were kept from recognizing Him: The Greek text uses a passive construction here. This is called a “divine passive” (a way of speaking that shows God is acting, even when God is not named). So here, even though the sentence does not name God as the one acting, the meaning is that God is the one who prevented them from recognizing Jesus. God chose not to let them see who he was until the moment he revealed himself, when Jesus broke bread with them (24:30–31; compare 2 Kings 6:17).