, “Then he [Jesus] opened their mind to understand the Scriptures.” In an earlier issue of this journal, Matthew Bates proposed an alternative understanding of the Greek syntax, swapping the direct objects of the main verb and infinitive, substantially altering the meaning: “Then Jesus exposited the Scriptures so that the disciples could understand their meaning.” In this article, I will show that Bates’s reconstruction is syntactically infeasible and otherwise inadequately supported. Further, I present evidence from the broad context of Luke-Acts that supports the traditional reading. Illumination, the opening of the mind of the disciples, is a climactic moment at the end of the Third Gospel.

Look out for a version to appear on my academia.edu page. In the meantime, if you are interested in a copy and do not have access, get in touch with me (if by no other means, then via my Durham staff page).

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