EMMAUS ĕ mā’ əs (̓Εμμαύς, חַמְּתָא, warm springs, in the Talmud variations of אִּמָּאוּס and אִימָּאוּס, etc.; in 1 Macc 3:40, 57; 4:3; in Josephus, of ̓Αμμαοῦς [Antiq XIV. xi. 2; Jewish War. II. xx. 4; III. iii. 5] and ̓Εμμαοῦς, G1843, [Antiq. XVII. x. 9]). Once used in the NT (Luke 24:13) as the name of a Judean village (κώμη, G3267), the direction from Jerusalem not being stated. The location is uncertain, with several sites having been suggested as fitting the geographical qualifications for the village.

Luke 24 describes two disciples journeying to Emmaus, which was sixty stadia (seven m.) from Jerusalem, and returning the same day after communing with Jesus.

The location of Emmaus must be looked for somewhere near Jerusalem, there being several possible locations ranging from four to twenty m. away, namely: el Kubeibeh; Kaloniyeh; ’Amwas; Abu Ghosh; el Khamsa; and Artas.

El Kubeibeh, seven m. NW of Jerusalem, similar to the distance in Luke 24:13, in its connection with Emmaus goes back to the times of the Crusaders who had found nearby the place Castellum Emmaus, an ancient Rom. fort, and at which place in 1878 the Franciscans found remains of a basilica of Crusader, or, possibly, Byzantine date.

Only four m. to the W of Jerusalem is the modern Kaloniyeh (cf. colonia), identified with an Emmaus at which Vespasian is said to have settled 800 soldiers, the location being according to Josephus, three and one half m. from Jerusalem (War VII. vi. 6). The Josephus MSS vary in reading either thirty (which has the better evidence) or sixty stadia, and if this is taken to have been the NT site, the latter reading must be accepted or the former (thirty stadia) be understood in a rather broad way.

At about twenty m. W of Jerusalem on the Jaffa road is an Emmaus where Judas Maccabaeus in 166 b.c. defeated Gorgias (1 Macc 3:40; 4:1-15), the name of which in the 3rd cent. a.d. was changed to Nicopolis, the modern designation being ’Amwas or ’Imwas. Arguments against identifying this place with NT Emmaus are twofold: ’Amwas seems to have been a city (being the seat of a toparchy, Jos. War III. iii. 5) instead of a village (Luke 24:13); and the distance of ’Amwas from Jerusalem is too great unless the variant reading, 160 stadia, of MSS Aleph in Luke 24:13 (the better reading is 60) be accepted with the resultant problem of having the two disciples traveling an arduous forty m. in one day from and to Jerusalem.

Abu Ghosh, about nine m. W of Jerusalem, also known as Kiryat el’Enab, makes claim to having been Emmaus for a Crusader church was built over a Rom. fort which contains an inscr. indicating that part of the Tenth Legion was stationed there. This place seems to be too far from Jerusalem to be identified with the Emmaus either of Luke 24 or of Josephus (War VII. vi. 6).

NT Emmaus is also conjectured to have been located at el Khamsa, over sixty stadia SW of Jerusalem, and at Artas, S of Bethlehem where Rom. baths were found.

Bibliography E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People, 2nd rev. ed., II (1891), 253-255; F. M. Abel, “La distance de Jérusalem à Emmaüs,” RB, XXXIV (1925), 347-367; A. Plummer, St. Luke, ICC (1925), 551, 552; L. H. Vincent and F. M. Abel, Emmaüs sa basilique et son histoire (1932); S. Caiger, Archaeology of the New Testament (1939), 90; R. de Vaux and A. Steve, Fouilles à Qaryet el-’Enab Abu Ghosh Palestine (1950); J. A. Grassi, “Emmaus Revisited,” CBQ XXVI (1964), 463-467; H. L. Strack and P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament, II (1965), 269-271.