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Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, Luke 24:45
Opened Their Minds – Luke expresses the thought in a truly Greek way. “Opened their minds” is the Greek phrase dienoizen auton ton noun. Literally, it is “he opened up the mind of them.” That’s interesting, isn’t it? The pronoun (auton) is plural but the noun (ton noun) is singular. Even in this Greek construction, we see a Hebrew perspective. The verse does not say that Jesus opened each one of their individual minds. It says that He opened up the collective understanding. The truth was revealed to them as a unit, not as individuals in the unit. When we translate this verse, we move the meaning to a Greek worldview. So we convert the group consciousness to individual apprehension. What Jesus says is revealed in community, not in individuals. That’s important, especially in a culture where individualism reigns supreme even in religious experience.
The Greek verb is dianoigo. It implies opening up what was closed. It is used to describe the experience of a firstborn child – to open the womb for the first time. In the LXX, it translates the Hebrew word paqah. This verb is often used to describe the experience of seeing something that was hidden. When Jesus causes His disciples to “get it,” they suddenly discover what was there all the time. It was just hidden from their understanding.
The implication is actually rather staggering. This event occurs after the disciples are fully aware of the resurrection. These men had studied the Hebrew Bible all their lives. They learned to read from its texts. They heard it read aloud every Sabbath. They probably were more acquainted with Scripture than any ordinary Christian today. But they still didn’t see the bigger picture. They were eye witnesses to the greatest manifestation of God in history and they didn’t understand what it meant. Jesus had to open up their minds.
What this means is that Scripture is not apprehended by intellectual prowess alone. Scholars do not command exclusive rights to spiritual wisdom. Why? Because the truth of God’s Word lies hidden until the Spirit opens a passageway into a person. It’s perhaps ironic that the oldest form of the Hebrew language is pictographic. Like Egyptian hieroglyphics, early Hebrew used symbols to represent letters. The consonants DRB make up the word dabar (which means “word”). The pictograph carries the meaning “a door into a person.” God’s Word is an opening into me, but it will never be what it is supposed to be until God opens the door. This is not the picture of Jesus knocking. This is a picture of the active word, pushing aside the door to enter into me. What this means is straightforward. You will never understand what the Bible is saying unless God opens the pathway into your consciousness.
You can’t get it by reading, studying and memorizing. Without the Spirit’s intervention, the door stays closed. Maybe reading your Bible needs to start with something besides opening the book.
Topical Index: understanding, Luke 24:45, dianoigo, paqah
