Emmaus-Nicopolis: Where the Risen Jesus Broke Bread

On the day of the Resurrection, two disciples were walking from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus when a stranger joined them on the road. They did not recognize him. He walked with them, listened to their grief over the crucifixion, and explained how the scriptures had foretold everything that had happened. When they reached Emmaus, they urged him to stay: “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening” (Luke 24:29). At supper, when he took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, “their eyes were opened and they recognized him,” and he vanished (Luke 24:30-31). They said to each other: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road?” (Luke 24:32). The story of the road to Emmaus, told only in the Gospel of Luke (24:13-35), is one of the most intimate and moving passages in the New Testament, and the site that tradition identifies as its setting lies in the foothills west of Jerusalem.

Which Emmaus?

The identification of biblical Emmaus has been debated for centuries. Luke says the village was 60 stadia (approximately 11 kilometers) from Jerusalem, but the site of Emmaus-Nicopolis is roughly 30 kilometers away, far too distant. The key to the debate lies in an ancient manuscript variant: the 4th-century Codex Sinaiticus, one of the oldest complete New Testament manuscripts, reads 160 stadia instead of 60, which closely matches the distance to Nicopolis. At least four sites compete for the identification: Emmaus-Nicopolis (this site), Abu Ghosh, El-Qubeibeh (maintained by the Franciscans), and Motza. Emmaus-Nicopolis has the strongest historical claim because it is the only site where the ancient name was continuously preserved: the Arabic name of the village that stood here until 1967, Imwas, derives directly from “Emmaus.” It was identified as biblical Emmaus by early Church Fathers, and a major basilica was built here specifically to commemorate the Emmaus story.

A City with Many Lives

Long before the Christian tradition, Emmaus was a place of military significance. In 166 BCE, Judas Maccabeus won one of his most important victories here against a Seleucid army under the generals Gorgias and Nicanor. The Maccabees learned that Gorgias had taken a detachment to make a night attack on their camp, so Judas abandoned his position and attacked the main Seleucid base at Emmaus at dawn, routing the remaining forces and setting the camp ablaze (1 Maccabees 3-4). In 4 BCE, the town was burned during the unrest following Herod’s death. In the early 3rd century CE, the Christian scholar Julius Africanus petitioned Emperor Elagabalus on behalf of the town, and in 221 CE the emperor granted it city status and renamed it Nicopolis, “City of Victory.” In 639 CE, a devastating plague struck the site, killing thousands and leaving a deep mark on early Islamic history.

The Churches

A substantial Byzantine basilica was built at the site in the 5th-6th century CE, its three apses oriented eastward. Excavations conducted between 1924 and 1930 revealed the basilica walls, an external baptistery with polychrome mosaics, and a 4th-century baptismal font. Beneath and around the Christian remains, archaeologists also found evidence of a Byzantine-period Samaritan synagogue with inscriptions in Hebrew and Greek, and a 3rd-century Roman bathhouse. In the 12th century, the Crusaders built a smaller church against the central Byzantine apse, following their practice of restoring earlier sacred sites. The layered remains visible today, Roman, Samaritan, Byzantine, and Crusader, make the site a compressed history of the land.

The site is maintained today by the Community of the Beatitudes, a French Catholic community that settled here in 1993. They care for the ruins, welcome visitors, and conduct prayer services among the ancient stones.

Visit with Hoshen Tours

Emmaus-Nicopolis is where tradition holds the risen Jesus broke bread with two disciples. Hoshen Tours pairs it with the Finnish village at Yad HaShmona, the biblical landscape reserve at Neot Kedumim, Ayalon Valley and Canada Park, and the village of Abu Ghosh.