Blinded by Invisible Light: Revisiting the Emmaus Story (Luke 24,13-35)

Some insight into the theological assumptions and intentions of the Emmaus story can be gained by reading Luke 24 in light of Second Temple traditions about the 'glory' of the protoplast, of Moses, and of other elect individuals. This article reads the Emmaus story in conjunction with the Lukan Transfiguration account, Mark’s 'Longer Ending', 2 Baruch, and the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum, and argues that the protological and eschatological garment of glory, perceived sometimes as blinding luminosity, is at other times invisible but rendering its bearer unrecognizable. The lack of recognition on the part of Jesus’ two disciples is caused by the fundamental incompatibility between the 'already' glorified state of the risen Christ, who has regained the luminous state of Adam in Eden, and the 'not yet' glorified state of the two disciples.