The Village of Amwas, (Emmaus), Palestine
St. Luke 24:13-31
Amwas
Jesus and His disciples on the road to Emmaus
St. Luke 24:13–31
We are looking southward over a valley in which are the squalid ruins of the one-time prosperous village of Amwas (Emmans). Behind us stretches a craggy upland leading to Beth-haron, where Joshua triumphed over the Canaanites in one of the most fateful battles of history. Jerusalem is only twenty miles southeast (left).
“The square opening set around with stones is the mouth of a spring from which the village people get supplies for drinking, cooking and such little cleaning as they are disposed to do."
“Notice how carefully the women shield their faces from a stranger’s gaze—that is a principle of good manners which every Mohammedan girl is taught. Bare feet are not immodest, but the face must be shielded. Those earthen jars are of local manufacture and cost only a few cents apiece. You notice how erect and graceful is the pose of those women, even though they evidently belong to the poorer class. The habit of carrying such burdens on the head gives to the working women of Oriental lands a much finer carriage than belongs to the women of the wealthy class."
“Do you know that this very path around the little hill, where those women are walking, may have been trodden by the torn feet of our Saviour, on that glorious day when He rose from the dead (Luke 24:13–32)? Sweep away from the landscape yonder the Amwas of today, with its squalid clay huts and its poverty-stricken inhabitants; call up the Emmaus of twenty centuries ago, when these slopes were terraced with vineyards, when a contented, prosperous people were dwelling in stone houses with donned roofs. Perhaps then you can see the two disciples and the holy Stranger entering the town by yonder path.”
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