The dead rising is not USUALLY seen as a "good thing"! On the Road to Emmaus reconsidered.

Like so many people I've wondered why Jesus's, initial, appearances after his crucifixion and resurrection are so understated.

So let me ask you a question: What genre of film/book do you normally associate with tales of the dead coming back to life? I'm assuming most people's answer, outside of the Christian context, would be a horror, or zombie, type story. The first century disciples were no different!

36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” Luke 24:36-38 (NIV)

The things they were talking about occurred while two disciples were walking down a quiet, deserted(?) country road. How would you feel walking down a quiet road in the fading twilight and be confronted by a dead person?

13 Now that same day [of Jesus's resurrection] two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about 11 kilometers from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him [initially]. Luke 24:13-16 (NIV)

A very similar story occurs in John 20:1 "Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb ..."

Does it get any creepier than being in a graveyard, in the dark, even if she wasn't alone? Then a dead guy just appears! Classic horror story trope. The women run off to tell the disciples but then Mary returns and sees someone "... standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). John 20:14b-16 (NIV)

God knows and recognises just how terrifying meeting a dead person can be hence, I suggest, is one reason for the very gentle way Jesus initially appears to people.

--

For the avoidance of doubt about Graeco-Roman ideas about the dead appearing here are some, mostly academic, references about ghost and horror stories from the Roman Empire:

1. Felton, Debbie. Haunted Greece and Rome: Ghost stories from classical antiquity. University of Texas Press, 2010.

2. Cardin, Matt, ed. Horror Literature through History: An Encyclopedia of the Stories That Speak to Our Deepest Fears [2 volumes]. Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2017. Specifically the chapter "Horror in the Ancient World".

3. Zorrilla, Isidro Molina, Rodrigues, Nuno Simões, and Balaskas, Vasileios (eds). Graeco-Roman Horror and its Modern Reception. Oxford : Taylor & Francis Group, 2025

4. Collison-Morley, Lacy. Greek and Roman Ghost Stories. Project Gutenberg,1912. A very "flat" telling of stories but at least it's free!