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Luke 4:17 ἀναπτύξας ... εὗρεν τὸν τόπον οὗ ἦν γεγραμμένον

Posted: October 16th, 2022, 6:46 am
by Jonathan Robie
Luke 4:17 wrote:καὶ ἐπεδόθη αὐτῷ βιβλίον τοῦ προφήτου Ἠσαΐου καὶ ἀναπτύξας τὸ βιβλίον εὗρεν τὸν τόπον οὗ ἦν γεγραμμένον,
I'm not sure whether this implies that Jesus did what was expected, reading the passage of the day, or whether it implies that he scrolled to a different part of Isaiah and read a passage of his own choosing.

As I understand it, the normal custom was to read sequentially through the scroll, and the scroll would be left in its current position between readings when it was put back in its case. I would also expect the scroll to have been laid out ahead of time. But I am not at all sure that I am visualizing this correctly.

So does ἀναπτύσσω mean "unroll" here? If so, does it imply that Jesus unrolled the scroll beyond its current position to the one he chose to read? In this reading, εὗρεν τὸν τόπον would imply that he had to actually look for a particular passage, he didn't just read the passage already laid out for him to read.

Am I overinterpreting this? Have others suggested this? ἀναπτύσσω can also mean "open" as in "open the gates". If you were invited to read in a synagogue at the time, would you open the scroll, or would it already be opened for you?

Re: Luke 4:17 ἀναπτύξας ... εὗρεν τὸν τόπον οὗ ἦν γεγραμμένον

Posted: October 16th, 2022, 6:54 am
by Jonathan Robie
Update: The answer may be in verse 20:
καὶ πτύξαςτὸ βιβλίον ἀποδοὺς τῷ ὑπηρέτῃ ἐκάθισεν· καὶ πάντων οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ ἦσαν ἀτενίζοντες αὐτῷ.
So in verse 17. before reading, we have the phrase καὶ ἀναπτύξας τὸ βιβλίον, and after he is done reading, we have πτύξας τὸ βιβλίον. It does not seem to imply what I was wondering about in the OP. But what exactly is he doing with the scroll? Did they read through it sequentially, leaving it unrolled to the current position, or did the reader actually have to find a particular passage? If so, how did they do that with a scroll that did not have verse numbers?

Or perhaps they would hand this to the reader, who took it out of the case and read from the current position? Could ἀναπτύξας and πτύξας refer to taking it out of a case and putting it back into a case? I am having difficulty visualizing this with any confidence.

Re: Luke 4:17 ἀναπτύξας ... εὗρεν τὸν τόπον οὗ ἦν γεγραμμένον

Posted: October 19th, 2022, 4:06 am
by Stephen Carlson
I think it means he just opened the roll to read it, which went from this OO to this O_O and the passage it was at was the Isaiah passage. Scrolls don't have to kept rolled to the beginning.

Re: Luke 4:17 ἀναπτύξας ... εὗρεν τὸν τόπον οὗ ἦν γεγραμμένον

Posted: October 21st, 2022, 10:26 am
by Jonathan Robie
Stephen Carlson wrote: October 19th, 2022, 4:06 am I think it means he just opened the roll to read it, which went from this OO to this O_O and the passage it was at was the Isaiah passage. Scrolls don't have to kept rolled to the beginning.
I was at the Museum of the Bible on Wednesday, and they had a synagogue with a scroll laid out to be read and a living history interpeter to speak with. That helped me see this more concretely. I think you're right here.