DISAPPEARANCE AND RECOGNITION

Abstract

This chapter compares the Emmaus road episode in Luke 24 with Herodotus’s account of Aristeas of Proconnesus. Both Aristeas and Jesus seem to die but reappear to speak with travelers on the road, demonstrate true signs of their reality, and are later worshipped by human communities. Plausibility is greatly determined by prior investment in a story or its result, though invested authors strive to undercut skepticism by literary techniques of verification (for instance, Jesus denying he is a ghost and exhibiting his wounds). These techniques are paralleled in contemporary stories about Apollonius of Tyana, Astrabacus, Philinnion, and Protesilaus.