e-Book The Emmaus Mystery: Discovering Evidence for the Risen Christ download

Thiede, Carston Peter, The Emmaus Mystery; discovering evidence for the risen Christ, Continuum, London and New York, [2005]

The Emmaus story is found in chapter 24 of Luke's gospel. Cleopas and another man, never identified, are walking toward Emmaus when Jesus joins them. Only when they break bread that evening does Jesus reveal who He is, then immediately vanishes. Cleopas and his companion (possibly a rather modest Luke?) returned to Jerusalem that same evening.

While the location of Emmaus is of considerable interest, the fact of it is certainly of greater importance to Christian theology. Scholars and Churchmen have sought its location for centuries. A number of factors made it difficult. "Emmaus" was a fairly common name in the time of Jesus; the name was changed to obscure its Jewish heritage; and some scribes and travelers offered confusing emendations over the first few centuries of the Common Era.

Thiede makes a compelling case for his choice of the little village of Emmaus. He considers the distances involved, the length of time it takes to walk "sixty stadia", and the like. While there was an important city called Emmaus, much farther from Jerusalem, Luke specifies a "village".

Though the debate will surely continue for years, Father Thiede can make no further contribution to it, as he died shortly after completing this, his most important work.

L. Edward Sizemore
McKinney, Texas

I had really hoped for a lot from this book - the title promises so much, and the picture on the cover shows a really impressive-looking archaeological artefact. So, I wound up being significantly disappointed with what the book actually turned out to be: a disjointed collection of rambling stories all vaguely linked together by the search for the village of Emmaus as mentioned in the Gospel of Luke. Evidence for the risen Christ? Not really. All that Carsten Thiede manages to prove is that the actual site of the village of Emmaus most likely isn't one of the two places traditionally referred to by that name.

The writing in this book is frustratingly uneven, and jumps around from topic to topic, giving far too much unnecessary detail in certain areas and almost no detail whatsoever in others. A couple of anecdotes are repeated in multiple places throughout the book, and one of the more interesting stories is relegated to a (page-long) footnote. The glossy prints - which in this style of book traditionally show something notable or interesting - are generally just "holiday happy-snaps" of the author and his team on their dig site, along with a few uninspiring pictures of unidentifiable piles of rocks and dirt. The book also seems somewhat unfinished, with references (particularly in the final chapter) to scientific studies on certain artefacts that were in progress, but not yet completed at the time of publication. Given that the book is fairly brief at just barely over 200 pages, waiting a couple of months longer for some conclusive results could have added significantly to its value. It is noted in the introduction that the book was actually published after the death of Carsten Thiede, so I can only assume that the manuscript that ended up being published was at best a semi-final draft that was allowed to remain as close to intact as possible to avoid the appearance of having someone else rewrite his final work after his death. This is a shame, because it's honestly very difficult to read.

I also have a problem with Thiede's tendency to present some slightly outlandish speculation without much documentation or supporting evidence, while loudly decrying anyone else who dares speculate in the slightest. Heaping scorn on the theories of one's rivals might be considered the norm in archaeological circles, I don't know - but when those theories are commonly accepted as fact, a somewhat more scholarly approach would be of significant benefit.

The first few chapters of the book basically present a sequence of historical anecdotes and Thiede's interpretations of them, in far-from-chronological order and with little apparent rhyme or reason in the structure of the book. The final chapter is essentially a report on the dig that was the result of all this, including all sorts of (to me) irrelevant detail and criticism of the methods of various other archaeologists (comments like "unfortunately, Schick's Greek was worse than his English" just sound churlish in this context).

So, in summary - 2 stars. There's not a whole lot of "evidence for the risen Christ" presented, the writing is poor, the content is scattered, and the whole affair is generally pretty unsatisfying.

I read the book and loved it!

I liked the gentle ramblings into details of history etc and the side stories the author goes into. It was more like taking an informative nature-trail stroll on a Sunday afternoon, rather than a route-march to a destination.

The title is a bit misleading but the author does explain the historical take on what a "mystery" is. All in all I liked it.