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IV.

TO TEN APOSTLES AND OTHERS.

AUTHORITIES: Lc. xxiv. 36-43; Jo. xx. 19-21; 1 Cor. xv. 5; Ignatius,

WHEN the Lord

two disciples at

Smyrn. 3.

vanished out of the sight of the

Emmaus, as soon as the first surprise was over, they girded themselves for another journey, and retraced their steps to Jerusalem. Whatever the business may have been that called them to Emmaus, it was of no account in comparison with the duty of reporting their great experience to the Apostles without delay. As Mary of Magdala had hastened from the empty tomb to the lodging of Peter and John, so the two now made their way to the room where at this hour the whole company3 would be assembled for the evening meal. They reached the place big with tidings

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1 Lc. αὐτῇ τῇ ὥρᾳ.

2 Their loyalty was rewarded by witnessing the yet greater manifestation which was to follow: see Latham, Risen Master, p. 153 f.

3 Lc. τοὺς ἕνδεκα καὶ τοὺς σὺν αὐτοῖς.

44 Mc. ἀνακειμένοις.

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which they believed themselves the first to bring. But they had been forestalled. When the door was unbarred they were greeted at once with the cry, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.1 Yet the joy, the amazement of the Apostles and their party must have grown sensibly as the two told their story, with the fulness of the Eastern love of detail 2-how the Stranger overtook them on the road, what He said, how He 'opened the Scriptures,' how in the end He was revealed to them, and then at once disappeared.3

It was now evening, and save for the moonlight, dark; the sun had been low in the heavens when they reached Emmaus, nearly two hours ago. The door of the chamber had been barred again after the admission of the two brethren, to make sure against a sudden attack by the emissaries of the Sanhedrin; for the disciples were still haunted by the fear of attack.5 Suddenly, while the two were

1Cf. p. 14 ff. O. the Evangelists S. Luke alone, as we might have expected, shares S. Paul's knowledge of the appearance to S. Peter. 2 Lc. ἐξηγοῦντο τὰ ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ κτλ.

3 Mc.'s οὐδὲ ἐκείνοις ἐπίστευσαν is either from a later and less accurate account, or it must be taken to refer to some who still held out against the growing evidence of the Resurrection.

Doubtless, as Mr. Latham acutely says (p. 124), they walked 'in the rapid way people do who have great news to carry.' Still the distance could hardly be covered in less than the time stated.

5]ο. διὰ τὸν φόβον τῶν Ἰουδαίων.

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yet describing what had passed between themselves and the risen Christ,' they became conscious of a Presence in their midst: a form was seen standing before them; a voice greeted them with the customary, 'Peace be unto you.' In an instant their joy changed to terror; they believed themselves to have seen a spirit. A year ago in Galilee, when He came to them walking on the sea, they had cried out with fear, exclaiming, 'It is an apparition.' 2 The same panic seized them now; the form which had broken in upon their securely-barred retreat could only be a phantom, not a living man. To reassure them, it was not enough to say, as on the former occasion, It is I; be not afraid, for they knew that He had been among the dead, and would need proof that He was indeed risen again. So the Lord gave them this also. Why are ye troubled? He asks, and wherefore do reasonings arise in your heart? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. So saying, He shewed them the hands and feet that had been pierced by the nails of the Cross, and the side into which the soldier's lance had been driven; He offered them to their touch. Take, handle me, one report of the words makes

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1Lc. ταῦτα δὲ αὐτῶν λαλούντων.

2 Μt. xiv. 26 φάντασμά ἐστιν.

3Lc. ἐδόκουν πνεῦμα (cod. D, φάντασμα) θεωρεῖν.

4Lc. ἴδετε τὰς χεῖράς μου καὶ τοὺς πόδας μου. χεῖρας καὶ τὴν πλευρὰν αὐτοῖς.

Jo. ἔδειξεν καὶ τὰς

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Him say, and see that I am not a bodiless spirit ;1 handle me and see, S. Luke puts it, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye behold me having. When their very joy kept them from believing Him,2 He ate before them some of the fried fish which remained from their evening meal. It was clear at length to the dullest comprehension that His body was not docetic but real, and that it was the body which had been crucified. His saying had been fulfilled, Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.*

The joy of that moment was long remembered. The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord; so at the end of the century the beloved disciple wrote with the memory of that first vision of the risen Christ still fresh in his mind. If we may trust the writer of the appendix to S. Mark, there was that which sobered their joy at the time, for the Lord at once reproached the Apostles for the

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1 Ignatius, Letter to the Smyrnaeans, 3 λάβετε, ψηλαφήσατέ με, καὶ ἴδετε ὅτι οὐκ εἰμὶ δαιμόνιον ἀσώματον. This came, according to Jerome, from the Gospel according to the Hebrews; according to Origen, from the Doctrine of Peter.

2 Lc. ἀπιστούντων αὐτῶν ἀπὸ τῆς χαρᾶς.

3 The inferior Mss. add 'and of a honeycomb.'

4 Mt. xviii. 20.

5' Mc.' xvi. 14 wveldiσev Tǹv åπioríav avtŵv. Neither S. Luke nor S. John shews any knowledge of this, and it may be that the later writer has confused the occasion with that described in Lc. xxiv. 25. See additional note on p. 40,

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unbelief which had led them to reject the witness of the women who saw Him in the early hours of the day. But if this reproof was judged necessary by a love which does not shrink from inflicting salutary pain, it was soon succeeded by words that healed the wound. The Lord, S. John tells us,1 repeated His Peace be unto you. With Him the words of greeting were no empty formality. Before the Passion He said, Not as the world giveth give I unto you; and the Resurrection imparted a yet deeper meaning to His 'peace.' The Resurrection was a divine assurance that peace had been re-established between God and His world; and the original disciples of the Lord, who had 'continued with Him in His temptations,' were the first to receive the message of this reconciliation,* as they were to be the first to publish it to mankind. For the great tasks which lay before them He now proceeded to give them the necessary

powers.

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As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.5 Jesus Himself had been sent, entrusted with a mission, and one which none but Himself could

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1 είπεν
2Jo. xiv. 27.

Táλv. Augustine: 'iteratio confirmatio est.'

3 Lc. xxii. 28.

42 Cor. v. 19 τὸν λόγον τῆς καταλλαγῆς.

5 καθὼς ἀπέσταλκέν με ὁ πατήρ, κἀγὼ πέμπω ὑμᾶς, The variations

of verb and tense are to be noted.

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