Note 135 — Chapter IV · DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS.

Thus in this narrative of John the supernatural will not admit of being removed or diminished: nor is the natural explanation more satisfactory in relation to the expressions by which Luke describes the coming and going of Jesus. For if, according to this Evangelist, his coming was a standing in the midst of the disciples, στῆναι ἐν μέσῳ τῶν μαθητῶν, his going a becoming invisible to them, ἄφαντος γίνεσθαι ἀπ’ αὐτῶν: the concurrence of these two representations, taken in connexion with the terror of the disciples and their mistaking him for a spirit, will hardly allow the supposition of anything else than a miraculous appearance. Besides, if we might perhaps form some idea how Jesus could enter in a natural manner without being observed into a room filled with men: we should still be at a loss to imagine how it could be possible for him, when he sat at table at Emmaus, apparently with the two disciples alone, to withdraw himself from them unobserved, and so that they were not able to follow him.135