Emmaus is most famous as a town mentioned in the Gospel of Luke; Luke reports that Jesus appeared, after his death and resurrection, before two of his disciples while they were walking on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). From this reference, which only states that it was connected by a road with Jerusalem, Emmaus' geographical identification is not clear, several locations having been suggested throughout history. Emmaus' distance from Jerusalem varies in different manuscripts and later interpretations. Nevertheless, the site we visited, known as Emmaus Nicopolis ("Emmaus City of Victory"), remains the favourite amongst several possibilities. Eusebius was probably the first to mention the site as biblical Emmaus in his Onomasticon, and Jerome, who translated Eusebius’ book, implied that there was a church in Nicopolis built in the house of Cleopas where Jesus broke bread, so that from the 4th century CE the site was commonly identified as the biblical Emmaus. In modern times, the explorer Edward Robinson confirmed this identification, equating Emmaus with the Arab village of ʻImwas which existed there. Many archaeological remains have been excavated in the area which support these claims, including a Christian basilica from the 6th century and a 12th-century Crusader church.
And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people [...]
And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. [...]
And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.
Luke 24:13-19, 28-31, 33-35
However Emmaus is also mentioned in other sources, not least the Jerusalem Talmud, which records the geographical position of Emmaus (in Tractate Sheviit 9,2) as follows:
“From Bet Horon to the Sea is one domain. Without regions? Rabbi Johanan said, ‘still there is Mountain, Lowland, and Valley. From Bet Horon to Emmaus (אמאוס) it is Mountain, from Emmaus to Lydda Lowland, from Lydda to the Sea Valley. Then there should be four stated? They are adjacent’.”
The name, Emmaus (the Latin form of the Greek Ἐμμαούς), was preserved in the later Arab settlement of 'Imwas (عمواس) which was built on its ruins. Emmaus is a corruption of the Hebrew, Hammat, meaning "hot spring." Under this name Emmaus is mentioned in the Midrash Zuta for the Song of Songs 6:8 and Midrash Rabbah for the Lamentations 1:45:
“When Moses sent spies, what did they see as they arrived to Hammat? Moses had told them: ‘Do not enter like thieves, but be courageous and take some fruit of the land’ [Numbers 13:20]. But the Amorites started to say: “Look, these people have come for no other purpose than to cut our trees and to burn our cities.” Messengers went out behind them and the Amorites attacked them. Ahiman, Shishai and Talmai pursued them till they arrived to the Valley of Hammat in Judea ( חמת יהודה), and Kaleb fell down behind a wall ...”
Midrash Zuta for the Song of Songs 6:8
There are many more references to Emmaus in the Talmud and other Jewish and gentile sources. But for the purposes of identification of the sites excavated at Horvat Eked, one is especially relevant. Emmaus is mentioned in the 1st Book of Maccabees in the context of the Jewish revolt against the Hellenistic Syrian king Antiochus IV. The Maccabees liberated Israel from Antiochus after two years of fighting (167-165 BCE); one of the battles of Judas Maccabee was fought in Emmaus in 167 BCE when, according to Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, XII, Chapter 7:3-4), Judas defeated an army led by Gorgias with 5,000 soldiers.
"When they had therefore supped in good time, and had left many fires in their camp, he [Judas Maccabee] marched all night to those enemies that were at Emmaus. So that when Gorgias found no enemy in their camp, but suspected that they were retired, and had hidden themselves among the mountains, he resolved to go and seek them wheresoever they were. But about break of day Judas appeared to those enemies that were at Emmaus, with only three thousand men, and those ill armed, by reason of their poverty; and when he saw the enemy very well and skillfully fortified in their camp, he encouraged the Jews, and told them that they ought to fight, though it were with their naked bodies, for that God had sometimes of old given such men strength, and that against such as were more in number, and were armed also, out of regard to their great courage. So he commanded the trumpeters to sound for the battle; and by thus falling upon the enemies when they did not expect it, and thereby astonishing and disturbing their minds, he slew many of those that resisted him, and went on pursuing the rest as far as Gadara....for this victory greatly contributed to the recovery of their liberty."
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XII, Chapter 7:3-4
In 162 BCE the new Seleucid ruler, Demetrius I Soter, sent his General, Bacchides, to crush the Maccabean revolt. He managed to recapture Jerusalem and returned to Syria, appointing a local commander, Nicanor. However Nicanor was defeated in the battle of Beit Horon in 161 BCE, prompting Bacchides' return with a large army. Bacchides killed Judas Maccabee and the Maccabean army fled to the Judea desert; he then constructed seven new fortresses around Jerusalem between the years 160 and 155 BCE, including one in Emmaus, as we know, again, from Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, XIII, Chapter 1:3), controlling the western entrance from Gezer to Jerusalem.
"...Bacchides returned presently to the citadel at Jerusalem, having lost about two thousand of his army. He also fortified many cities of Judea, whose walls had been demolished; Jericho, and Emmaus, and Betboron, and Bethel, and Tinma, and Pharatho, and Tecoa, and Gazara, and built towers in every one of these cities, and encompassed them with strong walls, that were very large also, and put garrisons into them, that they might issue out of them, and do mischief to the Jews."
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XIII, Chapter 1:3
This fortress is at Horvat Eked (Khirbet El 'Akedor Akid), located less than two kilometres to the east of Emmaus-Nicopolis, on a steep hill above the Emek Hama'ayanot (the Valley of the Springs), where the remains of a fortress dated to the period has been excavated. In effect, the construction of the fortress was the beginning of the establishment of the city of Emmaus-Nicopolis, which later relocated several kilometres to the west, even though ceramic fragments found on the hill indicate that the site was previously inhabited, during the Israelite Iron II and Persian periods. The fortress' ruins comprise dozens of walls, cisterns, rock-cut dwellings and quarries covering an area of 20 dunams, surrounded by a wide defensive wall. The slide show below gives an idea of the archaeological remains of this extensive fortress; hover over the pictures for explanatory captions.
To continue the history of the site, the Maccabees continued the revolt and managed to retake control of the land in 150 BCE, their autonomous status being recognized by the Seleucids in 142 BCE, marking the beginning of the Hasmonean Dynasty, which ruled until 37 BCE, when it was replaced by Herod the Great.
The fortress at Emmaus was destroyed during the early Roman period, but was re-used as a hiding place by the Jews, during the Bar Kochba revolt of 131-135 CE, and indeed the remains of a network of narrow tunnels has been excavated, connecting many of the dozens of cisterns in the fortress for this secondary use. In one of these tunnels a number of coins were found dating to the Bar Kochba revolt. Below are pictured some of these later features; again, hover for captions.
Today these ruins and those of Emmaus-Nicopolis lie within the Jewish National Fund's Park Ayalon-Canada, a national park stretching over 7,000 dunams (700 hectares), north of Highway 1, between the Latrun Interchange and Sha'ar HaGai. In 1972, Bernard Bloomfield of Montreal, then President of JNF Canada, spearheaded a campaign among the Canadian Jewish community to raise $15 million for the park's establishment. The road leading to the park is named for John Diefenbaker, the former Canadian prime minister, who opened it in 1975. The project was completed in 1984, and JNF Canada continues fund-raising towards the maintenance of the park.
The ruins of Emmaus-Nicopolis proper extend through the wooded Park Ayalon-Canada from the foot of the fortress westwards towards and across what is now route 3. On the eastern side of route 3 are the well-excavated remains of two Byzantine churches, a Crusader church and a number of Jewish graves. It was following the revelations of Edward Robinson - who visited and reported on the site in 1838 and again in 1852 and re-identified the site as biblical Emmaus - that a local saint and a nun of the Carmelite monastery of Bethlehem, Mariam of Jesus Crucified, was in 1878 inspired and this section of ancient Emmaus was bought by the Carmelite monastery from its Muslim owners. Archaeological excavations were carried out between 1924-1930, and the arrival of Christian pilgrims to Emmaus-Nicopolis resumed. In 1930, the Carmelites built a monastery, the House of Peace, on the hill above the ancient churches and, since 1993, the Catholic Community of the Beatitudes have resided at the site and remain its custodians. Karl-Heinz and Louisa Fleckenstein carried out further excavations during the years 1994-2005.
The modern monastery, the House of Peace; hover over the pictures in the slideshow to see the captions.
The first to be built on the site were two Byzatntine churches and a baptistery, from the 4th to the 7th centuries CE. The more complete, larger southern church, a tri-apsidal basilica, is prominent on entering the monastery grounds, with the foundations of the northern church and baptistery immediately to its left. To the right are the remains of the bishop's house. Emmaus is illustrated on the famous, 6th Century Madaba map. Marked in Greek as "NIKOΠOΛIC" (Nikopolis), a walled city with towers and gates, a central basilica and two churches is illustrated in the mosaic.
The ancient churches; hover over the pictures in the slideshow to see the captions.
To the south of the churches are several excavated Jewish tombs, some multi-level cut into the bed rock, dating from the first century BCE to the fourth century CE. Ossuaries from these tombs can be seen, along with Byzantine mosaics from the churches, in the small museum of the monastery, which takes commendable trouble to record the significance of the site to Judaism and Islam as well as Christianity.
The Jewish tombs; hover over the pictures in the slideshow to see the captions.
In 638 CE the Arabs captured the city of Emmaus-Nicopolis and it became 'Imwas. Within two years it was evacuated due to plague. On 6th June 1099, Crusaders captured the site on their way to Jerusalem. In the 12th century, some 500 years after its destruction, they restored the ruins of the original southern church, rebuilding it on a smaller scale, so that the remains of the southern church seen today are largely from that period.
North east of the churches, in the woods of Park Ayalon-Canada and close to route 3, are the remains of the third century CE Roman central bath house of the city. Apparently damaged by an earthquake in 498 CE, but later repaired. It was re-used by the Crusaders as a storehouse for wine and oil.
The veneration of tombs of "Muhammad’s companions," the victims of the plague of 639 which devastated Emmaus, was first mentioned in the 13th century by the Persian traveler al-Harawi, when the ruined bath house was converted to a shrine and named "Sheik Ubaidah", honoring the great Muslim commander, Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah, who captured Emmaus-Nicopolis and died in the plague:
One sees at ‘Amwas ['Imwas] the tombs of a great number of companions of the Prophet and of Tabi’in who died here of the plague. Among them are mentioned Abder Rahmân ibn Muadh ben Jabal and his children, Harith, son of Hisham, Souhail, son of Amr, and many others whose graves’ emplacement is not exactly known.
Aboul Hassan Ali ibn Abi Bakr al-Harawi, Guide for the Places of Pilgrimages, early 13th century,
Today Muslims still venerate the tombs of Abu Ubaida and Ibn Jabal at Emmaus, although the former is clearly a bath house, and the latter may be fictitious. The actual location of Abu Ubaida's tomb is debated, and even Aboul Hassan Ali, quoted above, writes of three different traditions placing his grave in Tiberias (Tabaria), in Transjordan and in Beit Shean (Beysan). Nevertheless, perhaps because of this shrine, the Muslim cemetery of the village of 'Imwas grew up around it, and its graves remain around the bath house to this day, many marked out with re-used stones from Emmaus-Nicopolis.
The bath house, which has been excavated beneath the shrine, was half-buried. It is well preserved with intact walls and roof, comprising four rooms, each covered by a dome. The bath house is fed by water channels entering from the east side, which came via aqueducts from the nearby cold springs in the Valley of the Springs, and may have also included hot water from Emmaus' hot springs (which no longer flow, and whose location is today unknown). The southern room of the bath house contains a brick stove to warm the room through a hypocaust.
The Roman bath house; hover over the pictures in the slideshow to see the captions.
To the north west of route 3 can be found a large well, one of the many wells of Emmaus. It is wide and lined with masonry, some 20 metres deep.
