Quick question for all you weekend theologians out there: In the story of Jesus walking with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), is there any biblical reason why those two disciples might not be a husband and wife? That is, could it be that those couple of disciples were a couple (of disciples)?

Reading through this passage recently, I was struck by the fact that the gender of the two disciples is never mentioned (at least not in any of the English translations) -- even though I had somehow always thought that they were two men. As a matter of fact, if you can accept a minor variation in spelling, there is some circumstantial evidence that the Cleopas mentioned in Luke 24 is the same as the husband of one of the (several) women named Mary who witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus on Golgotha (see John 19:25). Furthermore, you could piece together further circumstantial evidence to support the idea that this "couple of disciples" may have lived together in Emmaus (note the way that Luke 24 quotes these disciples as saying "stay with us"). So the way I'm reading it right now, it seems like it wouldn't be a significant stretch of the imagination to think that Cleopas and Mary were the two disciples talking together on the road to Emmaus when Jesus joined them.

What do you think? Am I missing something here?

In the grander scheme of things, the gender of these two disciples is probably not all that important of a distinction. For some reason, it just caught me off-guard to consider this post-resurrection encounter in a new light -- so I thought I'd throw it out there to stimulate others' thinking of the Easter season, too...