| hath appeared to Simon Luke 24:34 Jesus appearing one-on-one with Simon Peter isn't recorded directly in the gospels. John 20:1-10 records that John and Peter visited the empty tomb, and after that John believed (v. 8) and (presumably) Peter didn't, and they went home (v. 10). Based on 1 Corinthians 15:5, Jesus then appeared one-on-one with Peter. The question then arises, why did Cleopas and this friend say that the Lord "hath appeared to Simon," seeing that Simon was already there in the room (i.e., "The Eleven": v. 33)? Probably Cleopas was not present during the appearing to Simon, otherwise he would have believed earlier and would not have required the "extended session" with Jesus as recorded in Luke. But, he probably had heard the claim that Jesus visited Peter, just like the claim of Jesus appearing to the women which was also widely circulated. This must have been an extremely important claim for Paul to have repeated that specific sequence of events many years later in his letter to the Corinthians. So, by saying the Lord "hath appeared to Simon", with Simon present, it was more of a declaration of truth, in a sense saying, "Simon's claim is 100% true!" |