Saturday, March 27, 2021

Was Emmaus Bethel?

LEEN RITMEYER: The Road to Emmaus. A new Emmaus trail in Israel is ready for pilgrims, but is it on the right track?

I do not have a view on whether Emmaus and Bethel were (more or less) the same place. Place names are malleable. The proposed transformation of Oulammaous to Emmaus does require a good bit of kneading.

I do not find the proposed parallels between Jesus and Jacob convincing. A couple of them have to introduce outside passages that Luke would not have seen. The connections in some others are too imprecise. Being asleep is not the same has having one's eyesight overridden. Waking up is not the same as listening to someone expounding scripture.

But have a look at Leen's post and see what you think.

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