Being a small town only 7.5 mi (12.1 km) from Jerusalem, the village of Emmaus was not initially a bishopric,[4] but rather part of the bishopric of Jerusalem.[5]
In 131 CE, Christian scholar and writer Julius Africanus of Jerusalem, headed an embassy to Rome and had an interview with the Roman emperorElagabalus on behalf of Emmaus. Soon after it was refounded to become a "city" (πόλις), which quickly became famous, and was given the qualification of "Nicopolis".[6]
The ancient bishopric ended when the Islamic armies entered the city. At the time of the Muslim conquest of Palestine, the main encampment of the Arab army was established in Emmaus, when a plague struck, killing as many as 25,000 of the army.
In the 12th century William of Tyre, described the abundance of water and fodder in the area around the town, and Daniel Kievsky wrote of the site, "but now all is destroyed by the pagans and the village of Emmaus is empty." John Phocas (ca.1185) also described the town.
The Bishopric was re-established in 1099 when the army of the First Crusade, arrived in the town. But came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the early 16th century and, the church built by the Crusaders converted into a mosque.
^Eusebius, "Onomasticon", 90:15-17, a text written in 290-325 A.D., G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville, trans., Jerusalem, 2003
^Pringle, Denys (1993). The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A-K (excluding Acre and Jerusalem). Cambridge University Press. ISBN0 521 39036 2. p53
^The Canons of the First Four General Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon (Clarendon Press, 1892)
^Michel Le Quien ((O.P.)), Imprimerie Royale (París), Oriens christianus (ex Typographia Regia, 1740).
^Joseph Bingham, Origines Ecclesiasticae; Or the Antiquities of the Christian ..., Volume 3 (Straker, 1843) p16.
^Thiede, Carsten Peter; D'Ancona, Matthew (2005). The Emmaus Mystery: Discovering Evidence for the Risen Christ. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN9780826467973. p59.
^Carsten Peter Thiede, The Emmaus Mystery: Discovering Evidence for the Risen Christ (A&C Black, 2006) p57.