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Luke 24 · a question people ask

"But their eyes were kept from recognizing him" (24:16). Who kept them, and why?

In the text

Luke doesn't say. He tells it this way: "While they talked and questioned together, Jesus himself came near, and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him." (24:15-16). At the table, "Their eyes were opened and they recognized him" (24:31), and back in Jerusalem the two told "how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread" (24:35). Luke says were kept and were opened, names no one who kept or opened their eyes, and gives no reason. These notes don't either. Favor's Luke 9 asks a question like it about Jesus's saying that "was concealed from them" (9:45), in Who concealed it?, and leaves it as Luke does.

The verses

“While they talked and questioned together, Jesus himself came near, and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.”
Luke 24:15-16 · World English Bible
“Their eyes were opened and they recognized him; then he vanished out of their sight.”
Luke 24:31 · World English Bible
“They related the things that happened along the way, and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.”
Luke 24:35 · World English Bible
“But they didn’t understand this saying. It was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.”
Luke 9:45 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Luke 24

Luke 24: Their eyes were opened

In Luke's Greek one verb opens three things in this chapter: their eyes (24:31), the Scriptures (24:32) and their minds (24:45). And the book that told early on of Zacharias "blessing God" (1:64) ends with them "continually in the temple, praising and blessing God" (24:53).

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Last reviewed October 7, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions