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“And Their Eyes Were Opened, and They Knew”: Genesis 3:7 and Luke 24:31


In the latest issue of JETS (December 2010) Dane Ortlund has an article entitlted “‘And Their Eyes Were Opened, and They Knew’: An Inter-canonical Note on Luke 24:31” (pp. 717-728).

Here’s an overview:

The purpose of this article is to suggest that Luke 24:31 alludes to Genesis 3:7 in the shared statement “and their eyes were opened, and they knew.” When Adam and Eve were offered food by the serpent and ate, their eyes were opened and they knew good and evil. When the two disciples on the Emmaus road were offered food by the risen Jesus and ate, their eyes too were opened and they knew who their traveling companion was, that he had been raised, and that he was the focal point of all the Scriptures.

This essay proceeds in three basic steps. We first note the scarcity in the relevant literature of those who raise the possibility of this intercanonical connection. Second, we identify three scholars who do link Luke 24:31 back to Genesis 3, though each only briefly. Third, we provide four factors that cumulatively suggest an allusion to Gen 3:7 in Luke 24:31.

Ortlund’s arguments are categorized as (1) linguistic; (2) narratival; (3) interpretive; and (4) redemptive-historical. I found the section on narratival parallels especially interesting, as he identifies common features of both narratives:

  1. two human beings are involved/addressed (Gen 3:6; Luke 24:13)
  2. the human pair is offered food (Gen 3:1–5; Luke 24:30)
  3. the one offering the food is a supernatural being (note Rev 12:9 and 20:2 in light of Gen 3:1–15; Luke 24:52)
  4. the food is offered in an unexpected way: in Genesis 3 it was not the serpent’s prerogative to play the “host” by subversively mediating the fruit to Adam and Eve, and in Luke 24:30 Jesus assumes the role of “host” despite clearly being, up till that point, the guest (note v. 29)
  5. the food is accepted (Gen 3:6; Luke 24:30b–31a)
  6. the human pair does not recognize the one offering food for who they really are (Gen 3:1–7; Luke 24:16)
  7. the eating of the food results in a profound new perception of spiritual reality (Gen 3:7–10; Luke 24:32)
  8. this new understanding is described with the phrase “and their eyes were opened, and they knew” (Gen 3:7; Luke 24:31; see above)
  9. the human pair now understands retrospectively something God had already told them: Adam and Eve now truly understand what God meant when he said that they would know good and evil, and Cleopas and his companion now truly understand what Jesus meant when he had opened the Scriptures to them on the road (Gen 3:7b; Luke 24:32)
  10. the human pair is physically separated from God in the immediate wake of taking the offered food: in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve try to hide from God (v. 8); in Luke 24, Jesus promptly “vanished from their sight” (v. 32)
  11. God comes and is present among his people in the wake of the eye-opening, frightens them, and asks a series of questions (Gen 3:9–13; Luke 24:36–41)
  12. the human pair immediately physically relocates, Adam and Eve leaving the place of God’s special residence (Eden), Cleopas and companion returning to the place of God’s special residence (Jerusalem ) (Gen 3:23; Luke 24:33)
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