Bible chapter guide

Luke 24

The women find the tomb empty and hear that Jesus is risen. On the road to Emmaus the risen Jesus explains the Scriptures to two disciples and is recognized in the breaking of bread. He appears in Jerusalem, opens their minds to understand, and is carried up into heaven near Bethany.

Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.

What happens in this chapter

At dawn on the first day of the week the women find the stone rolled away and no body; two men in dazzling clothes remind them of Jesus' words, but the apostles take their report for nonsense, and Peter runs to see the linen cloths for himself. The same day two disciples, one of them Cleopas, are walking to Emmaus, sixty stadia from Jerusalem, when a stranger joins them and explains from Moses and the prophets why the Christ had to suffer. At the table he breaks the bread, their eyes are opened and he vanishes, and they hurry back to Jerusalem that same hour. Jesus then stands among the disciples, eats a piece of fish to show he is no ghost, and at last leads them out as far as Bethany, where he blesses them and is carried up into heaven.

What the lab shows, and where to look

The Holy Week lab ends at the tomb: open its Easter dawn moment, with the stone rolled away and the tomb open in its garden, and read the note that sets Luke's two men in dazzling clothes beside the other Gospels' messengers. The messenger is drawn only as a soft light inside the tomb. Emmaus is not in the Holy Week lab. Places of Jesus has a card for it, with Emmaus-Nicopolis on the map, Motza, el-Qubeibeh and Abu Ghosh as the other candidates, and the sixty-or-160 stadia question set out. Bethany, where the chapter ends, has its own card there too.

Questions people ask

Where was Emmaus?

No one knows for sure, and there are four main candidates. Emmaus-Nicopolis (Imwas), about 30 km west of Jerusalem, certainly bore the name and was identified by Eusebius and Jerome, but it fits only the 160-stadia reading and is a long walk there and back in a day. Motza, much nearer, may be the Emmaus 30 stadia from Jerusalem where Josephus says Roman veterans were settled (Jewish War 7.217); el-Qubeibeh and Abu Ghosh fit sixty stadia, but their claims begin with the Crusaders.

Plausible

How far was Emmaus from Jerusalem?

Most manuscripts of Luke 24:13 read sixty stadia, about 11 km; the Chinese Union Version turns it into Chinese measure as about twenty-five li. Some manuscripts, including Codex Sinaiticus, read 160 stadia, about 30 km. Commentators who note the longer reading mostly doubt it, because the two walked back to Jerusalem the same evening (24:33).

Strongly supported

Why didn't the two disciples recognise Jesus on the road?

Luke says their eyes were kept from recognising him (24:16), and that they were opened when he took the bread, gave thanks and broke it (24:30–31). He gives no further explanation, and readers have offered many. What the text stresses is the moment of recognition at the table, which the two then report in Jerusalem as his being known to them in the breaking of the bread (24:35).

Textually stated

See it in the Labs

Follow Holy Week in 3D Jerusalem, day by day

Also in this chapter

Crucifixion and resurrection He leads them out as far as Bethany and is taken up The road to Emmaus Known in the breaking of the bread The risen Jesus stands among the disciples The ascension The empty tomb The tomb and the resurrection morning

How sure can we be?

Textually stated
Emmaus was a village 'sixty stadia' (about 11 km) from Jerusalem.
Most manuscripts read sixty stadia; some, including Codex Sinaiticus, read 160 (about 30 km). The disciples walked back the same evening.
Strongly supported
Sixty stadia or 160? (Luke 24:13): KJV gives the distance in English measure, "about threescore furlongs"; the 和合本 turns it into Chinese measure, "about twenty-five li". Both follow the sixty. Meyer and the Cambridge Bible record the 160 reading and doubt it: a village 160 stadia away could not be reached and left again the same evening.
Plausible
One messenger or two?: Mark tells of a young man in white sitting inside; Matthew of an angel who rolled back the stone and sat on it; Luke of two men in dazzling clothes; John of two angels whom Mary saw later. Each writer tells what he chose to focus on; mentioning one does not deny a second.
Speculative
The Chapel of the Ascension on the summit marks the exact spot.
Luke places the ascension 'as far as Bethany' and on Olivet; the summit shrine dates from the 4th century.

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King James Version (KJV) Chinese Union Version, 1919 (Wikisource)