Luke 24:44-46

Jesus’ Final Commission

24:44 Then ¹  he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me ²  in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms ³  must be fulfilled.” 24:45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures, ⁴  24:46 and said to them, “Thus it stands written that the Christ ⁵  would suffer ⁶  and would rise from the dead on the third day,

[24:44]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[24:44]  ² sn Everything written about me. The divine plan, events, and scripture itself are seen here as being one.

[24:44]  ³ sn For a similar threefold division of the OT scriptures, see the prologue to Sirach, lines 8-10, and from Qumran, the epilogue to 4QMMT, line 10.

[24:45]  ⁴ sn Luke does not mention specific texts here, but it is likely that many of the scriptures he mentioned elsewhere in Luke-Acts would have been among those he had in mind.

[24:46]  ⁵ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[24:46]  ⁶ tn Three Greek infinitives are the key to this summary: (1) to suffer, (2) to rise, and (3) to be preached. The Christ (Messiah) would be slain, would be raised, and a message about repentance would go out into all the world as a result. All of this was recorded in the scripture. The remark shows the continuity between Jesus’ ministry, the scripture, and what disciples would be doing as they declared the Lord risen.