Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at table, and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them who had seen him after he was risen.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
He also showed himself on one final occasion to the eleven as they sat at table together—that is, on the fortieth day itself. He was now on the point of leaving them and ascending into heaven. He was minded on that memorable day especially to reprove them for their refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen, until they had seen him themselves. For when they would preach the gospel after his ascension, the nations themselves would be ready to believe what they did not see…. If, therefore, they were charged to preach that those who do not believe will be condemned, when they themselves had not believed what they had just seen, was it not fitting that they should themselves first be thus reproved for their own refusal to believe those to whom the Lord had shown himself at an earlier stage until they should have seen him with their own eyes? Harmony of the Gospels.
The Lord Jesus himself chided his disciples, his earliest followers who remained close to him, because they did not believe that he was now alive, but grieved over him as dead. They were the fathers of the faith, but they were not yet fully believers. They did not yet believe, although they were made teachers so that the whole world might believe what they were destined to preach and what they were going to die for. They did not yet believe that he, whom they had seen raising others from the dead, had himself arisen. Deservedly, then, were they rebuked.
He appeared in the breaking of bread to those who, supposing that he was a stranger, invited him to share their table. He will also be present to us when we willingly bestow whatever goods we can on strangers and poor people. And he will be present to us in the breaking of bread, when we partake with a chaste and simple conscience in the sacrament of his body, the living bread.
At length He appeared to the eleven as they were at table. The Vulgate has novissime, last of all: Gr. Ïστεζον. This was the last appearance of Christ on the day of the resurrection, for S. Mark only relates those appearances which took place on that day. You may say, But if Song of Solomon , He did not appear to the Eleven, but to the Apostles, for S. Thomas was absent. Wherefore Maldonatus thinks that this appearance was that which took place on the Sunday after the resurrection, when Thomas was present. But I say that they are here called the Eleven, although Thomas was absent, because the college of the Apostles after the treachery of Judas was reduced to eleven. That is why they are here called the Eleven, although Thomas was absent. Thus the Decemvirs were called by that name when gathered together, although one or two might be absent.
They did not believe. S. Jerome (lib2 , cant. Pelag.) writes that in some Greek codices there is found added after these words as follows:...
At length in the Latin text, taken according to the letter, is lastly, or last of all: but if we examine and compare the four gospels, this was not the last time that Christ appeared to his disciples after his resurrection. We can only then understand it of the last time mentioned by this evangelist.
To the eleven. If this apparition (as it was the opinion of St. Augustine) was made when St. Thomas was not with them, they were only then ten, without St. Thomas and Judas. The evangelist here calls them eleven, because the apostolical college (Judas being dead) consisted of no more than eleven. And this way of speaking may be justified by diverse examples: one instance may suffice. A meeting of the Jewish sanhedrim might be called the Council of the Seventy-two, though it many times happened that all the seventy-two were not there present. (Witham)
Some think that this was the last apparition of Jesus Christ, after which he quitted the earth, and ascended into heaven. (Bible de Vence)
As he showed them real hands and a real side, so he really ate with his disciples; really walked with Cleophas; conversed with men with a real tongue; really reclined at supper; with real hands took bread, blessed and broke it, and was offering it to them. … Do not put the power of the Lord on a level with the tricks of magicians, so that he may appear to have been what he was not, and may be thought to have eaten without teeth, walked without feet, broken bread without hands, spoken without a tongue, and showed a side which had no ribs.
In some copies, and especially in the Greek codices, it is written according to Mark at the end of his Gospel: “At length Jesus appeared to the eleven as they were at table.”
