‘And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty furlongs (stades) from Jerusalem.'
The two disciples prominent in this story were returning home to the village of Emmaus. There is no certainty as to where Emmaus was, but we are told that it was sixty stades from Jerusalem. It must be recognised that sixty stades would be very much an approximation (thus signifying ‘more than fifty stades') and much would depend for identification purposes on what part of Jerusalem it was measured from. A stade is about 192 metres or roughly two hundred and two yards, and thus about a furlong. This would make the village roughly six to seven miles from Jerusalem, which was quite a long trek which would take a few hours, although they would be used to walking such distances.
Emmaus means ‘spring (of water)'. But the spring might have disappeared long before. Names tend to live on. And besides all villages would need a water source. Identification is often made with El Qubeibeh, a village seven miles north west of Jerusalem at which a village of first century date has been discovered. It has no prominent spring, but its water source may have been enough to provide the name. However, we must recognise that Emmaus, being only a village, may have been totally wiped out by the Roman invasion, with all traces removed, depending on how large it was. Thus any identification must be tentative.
Like Mary and Martha these two presumably had little to do with the ministry in Galilee, but had probably responded to Jesus' preaching in Jerusalem. And they would not know Him as well as Mary and Martha did, for as far as we know He had never visited their house before, although they had clearly at some time broken bread with Him, possibly at Mary and Martha's home. Thus they did not on the whole know Him all that well. We must take this into account in considering why they failed to recognise Him.