4 - Δίκαιος in Luke's Gospel

Summary

If Luke is unlikely to have intended ‘innocent’ when he used δíκαιος at Luke 23.47, what may confidently be said about his use of the word? A word study via the principles outlined in the previous chapter is an obvious way of approaching Luke's meaning, but two factors need first to be taken into account.

First, δíκαιος has its roots in classical Greek, Hellenistic Greek and the LXX. The TDNT article on δíκαιος explores what happened to the word during its history, offering a clear picture of the change that came over it when the word was used to convey religious concepts in Jewish traditions. No interpreter can be unconcerned for the word's history and range of meaning available to a writer who used it. Consequently, all of that ‘pool of meanings’ which belongs to Israel's religious concerns must be assumed by this study, at least provisionally, to be available to Luke. What remains to be explored in this chapter and the next is the extent to which (if at all) Luke made this pool his own, and the extent to which he was indebted to a more forensic or ethical usage.

Second, δíκαιος and its cognates are also used elsewhere in the New Testament. This simple fact is complicated by a stress placed on the word group during the Reformation and by Protestant Churches since that time.