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First Part : Identification of Oulammaus/Emmaus Second Part : Cleopas' companion  Third part : The beloved disciple

The city of Ammaus (also spelt Emmaus) was located more than 160 furlongs from  Jerusalem halfway between to coastal cities : It was the capital of one of the  administrative counties of Roman Judea. Emmaus’s presence on the Peutinger's  Table, indicates its importance.  In Antiquity it was considered to be the place indicated by Luke in his gospel.  However, this identification was challenged  because it did not conform to the  indications present in the Gospel :
 «And  two of them , that same day, went to a village  distant sixty furlongs from  Jerusalem, the name of which is Emmaus.» Luke 24:13
The Crusaders, despite the lack of sufficient evidence, chose two    sites, one after  the other, and rebaptized them as Emmaus. Since the nineteenth century the question has been continuously debated, and has  been the object of much profound research.  Its onomastics, topography, and  archeology have been delved into, and the text of the gospel turned inside out  without however yielding a consensus as to its location. Is the thesis published  posthumously by Professor Carl Peter Thiede garnering more support, whereas the  textual variants proposed by the Greek and Latin manuscripts  have not received all  the necessary attention?

        AMMAUS is in all the manuscripts of the Vetus Latina  whereas EMMAOUS is in all  the greek manuscripts, except codex Bezae with OULAMMAUS. Is it possible that this variant reading, which appears only in the publications of the  Greek text of the Gospel or its critical apparatus(1) and that has subsequently been  ignored except by some rare authors (2) holds the key to the mystery? To this question we can add another unknown factor:  one of the two traveling  companions was called Cleophas,  but who was the second one?   Is it possible that  there is a close connection between both of these mysteries? Is it possible that the  resolution of one enigma would resolve the second?

    AMMAOUS

The Judean city which was the theater of victory for Judah the Macabbee over  Nicanor and Gorgias  in 166 was Ammaous.  In all four versions of the Septuagint,  and in all the manuscripts of the Latin vulgate, the name of the city was written with  an ‘A’. (3)

Ammaous was also spelt with an A in three of  its four occurrences in the works of  Flavius Josephus.  In The Jewish War the historian wrote the name according to the  Latin phonetic AMMAOUNTA, just like he wrote Jericho as HIERICOUNTA  , and  in the Antiquities he wrote EMMAOUNTA with an E (4). AMAUANTE, found on the Peutinger Table is in fact the same city as AMMAOUS,  which became AMOUAS. AMMAOUS with an A,  in verse 24:13 of Luke, is the most common of all spellings  found in Latin versions that precede the Vulgate(5).  However, in some of the  instances, AMMAUS was taken to be the name of a person.

« And  two of them , that same day, went to a village  distant sixty furlongs from  Jerusalem, named Ammaus and Cléopas» (6).
By adding Cleophas at the end of the verse, it was understood that AMMAUS was  the companion of Cleophas.  Ambrose of Milan, who must have been consulting  one of the older Latin versions of the text, made in Carthage at the end of the second  century, commented on this passage that Cleophas and Amaus were traveling in  sadness (7). Whatever the interpretation, AMMAUS was the Latin re-transcription of  the Greek AMMAOUS.

    AMMAOUS - NICOPOLIS

Under the reign of Elagabalus AMMAOUS was repabptised NICOPOLIS which  means “City of Victory”. For the Romans this victory was the victory of Rome over Jerusalem in 70 and 135. For the readers of sacred texts, biblical AMMAOUS had also been the place where  Judah the Macabee’s victory took place.  The identification of the village found in the Gospel, with the city AMMAOUS, was  attributed to Origen. For him, as well as for Julius Africanus who presided over its  renovation under the reign of Alexander Severus (8), the new name could also  signify the celebration of Christ’s victory over death.

Baptistery, Byzantine church of Emmaüs- Nicopolis

The identification of AMMAOUS as the city mentioned in the Gospel became  officialized little by little, and was further pushed by Eusebius. The Pilgrim of  Bordeaux, while briefly mentioning  NICOLPOLIS in his report of 333, let it go  without comment; on the other hand, Jerome mentioned the construction of  a  church on the site where Cleophas’ house was presumed to have been located.  The  remains of a baptistery and two basilicas erected in the fourth  and fifth  centuries  reveal the importance of the pilgrimages which took place from a very early period.

1 - paleo christian apse; nave  XII century 2- greek inscription 3 - south apse 4 - Baptistery 5 - North church 6 -mosaïcs 7 - career 8 - burials 9 - mosaics 10 - résidences.

During the time of the Crusaders many Byzantine churches were rebuilt, and among  them the church of AMMAOUS.  After the crusaders departed the site retuned to its  previous state, and it was not until the repurchase by the Carmel of Bethlehem in the  later half of the nineteenth century that the pilgrimages started up again.

    EMMAOUS

But why  in the Greek text of the Gospel , the name of the city is spelt EMMAOUS  and not AMMAOUS? EMMAOUS with an ‘E’ is found in the Naturalis Historia(e) of Pliny the Elder  published in Latin one year before he died, a victim of the lavas of Vesuvius in 79; he  listed the ten administrative counties of Roman Judea, as they had been redrawn after  the war of 70.     
 «The remaining part of Judæa is divided into ten Toparchies, which we will mention  in the following order: That of Hiericus , covered with groves of   palm-trees, and  watered by numerous springs, and those of Emmaüs , Lydda , Joppe,  etc. (10)

This change can be attributed to the Roman administration who recorded EMMAUS  with an E in its official Greek and Latin texts.  There  is a lack of evidence from which  we would be able to learn. In Hebrew, the letter was of course an aleph.  The Onomasticon of Eusebius confirms  that the Hebrew aleph was rewritten in Greek as an alpha or in some rare cases as an  epsilon (11). And that is how EMMAOUS spelt with an epsilon was found in the Greek  manuscripts of the Gospel. A first example is the papyrus of the Bodmer collection  (P75) which goes as far back as 170-220, and later examples are found in the works  of Eusebius and Jerome.

    EMMAUS OF THE CRUSADERS 

The Crusaders rebuilt the church of AMMAOUS/NICOPOLIS; but they were unsure  whether the city was in fact the place mentioned in the Gospel of Luke:  The sun was  setting when the travelers arrived at their destination; they left right after the meal and  traveled the same way back.  The distance between AMMAOUS and Jerusalem was  26 kilometers by the Northern route and 32 kilometers by the Southern one.  The  round trip of ten to twelve hours minimum that this would presume is incompatible  with the details of the story; but it is even more so at odds with the account of Luke  who take care in evaluating the distance to be only sixty furlongs or 11  kilometers.   It was only in the IV century that, in the Codex Sinaiticus ,  the numeral 1 had been added before  the sixty, with the purpose of rendering this identification credible.


How did the Crusaders proceed?  They looked in the texts, for a village with the same  consonance that was closest to Jerusalem.   In the book of Joshua () many place names are preceded by an article such as: Ha  Mitspeh, Ha Kephira, Ha Motza.  This article later disappeared in the Septuagint, but  not, oddly enough for ha-MOTZA:
The article was attached to the name to form AMWSA, later rewritten as AMPSA in  the Vetus Latina.  Flavius Josephus also mentions this city, which is written as  AMASSA in the Latin transcription of The Jewish War. And it should be made clear  here, that the Latin manuscripts, which date from the ninth and tenth centuries are  the oldest forms of evidence.   Flavius Josephus situated this place at about 20  furlongs from Jerusalem, and like the Talmud, he wrote the new name given by the  Roman army: KOLONIE, from colonia in Latin.  The people came there to gather  branches for the Sukkot holiday(13). The term  AMWSA made people think of AMMOUS especially since Jerome has  written the name as AMMOSA in the Latin vulgate with a double M; and in order to  give credibility to the identification, the ancient texts were altered.  In fact, in the  Greek manuscripts of The Jewish War which do not predate the ninth century,  AMWSA is written as AMMAOUS, and in one of the manuscripts, the distance of 20  furlongs was changed to 60.  The Gospel, and scriptural sources were arranged in  order to have everything coincide with the topography.  However, the first landmarks  that  would allow AMWSA/KOLONIE to be precisely situated were lacking; so two  sites were successively chosen.

Near EL QUBEIBEH about 70 furlongs from Jerusalem, there was an ancient Roman  fort, named "CASTELLUM EMMAUS".  Early the Franciscans became   interested in  this site and considered it to be the village indicated by Luke;  They settled in there at  the end of the nineteenth century and rediscovered the foundations of the twelfth  century Roman church, but found no substrate from the Byzantine era.

In a place called FONTAINE EMMAUS, (nowadays known as ABU GOSH) the  order of the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem erected a church  in the twelfth  century on top of cisterns dating from the Roman era.  The church, dedicated to  Jeremiah, the prophet of a new covenant, was covered with frescos which only  recently have been restored. This place became confused with Kyriat Yearim, where the Ark of the Covenant had  remained for about twenty years before being transferred to Jerusalem by David.   Thus, the walk to Emmaus was associated with a place of important biblical portent.

As for the presumed location of MOTZA/AMWSA, the location of the site was only  rediscovered in 1973.   The only findings were some objects from the Roman era.   No structures were found.   It was futile to leave in crusade for a place which was  located midway of the distance indicated by Luke, and whose Hebrew name of  MOTZA had nothing in common with AMMAUS: not even the Greek transcript  AMWSA, which lacks the double M - that is an integral part of the name’s root.

As far as the abundant historical information collected on the four heretofore  proposed sites - NICOPOLIS, MOTZA, EL KUBEIBEH and ABU GOSH - not a single  element has been provided as evidence.  Far from it.  So the question remains.

    THE VARIANT READING OF CODEX BEZAE 

In fact, it is the occultation of the variant reading of Codex Bezae with the name  OULAMMAUS (for which  references did not lack) which has worked against  locating of the village where Jesus had his last supper.   « And  two of them , that same day, went to a village  distant sixty furlongs from  Jerusalem, named Oulammaous» [Dia 6]
OULAMMAOUS with OU in the Greek text,

was rewritten in Latin by the translator  with U. 


Was this term created by the copyist of the Codex Bezae at the beginning of  the fifth century? Not at all. In fact OULAMMAOUS was the primitive name of the place where Jacob  received in a dream the vision of a ladder ascending to the heavens.  This is also  attested to by the Codex Alexandrinus (A), copied out in the beginning of the fifth  century, and even before that, as early as the middle of the second century in the  Dialogue with Trypho (ch. 58) in which Justin refers to the patriarch’s dream.  His  citation was taken from the first Latin translation used by Augustine who  quoted the  book of Genesis in the same terms as him.
However, according to the original Hebrew text, the dream took place in LUZ; in  another manuscript of the Septuagint, the Codex Vaticanus (B) which dates from the  4th century, this term is written as OULAMLOUS.  How is it  that LUZ became  OULAMLOUS  and then OULAMMAUS? In Hebrew, LUZ is preceded by an adverbial expression Ve-ulam, which means ‘on  the other hand’.   However, ulam by itself is a portico, and Luz is an almond tree  (Genesis 30:37).   Which is how ‘Ve-ulam Luz’ can be read in two differing fashions: ‘on the other hand Luz’ ‘ Portico of almonds’ (it is useful to remind that Solomon’s temple was made of  Lebanese cedars?). So, the word-game that originated in Hebrew with OULAM-LUZ  got carried over in  the Greek translation in the form of OULAMLOUS, which was later deformed to  become OULAMMAOUS.   Several factors helped these changes along.  There was a  village called OULAMMA about 12 milestones from Sephoris/Diocaesarea  (Eusebius, Onomasticon).   The  ending –OUS was  very common, and  OULAMMAOUS evoked a portico reminding Solomon’s portico to readers of  Hebrew. While working on the vulgate, Jerome, was aware of the literary deformation which  had occurred, and he wrote on this subject in his Questions on Hebrew:«"it is  absurd to think Hebrew ulam is the name of a city since ulam means ‘former’» In Genesis 28:19, the Hebrew Rishona  indicates firstly, while ulam designates a  portico or a peristyle.   Whatever the case, Jerome’s remark shows that he was aware  that the name OULAMMAUS was the result of a literary distortion.

   OULAMMAOUS  AND  THE  ONOMASTICON  

Eusebius of Caesarea, on the other hand, made it seem like OULAMMAOUS had  been the common name.  In his onomastic of the sites of the Holy Land, he  considered it, along with LOUZA to be an earlier name of BETHEL 

«Bethel  is now a village twelve miles from Jerusalem to the right of the road going  to Neapolis. It was formerly called Oulamma and also Luza. It was given to the lot of  the tribe of Benjamin, near Bethaven and Gai. Josue also fought there killing the  king. »(Onomasticon 40:20)

But if we scrutinize the text carefully, we see that OULAMMAOUS is found  unexpectedly in the middle of the sentence. Eusebius never tries to explain this.  He  simple reused the term like in the Septuagint; in the letter L of his dictionary we find  an occurrence of LOUZA, but no indication of the name OULAMMAOUS.  He  does, however give us a precious detail as to the exact position of the village.  It lies  12 milestones from Jerusalem on the road leading to Neapolis, Nablus, the ancient  Shechem. A second indication is given by the Pilgrim of Bordeaux during his pilgrimage to the  Holy Land in 333.   He designated the site of Jacob’s dream as taking place 12 miles  from Jerusalem and one Roman mile from BETHAUN.  «Twenty-eight miles from thence on the left hand, as one goes towards Jerusalem, is  a village (Latin: villa) named Bethar. A mile from thence is the place where Jacob  slept when he was journeying into Mesopotamia , and here is the almond  tree...Thence to Jerusalem - miles 12»

    IDENTIFICATION  OF  BETHEL

According to Eusebius an Jerome the village of BETHEL was 12 roman milestones from Jerusalem, that is 18km.
The identification of BETHEL with  the village of BEITIN made by Edward Robinson in 1838 was callenged by  D Livingston. But his proposal with BEITIN as BETAUN and  EL BIREH as BETHEL is unconvincing since EL BIREH is only 15km from Jerusalem.

«Survey of Western Palestine, 1870-80» n°17 enlarge;  Madaba mosaic

map 14, detail enlarge;

KHIRBET NISYA: Excavation of the site with Related Studies in Biblical Archaeology, 1979-2002]

Taking into consideration that a Roman mile is 1.482 kilometers, and a  Roman furlong is 185.25 meters, the village indicated by Luke must have been  situated about 11 kilometers from Jerusalem.  The difference  can be accounted for, if one measures the distance not from the  center of Jerusalem, but from the surroundings.  The disciples returned, in fact, after  the sun went down, when the gates of the main city were already closed.  It was not,  therefore, in the city center that they met the eleven apostles, but in the surrounding  neighborhood. In the absence of milestones (which date back only to the time of Marcus Aurelius),  the estimation of distances was obviously relative.  Flavius Josephus didn’t fare any  better than Luke. For three villages closed to Jerusalem Anathot, Kolonieh et Rama, the distances respectively, 20, 30 et 40 furlongs were exact; but he hesitated for Gibeon between 40  or 50 furlongs; he underestimated  other distances like Bethleem at 20 furlongs instead of 40 , Jéricho  at 150 instead of 200,  Ein Gedi at 300 instead of 580, Tibérias at 120 stades from Scythopolis instead of 160 etc.
The  undervaluation of tje distance is not enough to invalidate OULAMMAUS / BETHEL as the destination of the two companions.

    THE ALMOND TREE OF BETHEL 

In his Latin translation of the Onomasticon, Jerome gives the meaning of LUZA, not  in Latin, as one would expect, but in Greek: AMUGDALON (the almond).  Luz in  Genesis 30:37 was a branch of an almond tree.   During his travels the Pilgrim of  Bordeaux wrote of the almond trees, but did not recount the stories and legends that  were connected to them. There could have been another word game, because in Hebrew the name HA –  MUGDALON meant a tower or a fortification, and BETHEL had been fortified by the  Syrian Bacchides (IMaccabee 9:50).  Vespasian seized it in 69 and taking advantage  of the fortification in place, left a garrison there (GJ IV 9,9). 

On the sixth century Madaba Mosaic, on top of HAGIA POLIS one can read the  inscription  “LUZA which is also BETHEL”.  Its location is marked with a door and  two towers indicating a fortification..

 

.

  OULAMMAOUS : A SUBSTITUTE  ?

If, in fact, the two disciples were going to BETHEL, then how do you explain Luke’s  usage of an unused term?  Was it pure literary artifice? In the Greek text of Jacob’s dream, the name of BETHEL does not appear.   The  Hebrew name BETHEL, etymologically, means the House of God, and instead of  writing BETHEL as had been the custom in the other biblical books, the translator of  the Septuagint preferred to write: OIKOS THEOU:

   JACOB'S DREAM 

The choice of OULAMMAOUS therefore reflects a precise intention that was linked  to the patriarch Jacob, and to the divine promise that had been made to him as he  left Be’ersheba:
Painting by Hans Hartung EL BIREH and BEITIN were resting places for the caravans leaving  Jerusalem for the North. The Crusaders called EL BIREH ‘the Great Mahomeria’ ; it was not only a fortress that lay on the route to Jerusalem, but a destination of  pilgrimage.  

At this stop, near one day way from  Jerusalem, Mary and Joseph had hoped to find Jesus, who, in his thirteenth year of  age, was studying with the sages in Jerusalem. In commemoration of this episode of Jesus’ childhood, a church  dedicated to Mary  was erected  in EL BIREH, Excavations  were conducted by Y Magen from 1987 to 1991,. No remains were found of a church predating a Crusader period. In BEITIN the church was dedicated to Joseph. Part of the ruins of BURJ-BEITIN are perhaps the church and monastery to which Jerome alluded to.

Sanctuaire Sainte Marie IN EL BIREH , 1937

2005  studium Biblicum Franciscanum)

  CONCLUSION

With the name OULAMMAOUS, the spiritual meaning of the place took precedence  over the topographical location, yet without hiding it.  Luke wrote his book in Greek  for readers who had access to the Septuagint, and who would certainly know what  this name meant.  By using an allusion he was also able to link the name of the place  with the voyage that Mary and Joseph took in order to find Jesus. 
OULAMMAUS, found as far back as the ancient Latin translations of the book of  Genesis, was not totally unknown.  Nevertheless, those who had access to the  Septuagint outside of its Alexandrine form, did not read OULAMMAOUS but OULAMLOUS.  Which is why, at the end of the first century they shortened this term  whose meaning escaped them, into AMMAOUS, which they knew to be the  administrative center of a tetrarchy.  The later passage to the spelling EMMAOUS  seems to have come from contact with the documents of the Roman administration.

Mentioned in preceding texts, OULAMMAOUS is not just a scribe’s fantasy, but  corresponds to a precise and identifiable geographical location. Its proximity to Jerusalem corresponds to the details of the story as indicated by Luke. Its identification with BEITIN gives to the resurrection narrative a  geographical basis.

The Codex Bezae is not a later or marginal rewriting of the Gospel.  On the contrary,  it is the key to understanding the text. OULAMMAÜS is one of the markers given in chapter 24, allowing the knowledge of  the name of Cleophas’ companion, Jacob the Just or the Lord's brother. By using a  term that was documented but no longer in use, Luke wanted  to enable the reader  to identify a person, who for his own reasons, did not wish to be named.    This problematic is the second part of this article.   

Second Part : Cleopas' companion 

Sylvie  Chabert d'Hyères
© Copyright December 2005- May 2006




First Part : Identification of Oulammaus/Emmaus Second Part : Cleopas' companion  Third part : The beloved disciple  Home Page




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footnotes
1 - Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis, by F H Scrivener  1889.  New Testament Greek manuscripts, variant readings...by Reuben Swanson (1995).  Nestle Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece, critical apparatus since 1927.
2 - Jenny Read-Heimerdinger: ‘Where is Emmaus?’, in Studies in the Early Text of the  Gospels  and Acts, D.J. Taylor (ed.), Birmingham University Press, pp. 229-44. Jenny Read-Heimerdinger with J. Rius-Camps: ‘Emmaous or Oulammaous? Luke’s  Use of the Jewish  Scriptures in the Text of Luke 24 in Codex Bezae’, Revista  Catalana  de Teologia 27, pp. 23-42.
3- AJ 13:15
4-  1Mb 3:40 et 57;  4:3; 9:50  = AMMAOUS in the codicii A B S. Si EMMAOUS in  1M4:3 in codex  Sinaiticus, scribal correction.  AMMAOUS  = one of the 11 toparchies of Judea in AJ 13:15 -   BJ 3:55.  AMMAOUNTA in BJ 2.63 = EMMAOUNTA in  AJ 17.282.  
5 - AMMAUS in the codicii  a (Vercellensis IVs.), b (Veronensis,Vs), codex l (Berlin, VIIIs.) , ff2 (Paris BN, Vs); Codex e (Trente,Palatinus 1185, Vs) ; codex l (Berlin VIIIs)  codex r (Dublin VIIs). EMAUS codex f (Brescia VIs)
6 - Lc 24:13 «Et ecce duo  ex illis, ibant in ipsa die in castellu, quod aberat spatio  stadiorum sexaginta ab Hierusalem, nomine  Ammaus et Cleophas.» ff2 (Paris BN,  Vs) «Fuerunt autem duo ex illis euentes ipsa die in castellum quod est ab Hierosolymis  stadia septem, nomine Ammaus et Cleopas» Codex e (Trente,Palatinus 1185, Vs) «e duo  erant ex illis, eunt .... castellum, quod aberat st.......Hierusalem, nomine   Amaus...as.» codex r (Dublin VIIs).
7 - St Ambroise of Milan q 77.2: «Cleopas (Cleophas CNAB) et Amaus (Emaus N,  Emmaus X) euntes in via tristes». Egalement Expositio Evangelii Secundum Lucam  (Migne col 1847...1848) and Commentary in Song of songs ch 49.
8- Eusebius EH  III
9 - Epître108:8 Peregrinatio Paulae
10 -  Pliny Historia Naturalis  5,15(14),1, Flavius Josèphe  listed 11 toparchies:   Gophna,  Akrabatta,  Thamna, Lydda,  Emmaus, Herodium Jericho  Pella,  Idumea,   Engedi. The last three were removed on account of Bethleptephe and Joppe.
11 -Example : EPHRATA (Gn35:16) ELLASAR (Gn 14.1), ELIM (Is 15.8) with  aleph in  Hebrew.
12 - Jos18:26
13 - GJ 7.10.9 v.217 et  TB sukkah 45a
14 - Eusebius, Onomastica, 40:20. Procopius 320A  15 according to Hosea (V,8),   Bethaun was to Benjamin. According to the Talmud  on Jos., VIII,2, and Jérôme (Comm. ad Hoseam,  v, 8; P.L., XXV, 861) Bethaun was  Bethel.  16 - Clermont-Ganneau Recueil d'archéologie orientale, 1888 et P Thomsen   Die  römischen Meilensteine der Provinzen Syria, Arabia und Palaestina, 1917. 17 Epist., CVIII, 13

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