Damien
F. Mackey
on the way to
Emmaus could have been a woman”.
The “Two” Disciples
Mr and Mrs
Cleopas
There are those today who argue that one of the two
disciples who encountered Jesus along the way from Jerusalem to the village of
Emmaus was probably a woman.
Some of these base their conclusion upon the parallels
they believe to exist (and with good reason) between this Gospel story and the
Genesis account of Adam and Eve in the Garden. This view is nicely encapsulated
in a terrific article (https://liftingjesus.org/2015/03/03/the-road-to-emmaus-a-love-story-from-the-garden-of-eden-restored/):
The Road to Emmaus – a Love Story from the Garden of Eden Restored
…. The Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-36)
contains many Gold-nuggets to discover, we are about to discover a Restoration
process of what was lost in the Garden of Eden by the First Adam. The story
begins with two disciples of Jesus, who were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus
on the day that Jesus rose from the dead. There were two disciples but the
bible only mentioned one name: Cleopas, and the other one unnamed. We may have
assumed that they were both male disciples, but actually the bible does not say
anything about this. I submit to you that they were husband and wife, Mr.
& Mrs. Cleopas.
It is the Jews
culture during the time to mention only the name of the man (husband). For
instance, when Jesus was feeding the multitude of 5000 man with five loaves of
bread and two small fish; it only mentioned the man. Five thousand men were
accounted, excluding (not counting) woman and children (Mat 14:21 Now
those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children).
This is not just
the culture, but this is how God sees a married couple, as ONE. We see this
evidenced even in the creation of mankind Adam & Eve. (Gen 5:2
KJV. Male and female created He them; and blessed them, and called their
name Adam, in the day when they were created.) God addressed
them both as one person, and God named them Adam. Wait a minute! How about Eve?
Well, read your Bible, God did not name Eve, It was Adam who named his wife’s
as Eve, and It was just Adam who called her Eve. While, God has been
calling both of them as Adam (Mr. & Mrs). Although, it was Eve who was
first deceived by the serpent and it was Eve who misled Adam to eat the wrong
fruit, but whoever made the mistake, God treated them as equally responsible,
because God sees them as ONE.
This is also evidenced
in many countries’ social culture, to call a married couple by the husband’s
name, eg. Mr. & Mrs. Smith. So, now we know that the two disciples,
who walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus, were husband & wife, Mr. & Mrs.
CLEOPAS. As they were walking and talking about what had just happened in
Jerusalem “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth”, suddenly Jesus Himself
drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained, so that they did
not know Him (Luk 24:14-16).
Why did Jesus
restrained their eyes not to know Him? Likewise to ask, why Jesus did not walk
around in Jerusalem after His Resurrection showing off His NAILED PIERCED
HANDS? Is it not going to astound people of His Deity identity? No, obviously
God did not think like human, this is not the way of God. He wants all of us to
stand equal chance to see Him by FAITH. In that Emmaus Journey we know that
Jesus expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
He wanted them to see Him in the Scriptures by FAITH NOT BY SIGHT. Because,
without faith it is impossible to please God.
It is a beautiful
picture of them in the EVENING WALKING together with Jesus on the day of His
first bodily Resurrection. It is like referring to the first Adam usually
walking in the evening with God in the Garden of Eden.
Gen 3:8
…God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, (EVENING time) –
Adam & Eve walking with God.
Luk 24:29 …
Abide with us, for it is toward EVENING,… (Mr. &
Mrs. Cleopas walking with Jesus)
And this is
significant because this event corresponded to and restored the creation story
in the Garden of Eden, whereby the first created couple (husband & wife)
Adam & Eve had failed by committing the high treason of partaking from the
forbidden tree, which was the only commandment that God had given them. There
were two special TREEs in the middle of the Garden. hey partook from the wrong
tree, the TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD & EVIL (the first tree). While, God
actually gave them a choice to partake from the TREE OF LIFE.
Both trees would
open the eyes of man, the first tree opened their eyes to their nakedness. When
Eve took of its fruit and ate and she also gave it to Adam who was with her,
and he ate it; what happened?
Gen 3:7 Then
the EYES of both of them were OPENED, and they knew that they were naked; and
they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
Their eyes were
opened to see their Lack, and shortcomings, and they tried to cover themselves
with fig leaves, which is a picture of Self Righteousness, trying to justify
themselves with their work & self-effort to achieve God’s Favor.
Apparently, they realized whatever their self-work to cover themselves did not
measure up to God’s standard, and as a result, they were afraid, they were in
fear and they hid themselves from God (Gen 3:8-10).
God did not want
them to partake from this tree but God cannot violate His own creation of Free
Will. Likewise, God cannot force you to love Him. It must come from your free
will. Thus, a free will to be a free will, there must be a choice. God put both
trees in the middle of the Garden for them to choose.
Jesus showed us
in this event, that He is faithful and has restored the failures of first Adam
partaking from the wrong tree, with what? With the Lord Supper of Breaking the
bread.
Luk 24:31 Then their EYES WERE OPENED and they KNEW Him; and He vanished from their sight.
The breaking of
Bread is the holy communion between believers and Christ Jesus, a union in the
body and soul. In other word, the Breaking of Bread is the TREE OF LIFE, the
tree that Adam had missed it in the Garden of Eden. We have partaken this Tree
through our continuous Holy Communion with Christ that rendered to infuse Life
into our body, making us more healthy and adding years to our age, and energy
to our body.
Joh 6:51 I
am the living BREAD which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread,
he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My FLESH, which I
shall give for the LIFE (Greek: Zoe) of the world.”
“Zoe” of the
world is the Physical life, NOT Eternal (spiritual) life which
in Greek is “Zoe Ionos”
Their heart was
burning with the warmth of Christ’s Love, and it energized them to immediately
walk back from Emmaus to Jerusalem again, which is total walk of 14 Km just
during that evening alone, wow what a strong body?!. Their Heart burning with
the Passion of Christ Revelation, and they wanted to share it with the rest of
the disciples in Jerusalem.
[End of quote]
Now, James Boice has arrived at the very same
identification of the two disciples, Cleopas and his wife, but, in Boice’s case,
his argument has arisen entirely from New Testament information
Who Were
the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus?
The answer to this question is not as uncertain as most
people, who are accustomed to referring merely to the “Emmaus disciples,” are
likely to assume. For one thing, the story itself gives the name of one of
them. If you turn to Luke 24:18, you will find that one of the disciples was
called Cleopas. Moreover, if you will then use any good concordance of the
words occurring in the New Testament and look up the word “Cleopas,” you will
find a second mention of his name in another account of the Resurrection. The reference
is John 19:25. There we read, “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus
his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Cleopas, and Mary
Magdalene.” It is true that John spells the name a bit differently. But the
spelling of names often varied in antiquity, and here the two names undoubtedly
refer to the same person. Thus, we learn that the wife of Cleopas was also
present in Jerusalem at the time of the Crucifixion. And we may, therefore,
assume that she was the one returning to Emmaus with him on the morning of the
Resurrection.
Moreover, I believe that we can know even more than this.
For it seems clear to me that John has given us her name when he writes of “his
[Jesus’] mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Cleopas, and Mary
Magdalene.” I must admit that because of the way John has written this verse it
is not at once obvious whether John is identifying the first Mary he mentions
as the sister of the virgin Mary or as the wife of Cleopas. But a little
thought shows that the second of these should be preferred.
For one thing, John seems to be distinguishing between
two different Marys in the second part of the verse—Mary, the wife of Cleopas,
and Mary Magdalene. At least this is the most natural way of interpreting the
sentence. Second, if this is not the case, then either there is an unidentified
Mary in the story (making five persons) or else there is a Mary who is the
sister of the Virgin Mary. The first case is unlikely in itself as well as
unlike John’s literary style. And the second is unlikely simply because it
would mean there were two sisters, both named Mary. These reasons seem to point
to the wife of Cleopas being named Mary, a woman who (we are told elsewhere)
was also the mother of James the less and Joses and who had been a follower of
Jesus as well as a helper of Jesus and His immediate disciples (Mark 15:40, 41:
cf. Mark 16:1 and Luke 24:10).
The whole of the argument means that, after His
appearance to Mary Magdalene in the garden early in the morning, Jesus next
appeared (not counting a private, unrecorded appearance to Peter) to a man and
his wife, Cleopas and Mary, and this before He appeared to any of the so-called
“regular” disciples. ….
[End of quote]
The first time
that I ever heard mention of this view, expressed as (from memory) “Some theologians
have suggested that one of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus could have been
a woman”, I was attending a lecture given by a Cardinal with the exotic name of
Martini, and he - as far as I was
then concerned - brilliantly debunked the suggestion. I refer to a talk back in
1996 by the Archbishop of Milan, Jesuit Maria Cardinal Martini, given at St Joseph's
College, Hunters Hill (Sydney) – a biblical reflection on the Emmaus incident. At question time a nun got
up and hopefully put it to the Cardinal that one of the two disciples may have
been a woman.
To this the Cardinal brilliantly
(though not necessarily correctly) replied that he, too, had heard of this view,
but he had one good reason why he thought that it could not have been the case.
Jesus, he said, had rebuked the two disciples, saying [a reference to Luke
24:25]: ‘How foolish you are,
and how slow to believe’, and He never ever said that about any woman.
The
nun quickly sat down as the audience applauded the Cardinal’s response.
From a Catholic point of view as I have recently
heard the Emmaus account interpreted by Andrew Wood (St. John Centre for Biblical Studies), lecturing
on the Gospel of Luke, the most marvellous thing that happened at Emmaus was
the Mass, with its scriptural readings followed by Jesus himself becoming the
Eucharist. Now, Wood’s mentor is Dr Scott Hahn, who has written along similar
lines https://stpaulcenter.com/blog/emmaus-and-us-scott-hahn-reflects-on-the-third-sunday-of-easter
Emmaus and Us: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Third Sunday of Easter
…. We should put ourselves in the shoes
of the disciples in today’s Gospel. Downcast and confused they’re making their
way down the road, unable to understand all the things that have occurred.
They know what they’ve seen - a
prophet mighty in word and deed. They know what they were hoping for - that He
would be the redeemer of Israel. But they don’t know what to make of His
violent death at the hands of their rulers.
They can’t even recognize Jesus as
He draws near to walk with them. He seems like just another foreigner visiting
Jerusalem for the Passover.
Note that Jesus doesn’t disclose His
identity until they … describe how they found His tomb empty but “Him they did
not see.” That’s how it is with us, too. Unless He revealed himself we would
see only an empty tomb and a meaningless death.
How does Jesus make himself known at
Emmaus? First, He interprets “all the Scriptures” as referring to Him. In
today’s First Reading and Epistle, Peter also opens the Scriptures to proclaim
the meaning of Christ’s death according to the Father’s “set plan” - foreknown
before the foundation of the world.
Jesus is described as a new Moses
and a new Passover lamb. He is the One of whom David sang in today’s Psalm -
whose soul was not abandoned to corruption but was shown the path of life.
After opening the Scriptures, Jesus
at table took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples -
exactly what He did at the Last Supper (see Luke
22:14-20).
In every Eucharist, we reenact that
Easter Sunday at Emmaus. Jesus reveals himself to us in our journey. He speaks
to our hearts in the Scriptures. Then at the table of the altar, in the person
of the priest, He breaks the bread.
The disciples begged him, “Stay with
us.” So He does. Though He has vanished from our sight, in the Eucharist - as
at Emmaus - we know Him in the breaking of the bread.
[End of quote]
As Andrew Wood explained it, Jesus’s
‘vanishing from our sight’ did not mean that He suddenly shot through on his two
disciples. No, at the moment of the Consecration (“blessing of the bread”),
Jesus disappeared from their sight because He had become the Eucharist.
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