diff --git a/doc/lua-filters.md b/doc/lua-filters.md
index 8b8dbfc47..0ac8a22f0 100644
--- a/doc/lua-filters.md
+++ b/doc/lua-filters.md
@@ -40,11 +40,9 @@ to small caps:
 
 ``` lua
 return {
-  {
-    Strong = function (elem)
-      return pandoc.SmallCaps(elem.content)
-    end,
-  }
+  Strong = function (elem)
+    return pandoc.SmallCaps(elem.content)
+  end,
 }
 ```
 
@@ -187,7 +185,7 @@ local filter = {
   traverse = 'topdown',
   -- ... filter functions ...
 }
-return {filter}
+return filter
 ```
 
 Support for this was added in pandoc 2.17; previous versions
diff --git a/pandoc-lua-engine/src/Text/Pandoc/Lua/Filter.hs b/pandoc-lua-engine/src/Text/Pandoc/Lua/Filter.hs
index 4728f961e..40ccb2f8f 100644
--- a/pandoc-lua-engine/src/Text/Pandoc/Lua/Filter.hs
+++ b/pandoc-lua-engine/src/Text/Pandoc/Lua/Filter.hs
@@ -43,7 +43,10 @@ runFilterFile' envIdx filterPath doc = do
       -- filter if nothing was returned.
       luaFilters <- forcePeek $
         if newtop - oldtop >= 1
-        then peekList peekFilter top      -- get from explicit filter table
+        then liftLua (rawlen top) >>= \case
+          -- explicitly returned filter, either a single one or a list
+          0 -> (:[]) <$!> peekFilter top  -- single filter
+          _ -> peekList peekFilter top    -- list of explicit filters
         else (:[]) <$!> peekFilter envIdx -- get the implicit filter in _ENV
       settop oldtop
       runAll luaFilters doc
diff --git a/pandoc-lua-engine/test/lua/single-to-double-quoted.lua b/pandoc-lua-engine/test/lua/single-to-double-quoted.lua
index b985b215c..29843df06 100644
--- a/pandoc-lua-engine/test/lua/single-to-double-quoted.lua
+++ b/pandoc-lua-engine/test/lua/single-to-double-quoted.lua
@@ -1,10 +1,8 @@
 return {
-  {
     Quoted = function (elem)
       if elem.quotetype == "SingleQuote" then
         elem.quotetype = "DoubleQuote"
       end
       return elem
     end,
-  }
 }