After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Jesus appeared; he was visible to their eyes, yet he was not recognized. The master walked with them on the way; in fact, he was the way on which they were not yet walking; but he found that they had wandered some distance from the way. For when he was with them before his passion, he had foretold all—that he would suffer, that he would die, that he would rise again on the third day—he had predicted all; but his death was as a loss of memory for them. They were so disturbed when they saw him hanging on the cross that they forgot his teaching, did not look for his resurrection, and failed to keep his promises in mind.
Their eyes were obstructed, that they should not recognize him until the breaking of the bread. And thus, in accordance with the state of their minds, which were still ignorant of the truth (that the Christ would die and rise again), their eyes were similarly hindered. It was not that the truth himself was misleading them, but rather that they were themselves unable to perceive the truth. .
It seems as if some impediment to recognition had been effected in the eyes of those who beheld him; and when it is plainly said elsewhere: “He appeared to them in another shape”—obviously in his own body with another appearance—some effect was produced which acted as an impediment to prevent them, that is, their eyes were subjected to a delay in recognition. Letter , To Paulinus.
He appeared in another shape: Arabic, garment, i.e, of a traveller, as they were going into the country: Arabic, to the village; Gr. into the field, i.e, to a country-house at Emmaus. For, as S. Austin says (Consens. Evang.), "under the name of country not only villages, but towns and boroughs outside the capital, which was the mother city of all, were wont to be called." These disciples, therefore, were going from Jerusalem into the country, that Isaiah , into the neighbouring small town of Emmaus. This place was made a famous city by the Romans , and called Nicopolis, as a monument of their victory in the capture of Jerusalem. This appearance of Christ is the same as that related by S. Luke ( Luke 24:13), as is plain from the circumstances, which are the same in both cases. So commentators generally. Euthymius alone thinks they were different, because Mark adds that the Apostles did not believe them when they told them that Christ was risen, whilst Luke intimates the contrary, that t...
