Their eyes were opened – The obscurity was removed. They saw him to be the Messiah. Their doubts were gone, and they saw clearly that he was risen, and was truly, as they had long hoped, the Saviour of people. It is not meant that they were before blind, but that they did not know until then who he was.

He vanished out of their sight – He suddenly departed. It does not appear that there was anything miraculous in this, but, during their surprise, he took the opportunity suddenly to withdraw from them.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 31. Their eyes were opened] But we are not to imagine that he administered the holy eucharist at this time; there is not the most distant evidence of this. It was a mere family meal, and ended before it was well begun.

They knew him] His acting as father of the family, in taking, blessing, and distributing the bread among them, caused them to recollect those lips which they had often heard speak, and those hands by which they had often been fed. Perhaps he also threw off the disguise which he had before assumed; and now appeared in his own person.

He vanished out of their sight.] Probably, during their surprise, he took the opportunity of withdrawing from the place; leaving them to reflect and meditate on what they had heard and seen.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

And their eyes were opened,…. Not that they were before shut, or closed up, but what before held them was removed, and what hindered their sight and knowledge was taken away; and perhaps these actions of his taking the bread, and blessing, and breaking, and giving it to them, might put them in mind of him, and cause them to look wistfully at him, when, what beclouded their sight being gone, and he appearing in his usual form, they perceived who he was:

and they knew him; to be their dear Lord and master, for whose death they had been sorrowing, and of redemption by him, and of whose resurrection they had been doubting:

and vanished out of their sight; not that he vanished as a spectre, or as smoke vanishes into air; but agility being a property of his risen body, he very suddenly, and swiftly, and in a moment, withdrew himself from them; for if he could withdraw himself from company in a very speedy manner before his resurrection, much more after; see Lu 4:30. The Syriac version renders it, “he was taken away from them”; as if some of the ministering angels were made use of to remove him at once; but this seems not necessary: the Arabic version renders it, “he was hidden from them”; that same power of his that held their eyes all the while they were travelling together, interposed some object between him and them, so that he could not be seen by them that very instant, even before he was gone out of the house.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Were opened (). Ingressive first aorist passive indicative of .

Knew (). Effective first aorist active indicative fully recognized him. Same word in verse 16.

Vanished ( ). Became invisible or unmanifested. from privative and , to appear. Old word, only here in the N.T.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

They knew [] . Clearly recognized.

And he vanished out of their sight [ ] . Lit., he, invisible, became away from them. It is not simply, he suddenly departed from them, but he passed away from them invisibly. The ejgeneto, became, is construed with ajp’ aujtwn, from them. 10

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “And their eyes were opened,” (auton de dienoichthesan hoi ophthalmoi) “Then their eyes were opened wide,” or they became wide-eyed, at His words of prayer and perhaps they saw the nail scars in His hands, Joh 20:25.

2) “And they knew him;” (kai epegnosan auton) “And they (both) recognized him,” Psa 119:18. The “eyes of their understanding” were opened, Eph 1:18; 1Jn 3:2.

3) “And he vanished out of their sight.” (kai autos aphantos egeneto p’ auton) “And he became invisible from them,” or vanished from their sight, suddenly disappeared, at the bat of an eye, as He came to them, Luk 24:15.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

Luk 24:31

. And their eyes were opened. By these words, we are taught that there was not in Christ any metamorphosis, or variety of forms, by which he might impose on the eyes of men, (as the poets feign their Proteus,) but that, on the contrary, the eyes of beholders were mistaken, because they were covered; just as, shortly afterwards, he vanished from the eyes of those very persons, not because his body was in itself invisible, but because God, by withdrawing their rigor, blunted their acuteness. Nor ought we to wonder that Christ, as soon as he was recognized, immediately disappeared; for it was not advantageous that they should any longer behold him, lest, as they were naturally too much addicted to the earth, they might desire again to bring him back to an earthly life. So far, then, as it was necessary to assure them of his resurrection, he made himself visible to them; but by the sudden departure, he taught them that they must seek him elsewhere than in the world, because the completion of the new life was his ascension to heaven.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(31) And he vanished out of their sight.Literally, He became invisible. The adjective does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. In the order of time this is the first example of the new conditions of our Lords risen life. It was not that He rose and left the room in which they sat. In a moment they knew Him with all the fulness of recognition; and then they saw Him no more. The work for which He had come to them was done. He had imparted comfort and insight, and had brought them into communion with Himself, and then they were to be taught that that communion was no longer to depend, as before, on a visible and localised presence. (Comp. Luk. 24:36, Joh. 20:19; Joh. 20:26.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

31. And their eyes were opened Utterly shallow and rationalistic is the interpretation of Alford, making these disciples discover Jesus by his mode of breaking bread! If neither voice, nor form, nor person, revealed the Lord, how absurd to suppose that his manner of breaking bread should accomplish the discovery. These two were not apostles, nor is it probable they were specially familiar with his style of breaking bread.

And they knew him There he stood, this very Messiah, of whom all Scripture was the harbinger; the sufferer, the heir of glory, the judge of the earth. Before this moment he could not reveal himself without disturbing their minds so as to unfit their understanding of the Scripture. And now he could reveal himself, to show that his exposition was authoritative and divine, being his own.

He vanished This finished the demonstration. He did not merely step out of the door. As they were beholding him, the place he occupied became at once vacant space. Then they knew that it was their Lord, and that their Lord was truly divine. Not Mary Magdalene, nor Peter, nor John, nor the whole college of apostles had as yet received such a favour as this vouchsafed to these two disciples, the one to us unnamed, and the other but a name!

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished from their sight.’

And it was when He performed this action that their eyes were opened and they knew Him, and He then, seemingly immediately, disappeared from their sight. It is very probable that they had a number of times been present at meals where Jesus had blessed the bread, and had broken and distributed it, and had therefore recognised the way in which He did it. And the very placing of Him in a context that they recognised would help with the recognition. This then opened their eyes to the fact that the Stranger was not just somewhat similar to Jesus, but really was Jesus. The impression is given that He did not partake of the bread. This sudden disappearance stresses the deliberate nature of His revelation of Himself to these two disciples, and made clear that He was not there as someone who had just come back again. He was there as One Who had risen from the dead and belonged to another world. Once He was satisfied that they knew Him He departed mysteriously, His task accomplished. And they would be continuing witnesses to the resurrection in Jerusalem and Judea once the Apostles had gone.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Luk 24:31 . ] is the opposite of , Luk 24:16 . As the latter, so also the former, according to Luke, is to be referred to extraordinary divine causation . This is opposed to the view (Paulus, Kuinoel, and others) that the disciples, only by means of the accustomed breaking of bread and giving of thanks by Jesus, wherein they had more attentively considered Him and had seen His pierced hands, arrived at the recognition of Him who until then had been unknown to them. Comp. on Luk 24:30 .

] with lively emphasis placed first. What Jesus did is previously described.

] (more strongly ) , which is often used of the healing of blind people (Mat 9:30 ; Mat 20:33 ; Joh 9:10 ; Joh 9:14 ; Joh 9:17 ; Joh 10:21 ; Joh 11:37 ), describes in a picturesque manner the endowing with a capacity, bodily or spiritual, of recognising what before was unknown , Gen 3:5 ; Gen 3:7 ; Gen 21:19 ; 2Ki 6:17 ; 2Ki 6:20 ; comp. Act 26:8

] He passed away from them invisibly . Comp. on , to withdraw from any one, Xen. Mem . i. 2. 25; Bar 3:21 . Luke intends manifestly to narrate a sudden invisible withdrawal effected through divine agency; hence those do wrong to his intention and to the expression who, like Kuinoel, make out of it only a subito ah iis discessit , so that this departure would not have been observed till it occurred (Schleiermacher, L. J. p. 474). Beza well says that Luke has not said , but ; “ne quis existimet praesentem quidem Christum cum ipsis mansisse, sed corpore, quod cerni non posset.” The Ubiquists supported the doctrine of the invisible presence of Christ’s body by the passage before us. Comp. Calovius.

On the word which is very frequent in the poets, but only rarely used in prose, and that of a late period, and, moreover, is not found in the LXX. and the Apocrypha instead of the classical prose word , see Wesseling, ad Diod . iv. 65.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.

Ver. 31. Their eyes were opened ] The free and entire use of their inward and outward senses was restored unto them.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

31. ] , not , which would imply His Body to have remained, but invisible to them: but , implying, besides the supernatural disappearance, a real objective removal from them .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Luk 24:31 . ., their eyes were at length opened, a Divine effect, but having its psychological causes. Euthy. suggests the use of the well-known blessing by Jesus as aiding recognition. The opening of the mind to the prophetic teaching concerning Messiah’s suffering was the main preparation for the opening of the eyes. The wonder is they did not recognise Jesus sooner. : an early poetical and late prose word = , not in Sept [207] , here only in N.T. After being recognised Jesus became invisible, , not to them ( ) but from them, implying departure from the house. Some take adverbially as qualifying the departure = He departed from them in an invisible manner.

[207] Septuagint.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

vanished = became invisible. Greek. aphantos. Only here.

out of their sight = from (Greek. apo. App-104.) them.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

31.] , not , which would imply His Body to have remained, but invisible to them: but , implying, besides the supernatural disappearance, a real objective removal from them.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Luk 24:31. ) He vanished out of their sight. This too showed that it was He. The former appearances of Jesus after His resurrection were of shorter continuance, in order that the move room (scope) might be left for faith.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

their eyes: Luk 24:16, Joh 20:13-16

vanished out of their sight: or, ceased to be seen of them, Luk 4:30, Joh 8:59

Reciprocal: Gen 35:13 – General Num 22:31 – opened 2Ki 6:20 – open the eyes Mar 9:8 – General Joh 5:13 – had Joh 20:14 – and knew Joh 21:4 – but 1Co 15:44 – there is a spiritual

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

1

Eyes were opened. This reversed the condition that had been over their eyes which “restrained” them. No physical miracle was performed by the act of Jesus as host. But it was such an unusual procedure for a guest, especially one who had seemed reluctant to visit with them (verses 28, 29), that it aroused their attention and stirred up their memory. they doubtless had been with Him before his death, on various occasions, and had beheld just such a performance. This, together with His conversation on the way, in which the prophecies were cited, brought them “to themselves” and they recognized Him. Having accomplished the purpose of the visit, Jesus disappeared.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Luk 24:31. And their eyes were opened. The supernatural influence spoken of in Luk 24:16 was re-moved.

And they knew him. Natural causes may have aided them. There may have been something peculiar in the manner of breaking the bread and uttering the blessing, that recalls their previous intercourse with him; or they may have discovered in the hands opened to give thanks the marks of the wounds. Still the main fact remains: their eyes were opened, and as an immediate result they knew Him.

And he vanished out of their sight. Luke certainly means to describe an extraordinary disappearance; not a becoming invisible to them but a supernatural removal from them. On the bodily nature of the Risen Redeemer, see next section. The reason for this sudden removal is to be found in the wise method by which our Lord would teach His bewildered followers that He had actually risen from the dead.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

24:31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he {e} vanished out of their sight.

(e) Suddenly taken away, and we may not therefore imagine that he was there in an invisible body, but indeed believe that he suddenly changed the place where he was.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes