II. EMMAUS, a city of Judæa, situated at two and twenty miles distance from Lydda, as the old Itinerary of Palestine witnesses. This city was afterwards called Nicopolis, and is a different place from the village of Emmaus, spoken of by St. Luke, and Josephus, which was not above ten miles from Jerusalem. Mr. Reland1 proves very well the difference of these two places from Josephus, St. Jerom, the Maccabees, and Talmudists. Nevertheless, it is true that St. Jerom in Paula’s Epitaph has confounded Emmaus, which was sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, with the other, surnamed Nicopolis. But in other passages he speaks of this last Emmaus in such a manner, as can by no means agree with that mentioned by St. Luke. In the city of Emmaus, or Nicopolis, there were baths of hot water2, wherein, as is traditionally handed down among the inhabitants, our Lord washed his feet, and communicated a healing virtue to them. Julian the Apostate , out of hatred to Jesus Christ, gave orders to stop up this fountain. Some have been of opinion that this was the place where Zechary and Elizabeth his wife dwelt. These two Emmaus’s are almost perpetually confounded by Authors.
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