History Globe
Question
Where was Emmaus?
The site of Emmaus is disputed. Luke places it "about threescore furlongs" (sixty stadia, about 11 km) from Jerusalem, and four places are most often named: Emmaus-Nicopolis (Imwas) near Latrun, Abu Ghosh, el-Qubeibeh and Motza (Qalunya), where the map point stands.
Most manuscripts of Luke give sixty stadia; some, among them Codex Sinaiticus, give 160, about 30 km. Emmaus-Nicopolis, about 25 km west of Jerusalem in a straight line, was the Emmaus of the Maccabean and Roman wars and the Emmaus of the ancient church: Eusebius took it for the home of Cleopas, and the remains of a Byzantine church still stand there, but it fits only the longer reading. Abu Ghosh, about 12 km west on the road to the coast, was held to be Emmaus from the twelfth century, and el-Qubeibeh, about 12 km north-west, from the later Middle Ages.
Motza, west of Jerusalem, is about 8 km away by the Roman road on the map. Josephus says that after the war Vespasian settled 800 veterans at a place called Ammaus, thirty stadia from Jerusalem in the standard text (some manuscripts read sixty); many identify it with Motza, the Mozah of Joshua's list, whose later name Qalunya is thought to recall the Latin colonia. The map point stands at Motza, and the place card lists the other sites; none can be called certain.
Scripture: Luke 24:13–16; Luke 24:28–31; Luke 24:33
Sources
- B. M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (1971), on Luke 24:13 (60 and 160 stadia)
- Josephus, Jewish War 7.217 (Ammaus, 30 stadia in Niese's text, 60 in other manuscripts)
- Eusebius, Onomasticon, s.v. Emmaous; Jerome, Letter 108.8
- D. Pringle, The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, vol. 1 (1993), nos. 1 (Abu Ghosh) and 10 ('Amwas)
- L.-H. Vincent and F.-M. Abel, Emmaüs, sa basilique et son histoire (1932)
- Length along the Roman roads: Itiner-e (de Soto, Pažout, Brughmans et al. 2025), Jerusalem to Emmaus (8 km)
Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.