Luke 24:37

37 Startled and terrified, they thought they were seeing a ghost.

Luke 24:37 Meaning and Commentary

Luke 24:37

But they were terrified and affrighted
At the sight of him, and at his sudden appearance among them, without being heard, or seen before, and the doors shut and bolted; they could not tell how to account for it, that it should be Jesus himself risen from the dead in his own body, though they had been just speaking of his resurrection, and had had a confirmation of it from the disciples that went to Emmaus: and supposed that they had seen a spirit;
that what they saw was a phantom, or apparition, or a spirit, that had assumed, and appeared in, the shape of Jesus, and was not he himself.

Luke 24:37 In-Context

35 Then the two told what had happened on the road and how he had become known to them in the breaking of the matzah.

36 They were still talking about it when -- there he was, standing among them!

37 Startled and terrified, they thought they were seeing a ghost.

38 But he said to them, "Why are you so upset? Why are these doubts welling up inside you?

39 Look at my hands and my feet -- it is I, myself! Touch me and see -- a ghost doesn't have flesh and bones, as you can see I do."