Passage

Luke 24.44

"Now He said to them, 'These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.'" (Luke 24:44, NASB95)

Luke 24:44 is the resurrected Christ's own statement of the tripartite OT canon and of His relation to it. The three corpora named, the Law of Moses, the Prophets, the Psalms, correspond to the standard Jewish division of the Hebrew Bible (Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim), with the Psalms standing as representative of the third division (the Writings) because the Psalter heads it in most ancient lists. The verse is therefore an apologetic anchor for two distinct claims at once: (a) the OT canon's threefold structure was already fixed in Jesus' day, and (b) that fixed canon, in its entirety, points to and is fulfilled in Him.

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"42. And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish. 43. And he took it, and ate before them."

"44. And he said unto them, These are my words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me."

"45. Then opened he their mind, that they might understand the scriptures; 46. and he said unto them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day;" (Luke 24:42-46, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"42. They gave him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. 43. He took them, and ate in front of them."

"44. He said to them, 'This is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me must be fulfilled.'"

"45. Then he opened their minds, that they might understand the Scriptures. 46. He said to them, 'Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day," (Luke 24:42-46, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"42. And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. 43. And he took it, and did eat before them."

"44. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me."

"45. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, 46. And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:" (Luke 24:42-46, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"42. and they gave to him part of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb, 43. and having taken, he did eat before them,"

"44. and he said to them, 'These [are] the words that I spake unto you, being yet with you, that it behoveth to be fulfilled all the things that are written in the Law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms, about me.'"

"45. Then opened he up their understanding to understand the Writings, 46. and he said to them, 'Thus it hath been written, and thus it was behoving the Christ to suffer, and to rise out of the dead the third day," (Luke 24:42-46, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: the risen Jesus (post-resurrection, post-eating-fish appearance to the Eleven and others)
Audience: the Eleven and those with them in Jerusalem
Location: Jerusalem, the same evening of the Emmaus encounter
Time period: events c. AD 30/33, the day of resurrection; composed c. AD 60-80 by Luke the physician (traditionally), companion of Paul

Theological reading

The threefold formula (Law / Prophets / Psalms) is the only place in the NT where all three Hebrew-canon divisions are explicitly named. Elsewhere the more common shorthand is the Law and the Prophets (Matt 5:17; 7:12; 22:40), or Moses and the Prophets (Luke 16:29). The expansion here, with the Psalms, is significant. Jewish tradition by the first century already organized the Hebrew Bible into Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim (Writings), with the Psalter heading the Writings. Ben Sira's prologue (c. 132 BC) attests the threefold division, as does the Qumran community and Josephus (Against Apion 1.8). Jesus' formula here is therefore not innovative; it ratifies an existing canonical consciousness. He calls the existing tripartite canon fulfilled in Him.

The apologetic weight is twofold. First, against late-dating of OT canon-formation (e.g. the disproven "Council of Jamnia" hypothesis that the OT canon was not closed until c. AD 90), Jesus' statement places a clearly tripartite canon already in active liturgical and theological use by AD 30. Second, against any reading that limits the messianic shape of the OT to a handful of proof-texts, Jesus' all things which are written about Me (panta ta gegrammena) covers the canon's whole sweep, the law's sacrificial system, the prophetic oracles of suffering and reign, and the psalmist's voicing of the righteous sufferer. Verse 45's then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures is Luke's way of saying this canonical-christological hermeneutic was not native to the disciples but supernaturally granted by the risen Christ Himself.

The verse also presupposes Jesus' pre-resurrection teaching (these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you); the post-resurrection christological reading is therefore continuous with the historical Jesus' own self-understanding, not a later church-imposition.

Key words

graphe, graphe (Scripture); the technical term for the written sacred text invoked here.
G3551 - nomos, nomos (law); the Torah division.
pleroo, pleroo (fulfill); the load-bearing verb that ties the canon to Christ.
G3956 - pas, pas (all); the totalizing quantifier that prevents a proof-text-only reading.

Theological themes

Tripartite OT canon attested by Jesus. Law, Prophets, Psalms is the standard first-century Jewish canon-division; the verse is a strong datum against late-canonization theories.
Christ-centered hermeneutic of the whole OT. All things which are written about Me, the messianic shape of the canon is not selective proof-texting but a canon-wide pattern.
Resurrection as hermeneutical key. Verse 45's opening of minds makes the christological reading a gift of the risen Christ, not bare exegetical reasoning.
Continuity of pre- and post-resurrection teaching. Jesus appeals to His own prior teaching (while I was still with you), the resurrection vindicates rather than introduces His self-understanding.
Fulfillment as necessity. Must be fulfilled (dei plerothenai); divine necessity, not contingent realization.

Cross-references

Luke 24.27, the Emmaus passage, beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures; the companion verse to 24:44.
Matthew 5.17, I did not come to abolish [the Law or the Prophets] but to fulfill; the Synoptic parallel to the v.44 pleroo claim.
John 5.39, the Scriptures... bear witness about Me; Johannine parallel.
Acts 17.2-3, Paul reasoning with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer; the apostolic continuation of the Luke 24:44 hermeneutic.
2 Timothy 3.16, Paul's general affirmation of OT inspiration.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.