Luke 24:21

We trusted. Literally, “we were hoping.” The two disciples now express their own convictions. They had accepted Jesus as a prophet, and later came to believe in Him as more than a prophet. It had been a settled conviction with them, but their faith had been greatly shaken because they did not understand the Scriptures concerning the Messiah. They now imply that they must have been mistaken in their former belief. The seriousness of their subsequent discussion, however, reveals that they had not entirely abandoned hope — especially in view of the astonishing reports of the women disciples who claimed to have seen Jesus (see vs. 22-24).

He. The pronoun is emphatic. They had thought Jesus was to be the promised Saviour of Israel.

Redeemed Israel. Their concept of what was involved in the work of redeeming Israel was no doubt limited primarily to political salvation from the iron grip of Rome.

For a discussion of the false Messianic hopes of the Jews see on ch. 4:19.