Luke 24:17

Jesus’ question apparently so shocked the two disciples that they stopped walking. It opened a wound in their hearts and renewed their sorrow. Cleopas’ casual comment tells the reader that Jesus was the talk of Jerusalem. Everyone there, residents and pilgrims alike, knew about Him and what had happened to Him. Luke may have mentioned Cleopas by name because some of his readers knew him or knew about him. According to Christian tradition he was Jesus’ uncle, Joseph’s brother, and he became a leader of the Jerusalem church. [Note: Eusebius, 3:11; cf. Ellis, p. 894.] He could have been the husband of Mary, the wife of Clopas, a variant spelling of the same name, who was present at Jesus’ crucifixion (John 19:25). However that may have been a different man. There was a tradition in the early Byzantine church that Luke was the second, unnamed disciple. [Note: For defense of this view, see Wenham, pp. 29-32.]