# Luke 24

Luke 24 is the twenty-fourth and final chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke the Evangelist composed this Gospel as well as the Acts of the Apostles. This chapter records the discovery of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, his appearances to his disciples and his ascension into heaven.

## Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
* Papyrus 75 (AD 175–225)
* Codex Vaticanus (325–350)
* Codex Sinaiticus (330–360)
* Codex Bezae (~400)
* Codex Washingtonianus (~400)
* Codex Alexandrinus (400–440)
* Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (~450; extant verses 1–6, 46–53)
This chapter is divided into 53 verses.

## Resurrection morning (24:1–12)
### Context

The narrative in chapter 24 continues the events concluding chapter 23 without a break:
   It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments ... But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb

### Verse 1

    Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
Frederic Farrar, in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, suggests that the words "certain others" are "probably spurious", not being part of the text in the Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus or Codex Regius manuscripts.

### Verse 10

"The women who had come with him from Galilee" included "Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them".
   It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles.
The names of some women are mentioned in the canonical gospels, but only Luke's gospel mentions Joanna, implying that Luke receives his special information from "one (most likely Joanna) or more than one of" the women. In Luke 8:1–3 Mary called Magdalene, Joanna the wife of Chuza, and Susanna are named as women who provided material sustenance to Jesus during his travels, along with other unnamed women.
While Matthew, Mark and John mentioned the names of the women present at the cross, Luke only refers them as "the women that followed him from Galilee" (Luke 23:49), but name the women at the end in the story of the women's visit to the empty tomb (Luke 24:10). The two passages with the names of some women alongside the mention of the "twelve" and "apostles", respectively (Luke 8:1–3 and Luke 24:10), "form a literary inclusio" which brackets the major part of Jesus' ministry (leaving out only the earliest part of it).

### Verse 12

    But Peter arose and ran to the tomb; and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves; and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened.
This verse and verse 34, "The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!", suggest that Peter (alone) went to the tomb, whereas verse 24, And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, implies more than one person.
American biblical scholar Kim Dreisbach states that Greek: οθονια (othonia), translated here as "linen cloths", is "a word of uncertain meaning ... probably best translated as a generic plural for grave clothes". The same word is used in John 19:40.

## The road to Emmaus (24:13–35)

Luke 24:13–35 describes Jesus' appearance to two disciples who are walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, which is said to be 60 stadia (10.4 to 12 km, depending on the definition of stadion is used) from Jerusalem. One of the disciples is named Cleopas (verse 18), while his companion remains unnamed.

## Jesus appears to the apostles (24:36–49)
### Verse 36

    Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, "Peace to you."
* "Peace to you" (KJV: "Peace be unto you"): rendering the Greek phrase εἰρήνη ὑμῖν, eirēnē hymin, which is a literal translation of the customary Jewish salutation שָׁלוֹם לָכֶם, shalom lekom (cf. Matthew 10:12; Luke 10:5). This account agrees with John 20:19, which notes that "the doors of the room had been closed for fear of the Jews".

## The ascension of Jesus (24:50–53)
### Verse 51

    Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven.
The words "and carried up into heaven" are not included in some ancient texts of the gospel.

### Verse 53

    and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.
Luke's gospel ends where it began, in the temple.
The King James Version ends with the word "Amen", following the Textus Receptus, but modern critical editions of the New Testament exclude this word, as do many modern English translations. In a manuscript copy of Beza's, there are added words:
    The Gospel according to Saint Luke was published fifteen years after the ascension of Christ, a tradition also known to the 11th-century Byzantine bishop Theophylact of Ohrid.