Resurrection: Just as Weird Back Then

If the disciples simply saw or thought they saw someone they took to be Jesus, that by itself would not have generated the stories we have. Everyone in the ancient world took it for granted that people sometimes had strange experiences involving encounters with the dead, particularly the recently dead. They knew at least as much as we do about such visions, about ghosts and dreams—and the fact that such things often occurred within the context of bereavement or grief. They had language for this, and it wasn't resurrection. However many such visions they'd had, they wouldn't have said Jesus was raised from the dead; they weren't expecting such a resurrection.

N.T. Wright