Did Justinian Openly Want Yahudim to Read Their Own Writings Through Christian Theology?

Novella 146, Preface + Ch. 3

What the ancient record says

Yes, explicit. He does not present the controversy as only whether people understand Lashon Qanaʿan (Hebrew); he also expresses a theological objective.

The preface presents the sacred writings as announcing the figure Christianity identifies as Messiah, and he wants Yahudim to recognize that interpretation. Not just literacy, understanding the language is one concern, but preface and conclusion make the theological objective visible: he wants Yahudim to interpret their own ancestral writings differently.

Chapter 3: he hopes understandable reading will move Yahudim away from interpretations he condemns toward what he considers the correct meaning. Prevents sanitizing the law into "Justinian simply wanted everybody to understand the Bible", incomplete: he wanted understandable reading and that reading to lead toward his Christian conclusions.

Does his interpretation become the original meaning because he was emperor? No, imperial power cannot determine the original linguistic meaning of an earlier writing; the fact is he wanted his interpretation accepted; whether it matches the earlier Scroll witness is a separate investigation.