The Emmaus Mystery: Discovering Evidence for the Risen Christ

by Carsten Peter Thiede

For centuries scholars have tried to work out where Emmaus was. Where, in other words, the risen Christ walked, ate and revealed himself. It is a crucial location in the map of Christian belief, and one of the great missing links of Christian archaeology, which has foxed excavators and biblical detectives for more than a millennium and a half. Over the centuries three different sites were suggested, but the trail went cold long ago, or so it seemed. Now Thiede has produced his most dramatic find to date. His work remains highly confidential and will cause a storm in the archaeological world when it is disclosed. The lost site of Emmaus is rising once again from the soil. Readers will be astonished by this extraordinary book

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Christian

224 pages, Paperback

First published June 20, 2005

Reviews

[Anne Hamilton]

I read this book with a single purpose in mind: to resolve the mystery in my own mind of why a man who'd just risen from the dead wouldn't first go to reassure his mother and friends that he was ok. The story of Jesus on the road to Emmaus is simply delightful and, while it is psychologically satisfying in and of itself, it isn't in the wider picture. Unless - that is - the wider picture is bigger than just simply the events surrounding the crucifixion. Unless the wider picture involved the whole of Israelite history.

In tackling this book, I was hoping for just one item of information to emerge: was the road to Emmaus, or was it not, the same road as the ancient passage to Gibeah? If it was, then I could see "tikkun olam", the Jewish idea of world-mending, would take precedence over heading home to reassure family and friends.

Ultimately, the book doesn't answer the question I posed for it before opening the first page. But I'm not disappointed: because regardless of whether the answer is 'yes' or 'no', Thiede pointed out that from the earliest Christian times to the present day, translators have seen a link between the story of the man and his concubine on the road to Gibeah and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. I'm sure his comments about contemporary translations apply to German versions of the Scriptures because I can't find the same in English.

Five stars for answering my question - even if it was in the most unexpected way.

[Jarmo Larsen]

Archaeology can sometimes be interesting, and other times not so rewarding, in this case I land in the middle of the scale. This book deals with the famous distance between Jerusalem and Emmaus, best known from Luke's Gospel. The location of Emmaus had for a long time been unknown, but in this book Carsten Peter Thiede claims to have found the final answer to this mystery. He also writes about alternative places and why they can't be the authentic places that Luke, or Josephus for that matter, describes in their works. Thiede has some good points here.

Archaeological writings tend sometimes to wander into too much detail, which also happens in this book. The author comes up with many names, places and measurements that the reader should keep track of in order to not completely be left out of the "story". In addition, I he moves a little too often away from the main theme itself, which I have understood, is to deal with the case of Emmaus. Sometimes these ramblings have a meaning and he cleverly draws the lines back to Emmaus, while other times it seems like it's just written to fill up the book with some information.

I liked some of his examples, especially around Josephus. It was especially great reading, since I myself am reading "The War of the Jews" at the time of writing this review. That made me pay extra close attention to the occasions when Josephus mentions e.g. Emmaus in his work. Thiede also highlights Vespasian, and Josephus' relationship with him and how this is closely linked to Emmaus as a place for veterans after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. The most interesting thing is Thiede's arguments around the controversial quote that many claim Josephus had written about Jesus, that it actually was written by him and not something that Christians have subsequently added to his work. This will provides a good extra-biblical argument that Jesus was a real person. Furthermore, the reader will become somewhat better acquainted with church fathers such as Jerome and Eusebius. Eusebius is reviewed for his more controversial attitude and misplacement of the place of Emmaus, but at the same time Thiede also praises him for being one of the most brilliant minds among the Christians of that time. All in all, a completely OK book about Emmaus, with a good number of uninteresting details that could have been left out, but which can still help to give the book and the theme a certain integrity, and perhaps a certain archaeological credibility towards Casten Peter Thiede as an archaeologist. The book ended on three strong stars from me.

[John]

Somehow the concept of this book made me delay a long time until I picked it up. How is it possible that a book about archeology and Emmaus could be exciting and have content enough? Well, turns out, you have to focus on a lot of material that is not related, but in some way related anyway.

Emmaus it seems, is a location not exactly known(until now, according to Thiede), but there have been many suggestions of the real location. So, this makes Carsten Peter Thiede go on a historical journey into the presumed location and its ripple effects. So much so, that there is one chapter dedicated to Josephus and his passages of Jesus simply because Josephus is a source in determining the location of Emmaus, and the Roman veteran site under Vespasian. For me, this is bonus gold.

All this background, however, seems like a distraction from the chapter on the dig itself that takes around a quarter of the book. The dig seems to be more focused on the upper layers, namely the hospitallers, as the evidence for them seems to be much bigger than there being a Jewish settlement there at Jesus time. Don't take me wrong - there is presented enough evidence for this here in the book, but as the title and the point of the book, it seems to focus on so much more simply because the hard facts of the issue are too few. It would not make a book. Also, the concept of archeology makes it so that the deeper you dig, the less you will find and more it will cost, so one can kind of hope only for so much.

Now, given this, I quite enjoyed all the historical periphery presented in order to give the full picture of the history and the ramifications of a real Emmaus located at this specific point. I learned a lot and the reading was a blast!