Archaeologists uncover the massive fortification walls at Kiriath Yearim. Credit: Ariel David
Archaeologists believe that they have found the biblical town of Emmaus where Jesus is said to have first appeared to two of his disciples after His resurrection.
Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper reported on Tuesday that a team of French archaeologists from the College de France and Israeli investigators from Tel Aviv University have since 2017, been digging at Kiriath Yearim, a hill overlooking the approach to Jerusalem a few kilometers west of the city.
This site is located near the town of Abu Ghosh, famous because the Ark of the Covenant was kept there before it was transferred to Jerusalem.
The archaeologists told Haaretz they unearthed “massive walls of a 2,200-year-old Hellenistic fortification.”
“The importance of this site, its dominant position over Jerusalem, was felt again and again through time: in the eighth century B.C.E., and then again in the Hellenistic period and then again after the First Jewish Revolt and the sack of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.,” Tel Aviv University archaeologist Israel Finkelstein told Haaretz.
Judah the Maccabee, a priest who led a Jewish revolt against the Seleucid empire, was defeated and killed here in 160 BC by the Seleucid army led by general Bacchides. Bacchides fortified the towns surrounding Jerusalem with large walls, including the biblical town of Emmaus.
Finkelstein believes they may have found the walls built to fortify Emmaus.
“Geographically I think that the distance to Jerusalem fits well, so I do think that Kiriath Yearim could have been the Emmaus of the New Testament,” Professor of biblical studies at the College de France Thomas Römer said.
It is written in the book of Luke that it was on the road to Emmaus where Jesus made his first appearance before two of His disciples after His resurrection from the dead.
In all this, there are those who caution linking Kiriath Yearim to the biblical town of Emmaus. Benjamin Isaac, a former archaeology professor stated that “there is not enough hard evidence to conclusively link Emmaus to Kiriath Yearim” reports Haaretz.
There are several other locations that have traditionally been viewed as the site of the town where Jesus first appeared after his resurrection from the dead.
Aleteia reports that “what later became the Byzantine town called Emmaus Nicopolis” is often seen as the site of the biblical Emmaus. This town, reports claim, fits the description of the Emmaus mentioned in the Bible and its name was preserved in the Arab village of Imwas, that was built on the site of the Byzantine town.
News Agencies contributed to this report.
