EMMAUS

emmaus, the name of two places in palestine. 1. a village mentioned by luke (xxiv. 13), without any indication of direction, as being 60 stadia (almost 7 m.), or according to some mss.[1] 160 stadia, from jerusalem. its identification is a matter of mere guesswork: it has been sought at (a) emmaus-nicopolis (see 2 below), distant 176 stadia from jerusalem; (b) kuryet el-'enab, distant 66 stadia, on the carriage road to jaffa; (c) kulonieh, distant 36 stadia, on the same road; (d) el-kubeibeh, distant 63 stadia, on the roman road to lydda; (e) 'urtas, distant 60 stadia; and (f) khurbet el-khamasa, distant 86 stadia, on the roman road to eleutheropolis. of these, el-kubeibeh or 'urtas seems the most probable, though many favour kulonieh because of its nearness to bet mizza, in which name there is similarity with emmaus, and because of a reading (30 stadia) in josephus. 2. emmaus-nicopolis, now 'amwas, a town on the maritime plain, and a place of importance during the maccabaean and jewish wars. near it judas maccabaeus defeated gorgias in 164 b.c., and vespasian established a fortified camp in a.d. 69. it was afterwards rebuilt and named nicopolis, and became an episcopal see. it was also noted for a healing spring. footnote: [1] including codex [hebrew: alef]. but this distance is too great for the conditions of luke's narrative and the reading (160) is evidently an attempt to harmonize with the traditional identification of emmaus-nicopolis held by eusebius and jerome. for a curious reading in three old latin mss, which makes emmaus the name of the second traveller on the journey, see _expos. times_, xiii. 429, 477, 561.