Building on the works of Richard Bauckham and Tal Ilan, this paper argues that the name Cleophas in Luke 24.18 (Gk Κλεοπᾶς) and Clopas (Gk Κλωπᾶς) in John 19.25 points to the same historical person, the father of a key leader of the Jerusalem church at the end of the first century. By making anew this assumption we have a possible access to Luke's redactional and theological work in the Emmaus narrative. Even if the whole passage is governed by Luke's literary skills and theological interests, it does have traditional support in the legitimation story that Jesus had indeed appeared to Cleophas. Luke's choice of that name is doubly smart: it highlights the respect the Pauline churches have for the Judean churches in the spirit of Rom 9–11 and establishes the legitimacy of his own sophisticated narrative through a known Judean Christian.
