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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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6 S& Mark and Luke th& Tioo DisclpUsr thmtfied to Emmaus .
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what he means by the same pronoun in the first , when it clearly means the Jewish believers , or the people in the midst of whom the advent and works of the Messiah were fulfilled . The Evangelist then attests , that he was in the number of those to whom the apostles , in their discourses , delivered an account of the actions and
instructions of Jesus ; and then adds , as a mere adequate qualification for becoming the historian of his Divine JV { aster > v $ & % he had himself attended and noted with scrupulous accuracy the transactions which he records in his gospel . But mark the gross and inexcusable error which learned men
have committed on this subject : they talk of us , in the second verse * not meaning , as it evidently does , the same persons with us in the first , but the same with me in the third , thus making the writer contradict himself ,
and invalidating his authority as a competent historian . This blunder was first made by Irenseus about the end of the second century , and it has without exception been adopted by modern critics . It is observable , that neither Matthew nor Mark nor John
say that they were eye-witnesses of the facts which they respectively record ; while Luke is so particular and emphatic in stating his qualification in this respect . The cause of this peculiarity is to be sought in the reference which this writer makes to
the pseudo-evangelists , who , having published their gospels in Egypt , and pretending that Jesus had been in that country , affected to be competent historians of the facts which they related . If , then , Luke , as he most
emphatically declared , had witnessed every thing that is related by him , he must hare been one of the two disciples who went to Emmaus ; for he is the only writer who gives a full account of that occurrence . And the internal
evidence that he was one of the two is complete ; for in three places he uses the first for the third person , and from the nature of what he says , it is clear that he wrote not what had been told him by another , but what he remembered to have been felt by himself , " And they said to one another , How did our hearts burn
within U 9 as he spoke to us on the way V * Besides the writer , in telling the story , relates but imperfectly some mi-
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mite circumstances of which his presence alone could give him a full and adequate impression : " It happened that , while they were communing and reasoning together , that Jesus himself , having' drawn near , went with them . " It seems * from the original , that Jesus affecting to be a stranger , kept aloof for a time for fear of
intruding , and drew nearer them as they appeared to wish his approach to unite in their conversation ; and this is a circumstance which could hardly enter the miiid of any but one that had been present .
The other disciple is said to have been Cleopas . * Now I propose to shew that this Cleopas vv ^ s no other than Mark the Evangelist . Mark ' s father was a Roman , but a proselyte to Judaism , and thence became a re * sident of Jerusalem . From his
extraction he appears to have assumed the . name of mark or Marcus , while , as a Jewish proselyte , he adopted the name of John , which in Greek is interpreted Cleopas or Clopqs , meaning sweet-voiced , just as a female would have beea styled Calliope . For th&
origin of John or lav , is the Hebrew verb nip ona , which under the form , of a noun lona , is applied by Isaiak xiii . 22 , to certain birds , which the Septuagint render by crt-ipvjve <; , sirens , doubtless on account of their sweet
or enchanting voice . Marias father was at this time dead 3 but his mother was still alive , and had a house at Jerusalem . It was natural for Mark to assume his father ' s name of
Cleopas , but he seems to have declined it after he had ranked with the disciples of Christ ; and this seems to be the reason why the name of Cleopas , though a leading disciple , never occurs in the New Testament except on this occasion , nor in any ecclesiastical writer to my knowledge .
If , then , Luke and Mark were the two disciples that went to Emmaus , we can account for some circumstances which characterise this incident . First , we see why Luke and Mark , and not Matthew and John , notice this event—because the tvyo
former were personally concerned in it , and alone able from their own knowledge to relate it . Secondly , we see the important reason why our Lord should shew himself separately to these two , and unfold to them in
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1824, page 656, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2530/page/16/
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