Exegesis:

kai egeneto ‘and it happened,’ cf. on 1.8, sub (2).

en tō homilein autous kai suzētein lit. ‘during their conversing and discussing,’ articular accusative and infinitive. For suzēteō cf. on 22.23.

kai autos Iēsous ‘Jesus himself.’

eggisas suneporeueto autois lit. ‘after drawing near went along with them,’ hence ‘drew near and went along with them.’ eggisas is used here in the sense of overtaking, cf. Plummer.

(V. 16) hoi de ophthalmoi autōn ekratounto tou mē epignōnai auton lit. ‘but their eyes were held back so as not to recognise him,’ hence, ‘their eyes were kept from recognising him.’ krateō ‘to hold back,’ or, ‘to restrain from,’ ‘to hinder’: pass. ‘to be prevented’ (here). The agent of ekratounto is God. krateō, cf. on 8.54. tou mē epignōnai is consecutive articular infinitive in the genitive.

Translation:

They were talking and discussing together. The second verb is stronger than the first; hence the sequence is a bit of a climax, e.g. ‘they were talking and even debating with each other’ (cf. Medumba), ‘they were questioning each other, even heatedly.’

Drew near and went with them, or, “came up and walked along with them” (New English Bible); or simply, ‘joined them’ (cf. Tae’ 1933).

(V. 16) Their eyes were kept from, implying that, though their eyes perceived a person, their minds were not able to recognise who he was, and that this was not their own doing but because of some outside agent, ultimately God. An explicit reference to God, however, should preferably be avoided, cf. e.g. ‘something covered their eyes that they not’ (Trukese), “a spell was on their eyes” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation). Similar idioms appear to exist in several languages, e.g. ‘their eyes were clouded, or, shrouded/blindfolded’ (Shona 1966, 1963), ‘their eyes were misty’ (Uab Meto). Elsewhere one has to shift to a simile, ‘their eyes were just as if they had been caused to be shut’ (Marathi), but sometimes more radical changes are necessary, e.g. ‘they were prevented from,’ cf. also, “they saw him, but somehow did not recognise him” (Good News Translation). Cf. also below on v. 31.

Recognising him may be described here as ‘seeing who he was.’

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.