Is ἀνέῳξεν τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς Jewish Greek?

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Stirling Bartholomew
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Re: Is ἀνέῳξεν τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς Jewish Greek?

Post by Stirling Bartholomew »

Stephen Hughes wrote:Are any of those secular authours able to be taken in a sense other than literal?

That is close to what I am looking for. Plato's use isn't a metaphor suggesting cognitive changes, "becoming able to see something because of a change of perspective." My question is about the use of (ἀνοίγω; διανοίγω) ἀνέῳξεν τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς for becoming able to see something from a previous state of not being able to see something. That seems to be an Old Testament idiom.

Gen. 3:5 ᾔδει γὰρ ὁ θεὸς ὅτι ἐν ᾗ ἂν ἡμέρᾳ φάγητε ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ, διανοιχθήσονται ὑμῶν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί, καὶ ἔσεσθε ὡς θεοὶ γινώσκοντες καλὸν καὶ πονηρόν.
Luke 24:31 αὐτῶν δὲ διηνοίχθησαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ καὶ ἐπέγνωσαν αὐτόν

There are some who think that Luke is alluding to Gen 3:5. I'm not convinced.

“AND THEIR EYES WERE OPENED, AND THEY KNEW”:
AN INTER-CANONICAL NOTE ON LUKE 24:31
dane c. ortlund*
http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/ ... rtlund.pdf
C. Stirling Bartholomew
cwconrad
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Re: Is ἀνέῳξεν τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς Jewish Greek?

Post by cwconrad »

Stirling Bartholomew wrote:
Stephen Hughes wrote:Are any of those secular authours able to be taken in a sense other than literal?
That is close to what I am looking for. Plato's use isn't a metaphor suggesting cognitive changes, "becoming able to see something because of a change of perspective." My question is about the use of (ἀνοίγω; διανοίγω) ἀνέῳξεν τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς for becoming able to see something from a previous state of not being able to see something. That seems to be an Old Testament idiom.

Gen. 3:5 ᾔδει γὰρ ὁ θεὸς ὅτι ἐν ᾗ ἂν ἡμέρᾳ φάγητε ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ, διανοιχθήσονται ὑμῶν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί, καὶ ἔσεσθε ὡς θεοὶ γινώσκοντες καλὸν καὶ πονηρόν.
Luke 24:31 αὐτῶν δὲ διηνοίχθησαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ καὶ ἐπέγνωσαν αὐτόν

There are some who think that Luke is alluding to Gen 3:5. I'm not convinced.

“AND THEIR EYES WERE OPENED, AND THEY KNEW”:
AN INTER-CANONICAL NOTE ON LUKE 24:31
dane c. ortlund*
http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/ ... rtlund.pdf
Oh! Now I see the point! This "passive" form διανοιχθῆναι needs to be understood as an intransitive verb, in my opinion: it's an internal (subject-affected) process: one opens one's eyes and a whole new world swims into view (Miranda: "Oh brave new world ... !"). I think that this is different from a transitive passive sense, although it may be understood either as a middle or as a spontaneous internal process. It may very well follow upon the ingestion of some special fruit -- like that of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil or at some point at which time and eternity mesh.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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