I'll again keep this a brief post.
Earlier I posted that Jesus, like the OT patriarch Jacob "rolled away the massive stone" to release water for his sheep, (Jacob and the Rock'n Rollers). Soon thereafter, according to Luke 24, he makes an appearance as a stranger to 2 of his followers on the road to Emmaus. When they arrive in the village at nightfall, he gives them bread and they immediately recognize the stranger as the Lord.
A familiar story. However, there are some interesting variants preserved in the Codex Bezae. Notable is the name of the village. It is not 'Emmaus' but 'Oulammaous' in the Bezae. This name appears only once...in the LXX version of Genesis 28; the location where Jacob stops at nightfall while fleeing his brother after betraying his father's trust with a 'kiss' and lies. It is here that Jacob sees the Lord (or the "Word" of the Lord ,Memra in the Aramaic Targum). Jacob says,
“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
He then says;
"If the Lord God will be with me, and guard me throughout on this journey, on which I am going, and give me bread to eat,...then shall the Lord be for a God to me."
There are actually many literary connections linking the Genesis Jacob story and Gospels.
So, what then explains the "Emmaus" in the Alexandrian Textual forms? First some background. The two words/names are not related and have nothing in common other than sounding kind of, somewhat similar. As I mentioned Oulammaous is the LXX name for the village where Jacob engages with the Word/Lord. The word itself was a mistranslation of the Hebrew [ulam luz] i.e.. "formerly Luz". The place in the story was formerly named 'Luz' but Jacob renamed it 'Bethel' because of his engaging with God there. The Hebrew, "formerly Luz" was mistaken by the translators of the LXX as being the name and bingo the village was now called Oulammaous. (The “L” in Luz was changed to a second “M” following common phonetic practice) This LXX form of the story was the most widely known in the first century and this is certainly the form the writer of Luke used and surprisingly preserved in the Codex Bezae.
What apparently happened is that early Christain scribes were unaware of the LXX Jacob connection and assumed the Oulammaous they saw in Luke was a scribal error or some variation of the city 'Emmaus'.
The manuscripts are split on the distance to Jerusalem from this village. Some say 60 stadia (about 7 miles) some say 160 (about 19 miles). Emmaus was about 160 stadia whereas Luz was closer, about 90 stadia. (there are many different distances found on the internet so I mention the most commonly repeated) This discrepancy might be explained easily as unfamiliarity with the region, but some understand that 60 to be a symbolic distance. 10 times the distance lawful to travel on the Sabbath (6 stadia per Josephus). The likely change to 160 stadia shows an awareness of a problem identifying Emmaus as the intended setting. But this then strains the narrative of the two guys walking that distance and possibly back in a day. (vss13,29)
Notably, the added conclusion to Mark (longer ending) attempts to harmonize Mark with Luke through the inclusion of this road to Emmaus story. However, the author, likely aware of the issue, avoided the name and simply said 'road to the country'.
So, to sum up, among the many OT stories that were brilliantly sourced for the Gospels, we have those from Genesis involving Jacob, that highly revered patriarch that met God on the road to Luz. Ironically this allusion might have been missed had it not been for a scribal error in the LXX that was incorporated into Luke when crafting his reenactment/rewriting of the Jacob story.
Now you know what the author of Luke meant when he wrote:
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. (24:27)