The Year of the Lord's Favor (ESV)
Or
There Exists an Approved Self From,
and Which Is, [the] Lord (JMNT)
By Jonathan Mitchell

In this essay, we will consider two different readings of the same Greek phrase, in Lu. 4:19, based upon whether what the critical Greek text presents as one word, in this phrase, should be divided into two words. The two potential readings are those given in the title of this paper, above.

The pivotal word, or words, is/are "eniauton" or,"eni auton". This identical Greek phrase, which Jesus read, is found in Isa. 61:2a, in the LXX. As an aside, this should settle the question of whether or not Jesus knew Koine Greek. The Concordant Greek Text (Concordant Publishing Concern, 1975) offers us "A Greek text restored from uncial manuscripts (Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus)," in uncial font (which was all upper case Greek letters), where the phrase in question has no spaces between the words. Later MSS, minuscules (written with lower case letters), normally put spaces between words, and this would have been based upon how those who copied the uncial texts were reading the parent text. If we transliterate from the uncial text, the phrase in question, with its immediate context, it would be: keruxaieniautonkupioudekton.

So, should we read, eniauton, or, eni auton? The former means, "a time; a season; a year; an age; an era.," R.J. Miller renders the phrase, "the year of the Lord's amnesty" - more or less a sabbatical year, or the year of Jubilee. This reading fits well, with the work of Christ. I offer this idea in my first rendering, below. So let us read the context that leads up to vs. 19, and the two verses that follow…

17. So a scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Then, upon opening up the scroll, He found the place where it was written,

18."[The] LORD's [= Yahweh's] Breath-effect (or: [The] Spirit of [the] LORD; or: a spirit from [Yahweh]; or: a spirit and attitude which is [the] LORD) [is] upon Me, on account of, and as regards, which (or: centered in and from out of which) He anointed Me to bring and proclaim Good News (a message of goodness, ease and wellness) to destitute folks - and so He has sent Me off as an emissary (a missionary; a commissioned representative) to cure and heal folks with [their] heart having been crushed; to publicly proclaim, as a herald, to (for; among) captives, a release and liberation (a letting go away); and to (for; among) blind folks, a seeing again (a recovery of sight); to send off, as emissaries and representatives with a mission, the downtrodden folks - even those having been shattered by oppression - within the midst of a state of release, and in union with the sphere of liberation;

19."to publicly and loudly proclaim [the] LORD's [= Yahweh's] year (or: era; season) which is characterized by being welcomed, favorably received, and acceptable (or: an approved era from [Yahweh]; or, reading "eniautonkurioudekton": there exists an approved self from, and which is, [the] Lord)!" [Isa. 61:1-2a; 58:6; cf Ps. 49:7-8, 15; Mat. 16:24-26; Mk. 8:34-37]

20. Then, upon rolling up the scroll [and] giving [it] back to the attendant, He sat down - and the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were staring intently at Him.

21. So He started to be saying to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your ears (= your hearing)." [cf 4Q278, 521 to compare with vss. 16-30, here; cf 24:44-49, below]

In vs. 18, notice the purposes of Jesus' anointing and sending, with a proclamation of:

Observe that all of vs. 18 involves people: their healing and their liberation. And then vs. 19 either makes a statement that recaps and summarizes what vs. 18 proclaimed, or, being a reading of a Hebrew text (originally), is this a case of Hebrew parallelism, where the final statement restates what went before, offering more information or explanation? For this latter view, on offer is the second potential reading of the Greek text of vs. 19.

"there exists an approved self from, and which is, [the] Lord!"

ENI is a verb, which means, "there is; there exists." It is used 3 times in Gal. 3:28, one time in Col. 3:11, and once in Jas. 1:17. AUTON means, "self." The word "Lord" is either a genitive form (of), an ablative (from), or a genitive of apposition (which is). In the latter two renderings (from; which is), we see a correlation to the Holy Spirit coming upon a person - as with the Spirit descending upon Jesus at His baptism, or, as with the event at Pentecost, in Acts 2, or, as in being immersed into the Holy Spirit (e.g., Acts 1:5; Eph. 4:5). We also observe a similar picture in 1 Cor. 6:17, where Paul speaks of our being joined to the Lord, becoming one spirit with Him. Another picture is seen in our being baptized into His death and raised up into His life (Rom. 6:3-8; Col. 2:12-13), and then Paul informs us that we were immersed into one body (1 Cor. 12:13).

The liberation and the healing of the heart involve a change in people, a transformation (e.g., 2 Cor. 3:18). We read in Ps. 3:8,

"From the LORD (= Yahweh) [is] deliverance and salvation" (LXX).

Jesus told Nicodemus:

"Certainly it is so, I am saying (= I now point out) to you, unless anyone may (or: someone would) be born back up again to a higher place (or: can be brought to birth again; or: would be given birth from above), he continues having no power (or: remains unable) to see or perceive God's reign, sovereign influence, activity, or kingdom" (Jn. 3:3).

So what would be an approved self? Upon discussing this potential reading with Dan Kaplan, what came up was what Jesus said to His disciples, in Mat. 16:

24. At that point Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone continues intending (purposing; willing; wanting) to come on behind Me, let him at once completely say, 'No,' to, deny and disown himself, and then in one move lift up his execution stake (pole for suspending a corpse; cross), and after that proceed to be by habit continuously following after (with) Me!

25. "You see, whoever may intend (or: should purpose; might set his will; happens to want) to keep his soul-life safe (rescue himself; preserve the conscious life that he is living) will continue loosing-away, ruining and destroying it. Yet whoever can loose-away and even destroy his soul-life (the consciousness of self) on My account, he will continue finding it!

26. "For what will a person (or: mankind) proceed being benefited, or in what will he (or: it) continue helped or augmented, if he (it) can or would advantageously procure and gain the whole ordered system of society: government, economy, culture, religion - even the whole universe, yet would be undergoing the loss of, receive damage to, or be made to forfeit, his soul-life (the consciousness which he is; or: its interior self [in its reality])? Or what will a person (or: mankind) proceed giving as a result of a change-instead (or: in exchange) pertaining to his (or: its) soul (or: as an effect corresponding to transformation of the consciousness of, or which is, himself/itself which makes him/it other than he/it is)?

The last statement of Mat. 16:25 speaks of finding one's soul-life, which is basically, "one's self." This comes after Christ enables us to disown ourselves as we lift up our execution stake and follow Him. We suggest that the "approved self" is the "resurrected soul-life" which we find in Christ - it is the approved self that is the "new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17) of the new that has come. It is the "new humanity" of Eph. 4:24 and Rev. 21:5. Paul put it this way, in Col. 3:

9. Do not keep on (or: Stop) lying unto one another! [Be] folks at once stripping off from yourselves (undressing yourselves from; or: go out and away from) the old humanity (the old human; = the old Adam), together with its practices,

10. and then [be] suddenly clothing yourselves with (or: entering within) the new one (the fresh one which existed only recently), the one being continuously (or: repeatedly; habitually; progressively) renewed (made back up essentially new again -- different in kind and character) into full, accurate, added, intimate and experiential knowledge and insight, which is down from, corresponds to, and is in the sphere of, the image (an exactly formed visible likeness) of its Creator (of the One framing and founding it from a state of wildness and disorder).

What Lu. 4:18 describes is people who need a new heart, who need release from their inner bondage, and who Christ brings into freedom (Gal. 5:1), by being born from the Jerusalem which is above (Gal. 4:26), making them children of the Promise. However we read the Greek text of Lu. 4:19, it is Good News.

Jonathan

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