αὐτῶν δὲ διηνοίχθησαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ καὶ ἐπέγνωσαν αὐτόν· καὶ αὐτὸς ἄφαντος ἐγένετο ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν.
31Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight.
Hand colored stencil print on momigami by Sadao Watanabe (1971).
Image taken with permission from the SadaoHanga Catalogue where you can find many more images and information about Sadao Watanabe.
For other images of Sadao Watanabe art works in TIPs, see here.
“When Jesus raises a cup of water, the two followers suddenly recognize who he is. The water container in the front is northern Thai style. Water is drunk at the end of the meal in Thailand. Water is also a symbol of life.”
Drawing by Sawai Chinnawong who employs northern and central Thailand’s popular distinctive artistic style originally used to depict Buddhist moral principles and other religious themes; explanation by Paul DeNeui. From That Man Who Came to Save Us by Sawai Chinnawong and Paul H. DeNeui, William Carey Library, 2010.
For more images by Sawai Chinnawong in TIPs see here.
Following is a contemporary Ukrainian Orthodox icon of Christ as the grapevine by Khrystyna Kvyk.
Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
Following are a number of back-translations of Luke 24:31:
Exegesis:
autōn de diēnoichthēsan hoi opthalmoi lit. ‘of them the eyes were opened.’ autōn is emphatic by position. The opening of the eyes is to be understood in a metaphorical way. Its result is expressed non-metaphorically in the following clause. As in v. 16 the agent is God.
dianoigō ‘to open,’ in a figurative sense of the opening of the eyes, i.e. of making people recognize (here), of the opening of the scriptures, i.e. of making people understand them (v. 31), of the opening of the mind, i.e. of making people understand (v. 45, also with reference to the scriptures).
epegnōsan auton ‘they recognized him,’ ingressive aorist.
kai autos aphantos egeneto ap’ autōn ‘and he became invisible from them,’ i.e. ‘he disappeared from their sight.’
aphantos ‘invisible.’
Translation:
The sentence their eyes were opened and they recognized him is in meaning the opposite of v. 16 (which see), and closely corresponds to it in form. This formal similarity can quite often, it seems, be preserved in translation without discarding the requirements of idiom and clarity, e.g. ‘the spell was taken from their eyes,’ ‘their eyes/sight became clear,’ etc. The preservation of another stylistic feature, however, i.e. the repetition of ‘opened’ in vv. 32 and 45, appears often to be incompatible with such requirements.
And he vanished out of their sight, or, ‘then (or, at that very moment) he became invisible to them’ (cf. Ramabai’s Marathi version: ‘he became he could not be seen by them’). In Kele the idiom is, ‘he no longer appeared before their eyes,’ and in Tzeltal, ‘he was lost to their eyes.’
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.
24:31a–b
Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus: These two clauses have similar meanings. They tell what happened when Jesus gave them the bread. The clause Then their eyes were opened indicates that suddenly the disciples became able to recognize Jesus. The clause they recognized Jesus is the result. Another way to translate the clauses is:
31aSuddenly they were able to recognize Jesus, 31band they knew him.
In some languages it may be more natural to combine these clauses. For example:
And then, they were allowed to recognize Jesus. (New Century Version)
-or-
At once they knew who he was (Contemporary English Version)
their eyes were opened: The clause their eyes were opened is a metaphor. It indicates that the two disciples became able to recognize Jesus. The verb were opened is passive. It probably implies that God enabled them to recognize him. Refer to 24:16, where the passive verb probably implied that God prevented the disciples from recognizing Jesus.
In some languages a literal translation of the metaphor may have the wrong meaning. If that is true in your language, some other ways to translate it are:
• Use a simile. For example:
Then it was as if their eyes/mind cleared
• Translate the meaning without the metaphor. For example:
At that moment they became aware
• Use an active verb and supply God as the subject, or indicate that God caused it. For example:
⌊God⌋ caused them to realize
Translate the clause in a natural way in your language.
24:31c
and He disappeared from their sight: The clause and He disappeared from their sight indicates that after the disciples recognized Jesus in 24:31b, they could not see him anymore. This clause implies that Jesus left them in a way that they could not see. Other ways to say this are:
he vanished from their sight (English Standard Version)
-or-
he ⌊suddenly⌋ became invisible to them
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