Emmaus Nicopolis

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Coordinates: 31 ° 50 ′ 21.5 ″  N , 34 ° 59 ′ 22 ″  E

Map: Israel
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Emmaus Nicopolis​
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Ruins of the crusader church above the remains of the Byzantine basilica of Emmaus Nikopolis

Emmaus (Nicopolis, Nikopolis, Amwas, Imwas) is a place in Palestine (from the 3rd to the 7th century AD a city), which is about 30 km west of Jerusalem , on the border between the mountains of Judea and the valley of the Ajalon . The Israeli- controlled place is in the so-called West Bank .

Very close to Emmaus, the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem splits into the north route (via Bet Horon ) and the south route (via Kirjat-Jearim ). In 1967 the Arab village of Amwas was completely destroyed in the Six Day War. Today, Emmaus is located at the Latrun intersection between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv , 20 minutes from Ben Gurion International Airport , and is open to visitors.

Geographical location and name

The geographical location of Emmaus is described in the Jerusalem Talmud , in tract Shevi`it 9.2:

“The area from Bet-Horon to the sea counts as one landscape.” One landscape, not different regions? Rabbi Johanan said: “There too there are mountains, valleys and valleys. The mountains are from Bet-Horon to Emmaus, the lowlands from Emmaus to Lod, the valley from Lod to the sea. "

There are also two maps from Roman times that show the location of Emmaus. The Tabula Peutingeriana , according to which Emmaus is about 19 miles (28 km) west of Jerusalem, and the Geographike Hyphegesis of Ptolemy , which gives the distance from Jerusalem 20 miles (29.5 km). This information is confirmed by old Christian witnesses, as well as by some manuscripts and old manuscripts of the Gospel of Luke (e.g. from the Codex Sinaiticus ), which indicate 160 stages as the distance between Jerusalem and Emmaus: Eusebius of Caesarea , the anonymous pilgrim from Bordeaux , Jerome (letter 108) and others.

The name "Emmaus" probably comes from the Hebrew word "Hammat" (חמת) or "Hamta" (חמתא) and means something like "hot springs". This name was probably used during the 2nd century BC. Hellenized and can be found in the old Jewish literature under different forms: Ammaus, Ammaum, Emmaous, Emmaum, Maous, Amous: Άμμαούμ, Άμμαούς, Έμμαούμ, Έμμαούς, אמאוס, אמאום, עמאוס, עמאואמ, עמו…

history

Due to its strategic location, Emmaus has played an important administrative, military and economic role over and over again in the course of its history. The first mention of Emmaus is found in Book 1 of the Maccabees , chapters 3–4, in the context of the war of Judas Maccabeus against the Greeks . (2nd century BC)

In Hasmonean times, Emmaus gained a dominant position in the area of ​​the valley of Ajalon and received the status of a regional administrative center (center of a "toparchy"). Flavius ​​Josephus mentions Emmaus several times in his writings ( Jewish War 2, 4, 3; 2, 20, 4; 3, 3, 5; 4, 8, 1; 5, 1, 6; Jewish Antiquities 14, 11, 2; 14, 15, 7; 17, 10, 7-9). Among other things, he speaks of the destruction of Emmaus in 4 BC. After the devastation by the Romans , Emmaus became a small place mentioned in the Gospel of Luke :

“On the same day two of the disciples were on their way to a village called Emmaus, which is one hundred and sixty stadia from Jerusalem. They talked to each other about everything that had happened. While they were talking and sharing their thoughts, Jesus came over and went with them. But they were struck with blindness so that they did not recognize him ... So they reached the village to which they were on their way. Jesus pretended to go on, but they urged him and said: Please stay with us; for it will soon be evening, the day has already passed. So he went in with them to stay with them. And when he was at table with them, he took the bread, gave praise, broke the bread, and gave it to them. Then their eyes opened and they recognized him; then they saw him no more. "(Luk 24, 13-16, 28-31)

After the suppression of the Bar Kochba uprising in the first half of the 2nd century AD, Emmaus was settled by Romans and Samaritans . In the early 3rd century AD Julius Africanus lived and worked in Emmaus, a learned Christian writer of Roman origin. According to the late antique historians ( Eusebius of Caesarea , Hieronymus , Philip of Side and others) Julius Africanus was the head of a delegation of locals who asked the Roman emperor Elagabal to raise Emmaus to the status of a city ( polis ) . The emperor gave Emmaus the status of a polis and the new name Nicopolis, which Emmaus carried in the late Roman period and throughout the Byzantine period. Eusebius of Caesarea wrote: "Emmaus, from whom Cleopas came, who is mentioned in the Gospel of Luke, is today Nicopolis, a famous city in Palestine."

Byzantine Baptistery at Emmaus Nicopolis

In Byzantine times, Emmaus developed into an important city with a bishopric. At the point where tradition localized the encounter with the risen Christ , a large church complex was built that could accommodate numerous pilgrims and the ruins of which have been preserved to this day. With the arrival of the Muslim conquerors in the 7th century AD, Emmaus got its old Semitic name again, in Arabic: “Amwas”, “Imwas”, but it lost its importance as a regional center.

During the time of the Crusades, the Christian presence in Emmaus once again flourished and the Byzantine church was rebuilt. At the same time, however, the pilgrims began to celebrate the commemoration of the apparition of the risen Christ in three other places in the Holy Land: HaMotza (6 km west of Jerusalem), el-Kubeibeh (12 km northwest of Jerusalem) and Abu Gosh (12 km west of Jerusalem).

The Arab village of Amwas has recently been identified with the biblical place Emmaus and the Roman-Byzantine city Nicopolis: Edward Robinson (1838-1852), M.-V. Guérin (1868), Clermont-Ganneau (1874), J.-B. Guillemot (1880-1887). Last but not least, Emmaus became known through a local saint, Blessed Marjam von Abellin (Marjam Bawardi), nun of the Carmelite Monastery of Bethlehem, who is said to have appeared to Jesus himself to reveal to her that Amwas was the Emmaus of the Gospel. The Carmel of Bethlehem acquired the holy place of Emmaus from the Muslims , excavations were carried out and the Christian pilgrimage revived. In 1967 the Arab village was completely destroyed in the course of the Six Day War.

archeology

Mosaic from the Byzantine basilica of Emmaus Nicopolis

The first archaeological excavations began in the late 19th century and continue to this day: Charles Clermont-Ganneau (1874), J.-B. Guillemot (1883–1887), the Dominicans Louis-Hugues Vincent and Félix-Marie Abel (1924–1930), Yizhar Hirschfeld (1975), M. Gichon (1978), M. Louhivuori, M. Piccirillo, V. Michel, K .-H. Fleckenstein (since 1994). In the course of the excavations in the area of ​​today's "Canada Park" ("Ajalon") ruins of the former fortifications of Emmaus from Hasmonean times were discovered, as well as Jewish graves from the 1st century AD, a Roman bathhouse from the 3rd century AD, a hydraulic system, oil presses and tombs from Roman-Byzantine times. Jewish graves from the 1st century AD, an oil press, Roman-Byzantine graves and many objects from Roman-Byzantine times (oil lamps, crockery, jewelry) were found on the site of the holy site of Emmaus. Numerous Hebrew, Samaritan , Greek and Latin inscriptions have also been found on stones around Emmaus .

Reasons for the identification of Emmaus-Nicopolis with the location of Emmaus in the Gospel of Luke

The biblical place Emmaus is mentioned in the Gospel of Luke 24:13. Most of the ancient Gospel manuscripts of Luke that survive give the distance between Jerusalem and Emmaus as 60 stadia . At the same time, however, there are manuscripts that speak of a distance of 160 stages: the uncial manuscripts א (Codex Sinaiticus), Θ, Ν, Κ, Π, 079, the minuscule manuscripts: 158, 175, 223, 237, 420, old lectionaries : L844, L2211, old translations into Latin , certain manuscripts of the Vetus Latina (e.g. Codex Sangermanensis), high quality manuscripts of the Vulgate (including the oldest, Codex Fuldensis) in Aramaic (Palestinian Gospels), Georgian and Armenian. The 60-stage version was adopted for the publication of the printed Bible in the 16th century . The main argument against the distance of 160 stadiums is usually used as the impossibility of covering such a distance twice in one day. In the meantime, the principle of textual interpretation of older texts must also be taken into account: Lectio difficilior , lectio verior, which adopt the rarer and more difficult-to-explain variant than the more probable to determine the original text . Older Bible copyists were more inclined to adapt the text to understanding rather than vice versa. It should also be noted that experience has shown that it is indeed quite possible to walk the distance from Jerusalem to Emmaus and back in one day.

The old Jewish sources (the 1st book of the Maccabees, Flavius ​​Josephus, Talmud and Midrash) know only one place with the name Emmaus in the area of ​​Jerusalem, namely Emmaus in the Ajalon valley. In the history of the Jewish war (Bell. 4, 444–449) Flavius ​​Josephus describes that Vespasian set up the fifth Macedonian legion in Emmaus. This has been confirmed by archaeologists who found tombstones of soldiers from this legion in the area around Emmaus. So we can safely assume that there was indeed an Emmaus in the Ajalon Valley in the 1st century AD and that Flavius ​​Josephus refers to this place in his writings. The place "Ha-Motza", which is 30 stadia (4 miles) from Jerusalem, is mentioned in the medieval manuscripts of the "History of the Jewish War" under the name "Ammaus", which is most likely due to an error of the Bible copyists.

The Christian tradition (the Church Fathers as well as the pilgrims of the Holy Land in Roman-Byzantine times) has always unanimously identified Emmaus Nicopolis with the Emmaus of the Gospel of Luke: Origen , St. Eusebius of Caesarea, St. Hieronimus, Hesychius of Jerusalem, Theophanus the Confessor, Sozomenus, Theodosius, etc.

Emmaus-Nicopolis has retained its name “Emmaus” (“Amwas”) through the centuries, as has the Christian tradition of venerating this place as the Emmaus, where Christ appeared as the risen one who survived centuries.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jerusalem Talmud, tractate Sheviit 9.2, H. Guggenheimer, trans., Berlin-NY 2001, p.609
  2. ↑ "Onomastikon"
  3. ↑ Under this name Emmaus is mentioned in the Midrash Zuta to the Song of Songs 6,8 and in the Midrash Rabbah to the Lamentations 1,45.
  4. ↑ cf. Flavius ​​Josephus , History of the Jewish War , 3, 3.5
  5. ↑ Jewish Antiquities: 17, 10: 7-9
  6. ↑ St. Eusebius of Caesarea, "Onomasticon", 90: 15-17, dated 290–325 AD.
  7. ^ Edward Robinson, Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petrae , vol II, Boston, 1841, p. 363
  8. ^ Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent Regions, the Voyage of 1852 , Boston, 1856, pp 146-148
  9. ↑ Vincent, Abel "Emmaüs", Paris, 1932. http://archive.org/details/VincentEtAbelEmmausSaBasiliqueEtSonHistoire
  10. ↑ Y. Hirschfeld, A Hidraulic installation in the Water-Supply System of Emmaus-Nicopolis. - IEJ: 1978.
  11. ^ M. Gichon, Roman Bathhouses in Eretz Israel. - Qadmoniot 11: 1978.
  12. ↑ K.-H. Fleckenstein, M. Louhivuori, R. Riesner, "Emmaus in Judäa", Giessen-Basel, 2003. ISBN 3-7655-9811-9 .
  13. ↑ M.-J. Lagrange, Evangile selon saint Luc , Paris, 1921, pp 617-618 , Wieland Willker, A Textual Commentary on the Greek Gospels , Vol. 3 ( Memento of the original from September 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www-user.uni-bremen.de
  14. ^ Strack, Billerbeck, "Commentary on the New Testament from Talmud & Midrash", vol II, Munich, 1924, 1989, pp 269-271. ISBN 3-406-02725-3
  15. ↑ see: PM Séjourné, "Nouvelles de Jérusalem", RB 1897, p. 131; E. Michon, "Inscription d'Amwas", RB 1898, p. 269-271; JH Landau, "Two Inscribed Tombstones", "Atiqot", vol. XI, Jerusalem, 1976.
  16. ^ Edward Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent Regions, the Voyage of 1852 , - Boston: 1856., s. 149  ; Schlatter, "Some results from Niese's edition of Josephus": ZDPV, XIX (1896), s. 222; Vincent & Abel, op. Cit. s. 284-285
  17. ↑ According to a testimony inserted as a note in Manuscript No. 194 in Italics.
  18. ↑ «Onomasticon»
  19. ^ Letter 108, PL XXII, 833 et al
  20. ^ "Quaestiones", PG XCIII, 1444
  21. ^ "Chronografia", PG CVIII, 160
  22. ^ "History of the Church", PG LXVII, 180
  23. ^ "De situ Terrae sanctae", 139