Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Luke 24:13-35, A stranger on the Emmaus road
Two disciples walking home to Emmaus are joined by a stranger who explains the Scriptures to them. They press him to stay, and they recognize him when he breaks the bread.
Luke 24:13-35, in every translation this tool compares.
On the day of the resurrection, two followers walking from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus are joined by Jesus, whom they fail to recognise. They tell the stranger of their dashed hopes in Jesus and the report of an empty tomb, and he walks them through the Scriptures to show that suffering was the Messiah's path into glory. When he breaks bread at their table they suddenly know him, he disappears, and they rush back to Jerusalem with the news.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/passover-pilgrims\/","n":"Passover and the pilgrim crowds","s":"The spring festival that retold God's rescue of Israel from Egypt. Jerusalem filled with pilgrims, and hopes of freedom ran high.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/messiah\/","n":"The Messiah, son of David","s":"The anointed king most Jews expected from David's line, who would free Israel from its enemies. Nobody expected him to be killed.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/eating-together\/","n":"Eating together","s":"Sharing a table made a bond of friendship, so who you ate with told everyone whose side you were on.","r":""}
Fellow Jews walking home from the feast would think nothing of a stranger joining them (Keener). The CSB Study Bible suggests that Cleopas may have been the husband of one of the women at the cross, and Wright suggests his companion was his wife Mary, while saying it cannot be certain. Many expected the Messiah to be a liberator who would redeem Israel (the cultural backgrounds notes). Making as if to go on was polite and could test a host's hospitality, and hospitality required insisting, especially near nightfall when the roads were dangerous (Keener and his notes). By giving thanks and breaking the bread the guest takes the part of the head of the household (Keener and his notes). Where Emmaus was is disputed. Keener and his notes say the site is no longer known; Strauss, in the Zondervan backgrounds commentary, names an Ammaous that Josephus puts thirty stadia out, which would make Luke's sixty a round trip, and el-Qubeibeh; the Zondervan atlas thinks Emmaus-Nicopolis about nineteen miles away the most probable, since one important manuscript reads 160 stadia; the Zondervan Bible dictionary counts at least half a dozen proposals, none confirmed.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Luke 24:13, 24:14-17, 24:28, 24:29, 24:30 and 24:31-35
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Luke 24:13, 24:21, 24:29, 24:30 and 24:31
- CSB Study Bible, note on Luke 24:13-14
- N. T. Wright, Luke for Everyone, comment on Luke 24:28-35
- Mark L. Strauss, Luke, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Luke 24:13 and 24:34
- Carl G. Rasmussen, Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, The Life of Christ
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Emmaus
