The Scriptures Open and the Witnesses Return with Joy

The Greek is literally “on day one of the week”, a Hebrew way of counting with a cardinal number, the same idiom as Genesis 1:5’s “one day”. “Very early” is orthrou batheos, deep dawn, still half dark. The oldest manuscripts lack “And certain others with them”.

Luke never mentioned a stone at the burial, yet here it is “the stone”, as if the reader knew. Codex Bezae fills the gap in 23:53, saying Joseph set over the tomb a stone that twenty men could scarcely roll.

“The Lord Jesus” as a full title appears only here in Luke’s Gospel, and becomes the ordinary way of speaking of him in Acts (Acts 1:21; 4:33). The women find the absence they did not come for: they came with spices for a body.

“Much perplexed” is aporeo, to be at a loss, a relative of the word Luke used for Herod’s puzzlement in 9:7. “Shining” is astrapto, to flash like lightning. Luke calls them “two men”, as he called Moses and Elijah at the transfiguration (9:30) and the pair at the ascension (Acts 1:10).

Face to the ground is the posture of Daniel before the angel (Daniel 8:17; 10:9). “The living” is singular, ton zonta, the living one, almost a title; Revelation 1:18 gives it to the risen Jesus himself: “I am he that liveth, and was dead.”

“Is risen” is egerthe, a passive, “has been raised”, the way Acts speaks of it: “whom God hath raised up” (Acts 2:24). In Mark the angel sends the disciples ahead to Galilee (Mark 16:7); in Luke Galilee is only where the words were first spoken, and every appearance happens in or near Jerusalem.

None of Jesus’ own predictions in Luke used the word “crucified”; they said “killed” (9:22; 18:33). The angels’ quotation fills in what has since happened. “Sinful men” is hamartoloi, the label the Pharisees pinned on the people Jesus ate with (15:2).

Remembering is the hinge of the chapter. The same verb, mimneskomai, carried the criminal’s plea, “remember me” (23:42), and Peter’s moment in the courtyard, when he “remembered the word of the Lord” (22:61).

“The eleven” appears in Luke for the first time: the Twelve without Judas. “All the rest” are the wider circle of disciples; Acts 1:15 counts that company at about a hundred and twenty.

Joanna was the wife of Chuza, the steward of Herod’s household (8:3), so one of the first witnesses of the empty tomb came from the court of the ruler who had mocked Jesus two days before. Mary the mother of James is probably the mother of “James the less” (Mark 15:40).

“Idle tales” is leros, drivel or nonsense, found only here in the New Testament. Josephus reflects a common view when he says the testimony of women should not be accepted in court (Antiquities 4.219); Luke records the apostles holding the same opinion.

“Stooping down” is parakypto, to bend and peer in, the verb John uses of the same moment (John 20:5). The “linen clothes” are othonia, strips of linen, not the single sheet of 23:53. The verse is absent from Codex Bezae but present in the earliest papyrus of Luke.

Threescore furlongs is sixty stadia, about seven miles. The site of Emmaus is unknown. Some manuscripts read a hundred and sixty stadia, fitting Emmaus-Nicopolis; Josephus mentions an Emmaus thirty stadia from Jerusalem where Vespasian settled veterans (Jewish War 7.217).

“Talked together” is homileo, to converse, the verb behind the English “homily”; Acts 20:11 uses it of Paul talking with the believers at Troas until daybreak. They are going over “all these things”, turning the events round and round.

“Jesus himself” is emphatic in Greek, and Luke repeats it at verse 36. “Drew near” is engizo, the verb that marked each stage of the journey south, as he drew nigh to Jericho (18:35) and to the city (19:41). Now he draws near to two men walking away from it.

“Were holden” is krateo, to hold fast or restrain, in the passive: something held their eyes. The later summary in the longer ending of Mark says he appeared to two in the country “in another form” (Mark 16:12); Luke speaks only of their eyes.

“Ye have one to another” is antiballo, to toss back and forth, found only here in the New Testament: words thrown between them as they walk. The best manuscripts read “and they stood still, looking sad”; skythropos, gloomy-faced, is the word for the hypocrites’ fasting faces in Matthew 6:16.

Cleopas is a shortened form of Cleopatros. He may be the Clopas of John 19:25, whom the second-century writer Hegesippus called a brother of Joseph (Eusebius, Church History 3.11), though the names are not certainly the same. “Only a stranger” is paroikeo, to lodge somewhere as a visitor.

“What things?” draws them out. Their description, “mighty in deed and word”, is how Stephen describes Moses: “mighty in words and in deeds” (Acts 7:22). Peter later identifies Jesus with the prophet like Moses promised in Deuteronomy 18:15 (Acts 3:22).

They say “our rulers”, owning the leaders as their own, and do not mention Pilate at all. “Delivered him to be condemned” compresses the whole of chapter 23 into a single clause laid at the door of the chief priests.

“We trusted” is an imperfect, “we were hoping”. “Redeemed Israel” is the hope Zacharias sang over his newborn son: God “hath visited and redeemed his people” (1:68). Later rabbinic tradition held that the soul lingers near the body for three days, which some think explains why the third day mattered to mourners.

“Made us astonished” is existemi, literally to put out of one’s mind, the reaction of the teachers in the temple to the twelve-year-old Jesus (2:47) and of Jairus and his wife to their risen daughter (8:56). “Early” is orthrinos, early risers, found only here in the New Testament.

“Vision” is optasia, the word used when Zacharias came out of the temple speechless and they knew “he had seen a vision” (1:22). The women told of “two men”; in the retelling they have become “angels”, which is what the men were.

“Certain of them” is plural, although verse 12 named only Peter; John 20:3–10 tells of Peter and another disciple running to the tomb together. The report confirms everything the women said, except the part about seeing him.

“Fools” is anoetoi, without understanding, not a word for moral folly; Paul uses it in “O foolish Galatians” (Galatians 3:1). “Slow of heart” is bradeis tei kardiai: the heart in Hebrew thought is where one reasons, so the charge is slowness of mind as much as feeling.

“Ought not” is edei again, Luke’s “must”. The phrase “that Christ must suffer” became the core of apostolic preaching in Acts: Paul reasoned in Thessalonica “that Christ must needs have suffered” (Acts 17:3) and told Agrippa the same (26:23).

“Expounded” is diermeneuo, to interpret thoroughly or translate, from the same family as “hermeneutics”; Acts 9:36 uses it for translating the name Tabitha. “All the scriptures” is plural: the whole collection, read as speaking of him.

“Made as though” is prospoieomai, to act as if, found only here in the New Testament. Hospitality expected a guest to be pressed to stay, as Lot “pressed upon” the two strangers at Sodom until they turned in to his house (Genesis 19:2–3).

“Constrained” is parabiazomai, to urge until someone yields, used elsewhere only of Lydia, who “constrained us” to stay in her house (Acts 16:15). Henry Francis Lyte took the first words of their plea for his hymn “Abide with me” in 1847.

The guest takes the host’s part. “Blessed it” refers to the Jewish blessing said over bread before a meal, “who bringest forth bread from the earth” (Mishnah Berakhot 6:1); the blessing is spoken to God, not over the loaf, even where the King James has “it”.

“Opened” is dianoigo, used three times in this chapter: eyes here, the Scriptures in verse 32, the understanding in verse 45. The same verb appears in Genesis 3:7 in Greek, when at another meal “the eyes of them both were opened”. “Vanished” is aphantos, invisible, found only here in the New Testament.

“Did not our heart burn” recalls Jeremiah 20:9, God’s word “as a burning fire shut up in my bones”, and Psalm 39:3, “while I was musing the fire burned”. Codex Bezae reads “was not our heart veiled”, turning the burning into the blindness of verse 16.

They walk seven miles back in the dark, the late hour that justified stopping now no obstacle. “Gathered together” is athroizo, to assemble in a crowd, found only here in the New Testament.

In Greek the word “saying” agrees with the Eleven, not with the two travellers: the Jerusalem company speaks first, before the Emmaus report. “Indeed” is ontos, truly. The disciple is called Simon, as Jesus called him on the last night (22:31).

“Breaking of bread”, klasis tou artou, is a phrase only Luke uses, here and in Acts 2:42, where the first believers “continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread”.

“Peace be unto you” is the ordinary Hebrew greeting, shalom lakhem, made extraordinary by the speaker. Codex Bezae omits it. He simply “stood in the midst”, with no door or arrival described.

“Affrighted” is emphobos, filled with fear. Codex Bezae reads phantasma, ghost, the word the disciples cried out when they saw him on the water in Mark 6:49, instead of pneuma, spirit.

“Thoughts” is dialogismoi, questionings or doubts, the word of Simeon’s prophecy over the infant, “that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (2:35). He asks why the doubts “arise”, as if they were climbing up out of their hearts.

“Handle” is pselaphao, to touch or feel, the verb of 1 John 1:1, “our hands have handled”. Ancient belief held that the shades of the dead had no solid body. Ignatius of Antioch quotes a saying of the risen Jesus: “I am not a bodiless demon” (Smyrnaeans 3:2).

Luke says hands and feet, where John says “his hands and his side” (John 20:20); neither Luke nor John mentions nails at the crucifixion itself, except in Thomas’s words (John 20:25). Codex Bezae and a few other witnesses leave the verse out.

“Believed not for joy” gives joy as the cause of their disbelief, apo tes charas: it was too good to credit. Luke used the same construction for the disciples on the mount who slept “for sorrow” (22:45). “Meat” means anything to eat, brosimos, found only here in the New Testament.

“Broiled” is optos, roasted over fire, found only here in the New Testament. The honeycomb is missing from the oldest manuscripts. Peter later makes the meal part of his testimony: “who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead” (Acts 10:41).

“Before them” is enopion auton, in their sight. In the Book of Tobit the angel Raphael, departing, says the opposite: “I did neither eat nor drink, but ye did see a vision” (Tobit 12:19). Jesus eats in order to show he is no such vision.

“While I was yet with you” concedes that the time of his being with them has changed: the resurrected Jesus speaks of his ministry as something past. “All things must be fulfilled” gathers up every earlier dei, “must”, of the Gospel into one sentence.

The same verb is used of Lydia in Philippi, “whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul” (Acts 16:14). “Understanding” is nous, the mind: the Scriptures have not changed, the readers have.

“The third day” is often connected with Hosea 6:2, “in the third day he will raise us up”, though Luke names no text. “Thus it behoved” is the necessity of verse 26, now stated as what is written.

“Repentance… remission of sins” is the vocabulary of John the Baptist, who preached “the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (3:3), and of Peter at Pentecost, “Repent… for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38). Isaiah 2:3 had said “the word of the LORD from Jerusalem”.

“Witnesses”, martyres, becomes the defining word for the apostles in Acts: “ye shall be witnesses unto me” (1:8), a replacement for Judas must be “a witness with us of his resurrection” (1:22), and “whereof we are witnesses” (3:15).

“Endued” is endyo, to put on a garment: they are to be clothed with power. The image has Old Testament roots, since the Hebrew of Judges 6:34 says literally that the Spirit of the LORD “clothed” Gideon. The promise is the Spirit of Joel 2:28, which Peter quotes in Acts 2:17.

Bethany lies on the slope of the mount of Olives, and Acts 1:12 names the mount as the place of the ascension. Lifted hands are the priest’s blessing: Aaron “lifted up his hand toward the people, and blessed them” (Leviticus 9:22), and Sirach 50:20 describes the high priest Simon doing the same.

“And carried up into heaven” is missing from the first hand of Codex Sinaiticus and from Codex Bezae, but most manuscripts have it. Elijah “went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kings 2:11), watched by the disciple who would inherit his spirit.

Until now no one in the Gospel of Luke has worshipped Jesus. In the wilderness the devil had demanded worship and been told, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God” (4:8). “Great joy” echoes the angel at the birth: “good tidings of great joy” (2:10).

Manuscripts end the Gospel variously with “praising God”, “blessing God” or both, and the King James combines them; “Amen” is absent from the oldest copies. Acts picks up at the same place: “continuing daily with one accord in the temple” (Acts 2:46).