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Emmaus is the name of two places in Palestine.
1. A village mentioned in the Gospel of Luke (24:13), without any indication of direction, as being 60 stadia (almost 7 m.), or according to some manuscripts 160 stadia, from Jerusalem. Its identification is a matter of mere guesswork: it has been sought at (a) EmmausNicopolis (see 2 below), distant 176 stadia from Jerusalem; (b) Kuryet el- Enab, distant 66 stadia, on the carriage road to Jaffa; (c) Kulonieh, distant 36 stadia, on the same road; (d) el-Kubeibeh, distant 63 stadia, on the Roman road to Lydda; (e) Urtas, distant 60 stadia; and (f) Khurbet el-Khamasa, distant 86 stadia, on the Roman road to Eleutheropolis. Of these, el-Kubeibeh or Urtas seems the most probable, though many favor Kulonieh because of its nearness to Bet Mizza, in which name there is similarity with Emmaus, and because of a reading (30 stadia) in Josephus.
2. Emmaus-Nicopolis, now Amws, a town on the maritime plain, and a place of importance during the Maccabaean and Jewish wars. Near it Judas Maccabaeus defeated Gorgias in 164 B.C., and Vespasian established a fortified camp in A.D. 69. It was afterwards rebuilt and named Nicopolis, and became an episcopal see. It was also noted for a healing spring.
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.
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