According to the canonical Gospels In Christianity, a gospel is to be generally one of the first four books of the New Testament that describe the birth, life, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. The four canonical texts are the Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke and Gospel of John, probably written between AD 65 and 100 (see also the Gospel according of the Bible Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew or Jewish Bible. It comprises three parts: the Torah , the Prophets, and the Writings. It was primarily written in Hebrew with some small portions in Aramaic.[citation needed] In Christian religions, the Tanakh is known as the Old Testament, Jesus Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity, and within most Christian denominations he is venerated as the Son of God and as God incarnate. Christians also view him as the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament; however, Judaism rejects this claim. Islam considers Jesus a prophet, while several other worked many miracles A miracle is a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can be attempted to be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated with a miracle-worker. Many folktales, religious texts, and people claim various events they refer to as "miraculous". People in different cultures have substantially different in the course of his ministry According to the Canonical Gospels, the Ministry of Jesus began when Jesus was around 30 years old, and lasted a period of 1-3 years. In the Biblical narrative, Jesus' method of teaching involved parables, metaphor, allegory, sayings, proverbs, and a small number of direct sermons. This was the first coming of Jesus; as most Christian, which may be categorized into cures, exorcisms Exorcism is the practice of evicting demons or other evil spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed. The practice is quite ancient and part of the belief system of many countries, dominion over nature, three instances of raising the dead Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Zoroastrianism all variously describe a resurrection of the dead, usually referring to a regeneration of all people to face God on Judgment Day, and various others. To many Christians, the miracles represent actual historical events, while Liberal Christians The theology of liberal Christianity was prominent in the biblical criticism of the 19th and 20th centuries. The style of scriptural hermeneutics within liberal theology is often characterized as non-propositional. This means that the Bible is not considered a collection of factual statements but instead documents the human authors' beliefs and may consider these stories to be figurative.[1] Critical scholars generally concede that empirical methods are unable to determine if a genuine miracle is historical, considering the issue theological or philosophical. Islamic Islam (Arabic: الإسلام al-’islām, pronounced [ʔislæːm] [note 1]) is a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the teachings contained in a religious book, the Qur'an, considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of Allah (the sole divine entity in Islam) as revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a 7th century Arab scholars also believe in most of the miracles of healing and the miracles of resurrecting dead people to life.[citation needed]
Contents |
Types of miracles
Cures
Jesus healing Peter's mother in law, c. 1020 (Hitda Evangelary, Darmstadt Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area).The largest group of miracle stories mentioned in the New Testament are those concerning disease and disability. The Gospels give varying amounts of detail for each episode, sometimes Jesus cures simply by saying a few words, or laying on of hands The laying on of hands is a religious practice found throughout the world in varying forms. In Christian churches, this practice is used as both a symbolic and formal method of invoking the Holy Spirit during baptisms, healing services, blessings, and ordination of priests, ministers, elders, deacons, and other church officers, along with a, and at other times employs elaborate rituals using material (e.g. spit or mud). Generally they are recorded in the Synoptic Gospels The synoptic Gospels are three Gospels in the New Testament the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of Luke, that display a high degree of similarity in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence and paragraph structures. These gospels are also considered by Biblical scholars to share the same point of view. The but not John.
- Fever Fever is a frequent medical sign that describes an increase in internal body temperature to levels above normal. Fever is most accurately characterized as a temporary elevation in the body's thermoregulatory set-point, usually by about 1–2 °C (1.8-3.6 °F) - The Synoptics describe Jesus as healing the mother-in-law of Simon Peter Saint Peter (c.1–AD 64) was a leader of the early Christian church, who features prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. According to Biblical accounts, he was one of Twelve Apostles, chosen by Jesus from his first disciples. He was a Galilean fisherman assigned a leadership role by Jesus (Matthew 16:18), and was when he visited Simon's house in Capernaum Capernaum was a settlement on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The site is a ruin today, but was inhabited from 150 BC to about AD 750, around the time of Jesus recruiting Simon as an Apostle Traditionally, the Twelve include Peter, Prince of the Apostles; Andrew, James the Greater, James the Lesser, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, Thaddeus, Simon, and Judas Iscariot. Judas had been one of the Twelve, but he betrayed Jesus and killed himself. With Judas gone, Matthias became one of the Twelve. In the Synoptic Gospels, Mark (Mark has it just after the calling of Simon, while Luke has it just before). The synoptics imply that this led other people seeking out Jesus, and him traveling over the whole of Galilee to preach to them.
- Leprosy Leprosy , or Hansen's disease (HD), is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions are the primary external symptom. Left untreated, leprosy can be progressive, causing - The Synoptics state that, early in Jesus' ministry According to the Canonical Gospels, the Ministry of Jesus began when Jesus was around 30 years old, and lasted a period of 1-3 years. In the Biblical narrative, Jesus' method of teaching involved parables, metaphor, allegory, sayings, proverbs, and a small number of direct sermons. This was the first coming of Jesus; as most Christian, he healed a leper, whom he then instructed to offer the requisite ritual sacrifices as proscribed by the Deuteronomic Code The Deuteronomic Code is the name given, by academics, to the law code within Deuteronomy, except for the portion discussing the Ethical Decalogue, which is usually treated separately. This separate treatment stems not from any concern over authorship, but merely because the Ethical Decalogue is, academically, a subject in its own right. Almost and Priestly Code. Jesus instructed the ex-leper not to tell anyone who had healed him; but the man disobeyed, increasing Jesus' fame, and thereafter Jesus withdrew to deserted places, but was followed there. Luke also states that later, while on his way to Jerusalem Jerusalem (Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (help·info), Yerushaláyim; Arabic: القُدس (audio) (help·info), al-Quds)[ii] is the capital[iii] of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of 125.1 square kilometres (48.3 sq mi) if disputed East Jerusalem is included.[iv], Jesus sent ten lepers, who had sought his assistance, to the priests, and that they were healed as they went, but that the only one that came back to thank Jesus was a Samaritan The Samaritans are a religious group of the Levant. Religiously, they are the adherents to Samaritanism, a parallel but separate religion to Judaism or any of its historical forms. Based on the Samaritan Torah, Samaritans claim their worship is the true religion of the ancient Israelites prior to the Babylonian Exile, preserved by those who.
- Long term bleeding - The Synoptics state that while heading to Jairus' house (see the section below on power over death), Jesus was approached by a woman who had been suffering from bleeding for 12 years, and that she touched Jesus' cloak (fringes of his garment Tzitzit or tzitzis are "fringes" or "tassels" worn by observant Jews on the corners of four-cornered garments, including the tallit (prayer shawl). Since they are considered by Orthodox tradition to be a time-bound commandment, they are worn only by men; Masorti (Conservative) Judaism agrees that the commandment is time-bound: Matt 9:20, 14:36), and was instantly healed. Jesus turned about and, when the woman came forward, said "Daughter, your faith has healed you, go in peace". The bleeding is sometimes interpreted as menorrhagia Menorrhagia is an abnormally heavy and prolonged menstrual period at regular intervals. Causes may be due to abnormal blood clotting, disruption of normal hormonal regulation of periods or disorders of the endometrial lining of the uterus. Depending upon the cause, it may be associated with abnormally painful periods, but most scholars consider that the duration, 12 years, makes it more plausible that the condition was something more akin to hemophilia.
- Withered hands - The Synoptics state that Jesus entered a synagogue A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer on Sabbath Sabbath in the Bible is a weekly day of rest and time of worship. It is observed differently in Judaism and Christianity and informs a similar occasion in several other faiths. Though many viewpoints and definitions have arisen over the millennia, most originate in the same textual tradition, and found a man with a withered hand there, whom Jesus healed, having first challenged the people present to decide what was lawful for Sabbath - to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill . The Gospel of Mark adds that this angered the Pharisees The word Pharisees comes from the Hebrew פרושים perushim from פרוש parush, meaning "separated" . The Pharisees were, depending on the time, a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews that flourished during the Second Temple Era (536 BCE–70 CE). After the destruction of the Second Temple, the so much that they started to contemplate killing Jesus.
- Dropsy Edema or Oedema (British English; both words from the Greek οίδημα), formerly known as dropsy or hydropsy, is an abnormal accumulation of fluid beneath the skin, or in one or more cavities of the body. Generally, the amount of interstitial fluid is determined by the balance of fluid homeostasis, and increased secretion of fluid into the - Luke alone states that, during Sabbath, Jesus ate in the house of a prominent Pharisee, opposite someone who suffered from dropsy, and Jesus asked the Pharisees that were present if it was lawful to heal on Sabbath, but, after getting no reply, healed the man. Jesus then challenged the Pharisees to say that they would not immediately pull out an ox, or a son (or a donkey, according to some ancient manuscripts of Luke), if it fell into a well during Sabbath.
- Deafness A hearing impairment or deafness is a full or partial decrease in the ability to detect or understand sounds. Caused by a wide range of biological and environmental factors, loss of hearing can happen to any organism that perceives sound. "Hearing impaired" is often used to refer to those who are deaf, although the term is no longer - Mark alone states that Jesus went to the Decapolis The Decapolis was a group of ten cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire in Jordan, Israel, and Syria. The ten cities were not an official league or political unit, but they were grouped together because of their language, culture, location, and political status. The Decapolis cities were centers of Greek and Roman culture in a region and met a man there who was deaf and mute, and cured him. Specifically, Jesus first touched the man's ears, and touched his tongue after spitting, and then said Ephphatha! Most scholars claim that the historical Jesus primarily spoke Aramaic. The Gospel according to the Hebrews is said to affirm this fact. Aramaic, a Semitic language related to Hebrew, was a common language of the Eastern Mediterranean during and after the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Achaemenid Empires . Despite the subsequent Greek (331 BC), an Aramaic Most scholars claim that the historical Jesus primarily spoke Aramaic. The Gospel according to the Hebrews is said to affirm this fact. Aramaic, a Semitic language related to Hebrew, was a common language of the Eastern Mediterranean during and after the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Achaemenid Empires . Despite the subsequent Greek (331 BC) word meaning Be opened
- Blindness Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors - The Synoptics state that Jesus met a beggar (Mark gives the name: bar-Timai or son of Timai) who, though blind, still identified Jesus as the Jewish Messiah Messiah (Hebrew: משיח; mashiah, moshiah, mashiach, or moshiach, is a term used in the Hebrew Bible to describe priests and kings, who were traditionally anointed with the holy anointing oil as described in Exodus 30:22-25. For example, Cyrus the Great, the king of Persia, though not a Hebrew, is referred to as "God's anointed" (; Jesus said that the man's faith has healed him, and he received his sight, and was allowed to follow Jesus. This happened when Jesus was leaving Jericho Jericho is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate, and has a population of over 20,000 Palestinians. Situated well below sea level on an east-west route 16 kilometers (10 mi) north of the Dead Sea, Jericho is the lowest permanently inhabited site on earth, and Matthew adds that there was another healed at the same time. John mentions as similar event that happened near the Pool of Siloam, with the following details:
- The disciples first questioned Jesus whether the man's curse was for his own sins, or those of his parents. Jesus said it was for neither reason, "but that the works of God should be made manifest in him".
- Jesus healed him by spitting on the ground, mixing his spit with mud, and putting the mixture into his eyes, then sent him to wash in the Pool of Siloam.
- The event happened on Sabbath; therefore, the Pharisees said Jesus was not of God because he did not keep Sabbath. They asked the formerly blind man concerning Jesus, who said, "He is a prophet".
- The Jews did not believe that the healed man was the same person as the man who had been blind from birth, and asked his parents if the healed man was their son. The parents responded that he was, and had been born blind.
- Jesus identified himself as the Son of God, and the cured man worshiped him.
- Additionally, Mark alone states that Jesus went to Bethsaida and met another man there who was blind, and then cured him. Specifically, Jesus is described as spitting in the man's eyes, to which the man responded that his vision is now blurred; Jesus then touched the man's eyes, and the man responded that he can see clearly now. John's account of the healing of has been argued by some scholars to be a conflation of the account of bar-Timai in Mark, together with the healing method given by Mark's account of the second healing of a blind man.[citation needed]
- Paralysis Paralysis is most often caused by damage to the nervous system, especially the spinal cord. Major causes are stroke, trauma, poliomyelitis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , botulism, spina bifida, multiple sclerosis, and Guillain-Barré syndrome. Temporary paralysis occurs during REM sleep, and dysregulation of this system can lead to episodes of - The Synoptics state that a paralytic was brought to Jesus on a mat; Jesus told him to get up and walk, and the man did so. Jesus also told the man that his sins were forgiven, which according to the Synoptics irritated the Pharisees, and according to John irritated the people in general. Jesus is described as responding to the anger by asking whether it is easier to say that someone's sins are forgiven, or to tell the man to get up and walk. The Synoptics state that this happened in Capernaum Capernaum was a settlement on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The site is a ruin today, but was inhabited from 150 BC to about AD 750, Mark and Luke adding that Jesus was in a house at the time, and that the man had to be lowered through the roof by his friends due to the crowds blocking the door. A similar account is given in John and occurs at the Pool of Bethesda; some have argued this is another version of the event described in the synoptics, rather than a separate cure.
- Unspecified sickness - All four Canonical Gospels state that Jesus was asked by an official to heal a person important to him, and although Jesus is somewhat annoyed at being constantly asked to perform miracles, rather than being asked for teachings, he says that the person would be healed, and the official returned home to find that this has happened. The Synoptics state that official was a centurion A centurion , also hecatontarch in Greek sources (Greek: ἑκατόνταρχος or, in Byzantine times, κένταρχος) was a professional officer of the Roman army after the Marian reforms of 107 BC. Most centurions commanded a century (centuria) of 80 men, but senior centurions commanded cohorts, or took senior staff roles in their legion, and that it was the centurion's servant that was sick, while the Gospel of John states that the official was a royal official, originating from Canaan Canaan is an ancient term for a region encompassing modern-day Israel and Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Jordan, Syria and northeastern Egypt. In the Hebrew Bible, the "Land of Canaan" extends from Lebanon southward across Gaza to the "Brook of Egypt" and eastward to the Jordan, and that it was his son who was sick.
Exorcisms
See also: Exorcism#Jesus Exorcism is the practice of evicting demons or other evil spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed. The practice is quite ancient and part of the belief system of many countries Christ healing a demoniac, (Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry or simply the Très Riches Heures is a richly decorated Book of Hours (containing prayers to be said by the lay faithful at each of the canonical hours of the day) commissioned by Jean, Duc de Berry around 1410. It is probably the most important illuminated manuscript of the 15th century, "le roi des).According to the Synoptic Gospels The synoptic Gospels are three Gospels in the New Testament the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of Luke, that display a high degree of similarity in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence and paragraph structures. These gospels are also considered by Biblical scholars to share the same point of view. The, Jesus performed many exorcisms of demoniacs Demonic possession is often the term used to describe the control over a human form by a demon. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include: erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying. Unlike in channeling or other forms of possession, the subject has no control over the possessing entity and. These incidents are not mentioned by the Gospel of John.
The accounts in the Synoptic Gospels are:
- The boy possessed by a demon at Capernaum Capernaum was a settlement on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The site is a ruin today, but was inhabited from 150 BC to about AD 750 - Jesus exorcised an unclean spirit and forbidding the demon from informing people that he was the "Holy One of God". (Mark 1:21-28, Luke 4:31-37)
- Jesus drove out evil spirits with a word. (Matthew 8:8, 8:14-17, Mark 1:29-39; Luke 4:33-41)
- The man possessed by demons at Gerasenes, whom the people had tried to chain up but had escaped, and lived in caves, and roamed the hills, screaming - Jesus inquired the man's name, but is told by the man/demons that his name is Legion Legion, also known as the Gerasene Demon, is a demon found in the Christian Bible. The New Testament outlines an encounter where Jesus healed a man from Gadarenes possessed by demons while traveling, "...for we are many". The demons asked to be expelled into a group of swine, which Jesus did, and thereafter the pigs fell into a lake and drowned. The pig owners tell the townsfolk what had happened, and when the townsfolk see that the man is now sane, they besought Jesus to leave "for they were taken with great fear". The man, on the other hand, informs the whole of the decapolis The Decapolis was a group of ten cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire in Jordan, Israel, and Syria. The ten cities were not an official league or political unit, but they were grouped together because of their language, culture, location, and political status. The Decapolis cities were centers of Greek and Roman culture in a region what had happened. (Matthew 8:28-34, Mark 5:1-20, Luke 8:26-39)
- Jesus drove a demon out of a mute man who then spoke, the Pharisees The word Pharisees comes from the Hebrew פרושים perushim from פרוש parush, meaning "separated" . The Pharisees were, depending on the time, a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews that flourished during the Second Temple Era (536 BCE–70 CE). After the destruction of the Second Temple, the said it was by the power of Beelzebub Ba‘al Zebûb, Ba‘al Zəbûb or Ba‘al Zəvûv appears as the name of a deity worshipped in the Philistine city of Ekron. (Matthew 9:32-34, Mark 3:20-22)
- Jesus gave the Twelve Apostles Traditionally, the Twelve include Peter, Prince of the Apostles; Andrew, James the Greater, James the Lesser, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, Thaddeus, Simon, and Judas Iscariot. Judas had been one of the Twelve, but he betrayed Jesus and killed himself. With Judas gone, Matthias became one of the Twelve. In the Synoptic Gospels, Mark the authority to drive out evil spirits. (Matthew 10:1-8, Mark 3:15, 6:7, 6:13, Luke 9:1, 10:17)
- Jesus said if he drove out demons by the Spirit of God In Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the Spirit of God. In mainstream Christian theology he is the third person of the Trinity and part of the Godhead, equal with God the Father and with God the Son or Finger of God then the Kingdom of God The Kingdom of God or Reign of God is a foundational concept in the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam has come. (Matthew 12:22-32, Luke 11:14-23, 12:10;, Mark 3:20-30)
- The possessed daughter of the Canaanite or Phoenician woman in Tyre - the woman asks Jesus to heal her daughter, but Jesus says "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel". The woman replies, "Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table", whereupon Jesus tells her that her daughter is healed, and when the woman returns home she finds that this is true. (Matthew 15:21-28, Mark 7:24-30)
- The boy possessed by a demon that is brought forward to Jesus straight after Jesus' transfiguration, and who foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, becomes rigid, and involuntarily falls into both water and fire - Jesus' followers cannot expel the demon, and Jesus condemns the people as unbelieving, but when the father of the boy questions if Jesus can heal the boy, Jesus says everything is possible for those that believe, so the father says he believes that the boy could be healed, and Jesus does so. (Matthew 17:14-21, Mark 9:14-29, Luke 9:37-49)
- Jesus had driven seven demons out of Mary Magdalene. (Mark 16:9, Luke 8:2)
- Jesus continued to cast out demons even though Herod Antipas wanted to kill him. (Luke 13:31-32)
Controlling nature
Jesus multiplying the loaves (altarpiece, 1870, Church of the Nativity of Mary, Ravensburg, Germany).The Gospels tell another group of stories concerning Jesus' power over nature:
- The Feeding of the 5000 and of the 4000 men - Jesus, praying to God and using only a few loaves of bread and several fish, feeds thousands of men, along with an unspecified number of women and children; there are even a number of baskets of leftovers afterward.
- The Cursing of the Fig Tree - Jesus cursed a fig tree, and it withered.
- Turning Water into Wine - at a wedding, when the host runs out of wine, the host's servants fill vessels with water at Jesus' command, then a sample is drawn out and taken to the master of the banquet who pronounces the content of the vessels as the best wine of the banquet.
- Walking on water - Jesus walked on a lake to meet a boat.
- Transfiguration of Jesus - Jesus climbed a mountain and was changed so that his face glowed.
- The Catch of 153 fish - Jesus instructed the disciples to throw their net over the side of the water, resulting in them hauling in the huge catch (for hand fishing) of 153 fish.
- Calming a storm - during a storm, the disciples woke Jesus, and he rebuked the storm causing it to become calm. Jesus then rebukes the disciples for lack of faith.
- Transubstantiation during the last supper; disputed by some denominations. (see Christian Interpretations below)
Power over death
The Canonical Gospels report three cases where Jesus calls a dead person back to life:
- Jairus' daughter - Jairus, a major patron of a synagogue, asks Jesus to heal his daughter, but while Jesus is on his way, men tell Jairus that his daughter has died. Jesus says she was only sleeping and wakes her up with the word Talitha koum!.
- The son of the widow at Nain - A young man, the son of a widow, is brought out for burial in Nain. Jesus sees her, and his pity causes him to tell her not to cry. Jesus approaches the coffin and tells the man inside to get up, and he does so.
- The raising of Lazarus - a close friend of Jesus who had been dead for four days is brought back to life when Jesus commands him to get up.
- Jesus' own resurrection from the dead.
While the raising of the daughter of Jairus is in all the Synoptic Gospels (but not in the Gospel of John), the raising of the son of the widow of Nain appears only in the Gospel of Luke, and the raising of Lazarus appears only in the Gospel of John. It has been argued by several scholars and commentators[citation needed] that the story of the raising of Lazarus and that of the Nain widow's son really refer to the same event, considered to derive from the raising of the youth in the original Mark.
Supernatural knowledge
The ability of Jesus to know things by supernatural means could also be classed as a miracle.
This may explain the reason why Nathaniel responded to Jesus saying, "Before that Philip called thee, when thou was under the fig tree, I saw thee", by answering, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel."[2] It could be perhaps that when he was under the fig tree, Nathaniel had been praying in secret which elicited this response, rather than that he did not know that he had merely been observed in the natural way.
The story of the Samaritan woman at the well is an example where Jesus supernaturally knew the history of the woman including the men in her life.
Interpretations
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Christian
| This section requires expansion. |
To many Christians, the miracles represent actual historical events. Most Christians accept the resurrection of Jesus as fact, indeed defining being a Christian with a belief in the resurrection.[citation needed] Theologically, the miracles are usually understood as demonstrating Jesus' lordship. In Reformed theology, the miracles are sometimes regarded as part of Christ's active obedience which is imputed to believers.
Many Christians accept that exorcisms as having really happened as actual evictions of real demons[citation needed]: the Roman Catholic Church maintains a detailed protocol of what is to be done to perform an exorcism, and most local denominations have an exorcism 'specialist' at hand, as does the Anglican Church of England, which maintains an exorcist in each diocese. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglo Catholics consider the Last supper and transubstantiation as miraculous events while most Protestants see the Eucharist in symbolic terms.
The miraculous works of Jesus were an important part of testifying to the Hypostatic Union or dual natures of Jesus Christ as God and Man.[3]
Liberal Christianity and miracles
Liberal Christians place less emphasis on miraculous events associated with the life of Jesus than on his teachings. The effort to remove "superstitious" elements from Christian faith dates to intellectual reformist Christians such as Erasmus and the Deists in the 15th–17th centuries.[4] In the 19th century, self-identified liberal Christians sought to elevate Jesus's humane teachings as a standard for a world civilization freed from cultic traditions and traces of "pagan" belief in the supernatural.[5] The debate over whether a belief in miracles was mere superstition or essential to accepting the divinity of Christ constituted a crisis within the 19th-century church, for which theological compromises were sought.[6] The 19th-century theologian Adolf von Harnack maintained that miracles were impossible, but said that the acts of healing performed by Jesus were real and must have seemed miraculous. Harnack found the mythical elements of the life of Jesus "disturbing," but denied that their scientific implausibility was reason to reject the credibility of the Gospels:
| “ | Historical science in this last generation has taken a great step in advance by learning to pass a more intelligent and benevolent judgment on those narratives, and accordingly even reports of the marvellous can now be counted amongst the materials of history and turned to good account.[7] | ” |
Attempts to account for miracles through scientific or rational explanation were mocked even at the turn of the 19th–20th century.[8] A belief in the authenticity of miracles was one of five tests established in 1910 by the Presbyterian Church to distinguish true believers from false professors of faith such as "educated, 'liberal' Christians."[9]
Contemporary liberal Christians may prefer to read Jesus's miracles as metaphorical narratives for understanding the power of God.[10] The early 20th-century liberal theologian Edward Scribner Ames asserted that "if religion is to be vital and satisfying in this new age, it must also deal with facts of actual experience, discarding superstitions, miracles and magic." Not all theologians with liberal inclinations reject the possibility of miracles, but may reject the polemicism that denial or affirmation entails; Gustav Niebuhr prized intellectual freedom, but opposed modernists who denied the miracles of the New Testament.[11]
Gnostic
To some Gnostics, death had a profoundly allegorical meaning; people who had renounced their lack of knowledge and their carnality, becoming gnostics, were referred to as having died, since they had metaphorically escaped the prison of the body.[citation needed] Some Gnostics viewed resurrection as an allegory for people attaining gnosis, and not as something that had to literally have happened, hence viewing these miracles as metaphors, and teaching devices, not actual events.[citation needed] According to those who see Gnosticism as the original version of Christianity, this is how the events were intended to be interpreted, and hence they were non historic, never really having been meant to be seen as historic.[citation needed]
Critical analysis
Symbolic
Aside from literal interpretations, and assumptions of them being fiction, numerous other explanations of the events have been put forward throughout history. Beginning with the Gnostics, it has been suggested that the reports of alleged miracles were actually intended just as allegories, not as factual events.[citation needed] Healing the blind has been argued to be a metaphor for people who previously could not, or would not, see the truth being shown it;[citation needed] healing the deaf has been interpreted as simply meaning that people who could not, or would not, listen to true teachings were made to;[citation needed] similarly, healing paralysis has been interpreted as an allegory for rectifying inaction;[citation needed] and healing leprosy for removing the societal stigmatism associated with certain stances.[citation needed] It has also been argued that bar-Timai is a direct reference to Plato's Timaeus, a philosophical work, and that bar-Timai symbolizes the Hellenic audience of Mark's gospel, and that curing his blindness is a metaphor for the Gospel giving a revelation to the audience. [12]
Herbal medicines
Other scholars have suggested that the Bible is more literal than that, but that the events can be scientifically explained by arguing that Jesus had a high knowledge of herbalism, as was common amongst the teachers of many mystery religions, and ascetic groups like the Essenes, and simply applied quite ordinary and scientific cures for the symptoms described.[citation needed] Though things like blindness and deafness may seem incurable without very modern medicine, it has been argued by these scholars that it is not true blindness, deafness, etc., being referred to, but more easily curable illness such as conjunctivitis, and glue ear.[citation needed] Out of the Canonical Gospels, Matthew adds several other episodes of Jesus healing people who are blind, deaf, mute, lame, or some combination of these four; many scholars see this as an example of the common trait of Matthew trying to portray Jesus as fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy, in this case Isaiah 35:5-6.[citation needed] Those who believe the miracles happened as literally stated also sometimes think there is a reference to this part of Isaiah, though in their case, these believers argue that Jesus was fulfilling the prophecy, rather than the author editing Jesus to fit it.[citation needed]
Some modern scholars dismiss exorcisms as simply being cases of mental illness and afflictions such as epilepsy.[citation needed] Some scholars typically see these exorcisms of such illness as allegorical, representative of Jesus' teachings clearing even the most troubled mind.[citation needed] Some critical scholars, however, have suggested that the events could have been real, though with the scientific explanation of the illnesses, and that the cures given were really just psychological drugs that Jesus, like many others in the era, would have been aware of; for example, Sage and Mistletoe were used in early times to treat epilepsy, and Snakeroot was used to treat schizophrenia.[citation needed]
A study by the Jesus Seminar of what aspects of the Gospel accounts are likely to be factual, held that while the various cures Jesus gave for diseases are probably true, since there were many others in the ancient world credited with healing power, most of the other miracles of Jesus are nonfactual, at least in their literal interpretation from the Bible. The veracity of exorcisms carried out by Jesus is questioned among some scholars, as according to modern science there is no evidence for demonic possession.
List of miracles attributed to Jesus in various sources
It is not always clear when two reported miracles refer to the same event. An attempt has been made to indicate those that probably are related. Summarizing the table below, there are 47 miracles of Jesus recorded during his life-time, 40 of them recorded in the canonical Gospels and 7 recorded only in non-canonical sources[13]. The chronological order of the miracles is difficult to determine, so this list should not be viewed as a sequence.
See also
| Christianity portal |
- Parables of Jesus
- Acts of the Apostles — the apostles attributed miracles recounted in Acts as having been done "in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth"
- Moses, Joshua, Elijah and Elisha – earlier prophets whose ministries were also characterized by miracles
- The Miracles of Jesus is the title of a video documentary presented by Rageh Omaar and of an accompanying book authored by Michael Symmons Roberts.
References
- Trench, Richard Chenevix, Notes on the miracles of our Lord, London : John W. Parker, 1846 and many later editions
- Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament, Doubleday, 1997 ISBN 0-385-24767-2
- Brown, Raymond E. et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary Prentice-Hall, 1990 ISBN 0-13-614934-0
- Kilgallen, John J. A Brief Commentary on the Gospel of Mark, Paulist Press, 1989. ISBN 0-8091-3059-9
- Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, v. 2, Mentor, Message, and Miracles, Doubleday, 1994, ISBN 0-385-46992-6
- Miller, Robert J. Editor The Complete Gospels, Polebridge Press, 1994 ISBN 0-06-065587-9
- List of Jesus' Miracles and Biblical References
Notes
- ^ See discussion under Liberal Christianity and miracles.
- ^ John 1:48,49
- ^ John Gill. "John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible, John 10". http://www.freegrace.net/gill/John/John_10.htm. Retrieved on 2008-12-23. "Christ appeals to his miracles as proofs of his deity, sonship, and Messiahship" While Christ's experiences of hunger, weariness, and death were evidences of Christ's humanity, the miracles were evidences of Christ's deity. By definition, the Hypostatic Union describes Christ's dual natures as God and Man. See also (John 10:37-38)
- ^ Linda Woodhead, "Christianity," in Religions in the Modern World (Routledge, 2002), pp. 186 online and 193.
- ^ Burton L. Mack, The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 29 online.
- ^ The Making of American Liberal Theology: Imagining Progressive Religion 1805–1900, edited by Gary J. Dorrien (Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), passim, search miracles.
- ^ Adolf von Harnack, "What Is Christianity? Lectures Delivered in the University of Berlin during the Winter Term 1899–1900," lecture 2, section 27, available through the Christian Classics Ethereal Library online.
- ^ F.J. Ryan, Protestant Miracles: High Orthodox and Evangelical Authority for the Belief in Divine Interposition in Human Affairs (Stockton, California, 1899), p. 78 online. Full text downloadable.
- ^ Dan P. McAdams, The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 164 online.
- ^ Ann-Marie Brandom, "The Role of Language in Religious Education," in Learning to Teach Religious Education in the Secondary School: A Companion to School Experience (Routledge, 2000), p. 76 online.
- ^ The Making of American Liberal Theology: Idealism, Realism, and Modernity, 1900-1950, edited by Gary J. Dorrien (Westminster John Knox Press, 2003), passim, search miracles, especially p. 413; on Ames, p. 233 online; on Niebuhr, p. 436 online.
- ^ Mark 10
- ^ This count includes his own resurrection, but excludes transubstantiation.
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Jesus: "Jesus wore the Ẓiẓit (Matt. ix. 20)"; Strong's Concordance G2899; Walter Bauer's Greek-English Lexicon of the NT, 3rd ed., 1979: "κράσπεδον: 1. edge, border, hem of a garment - But meaning 2 is also possible for these passages, depending on how strictly Jesus followed Mosaic law, and also upon the way in which κράσπεδον was understood by the authors and first readers of the gospels. 2. tassel (ציצת), which the Israelite was obligated to wear on the four corners of his outer garment, according to Num 15:38f; Dt 22:12." ... Of the Pharisees ... Mt 23:5.
- ^ This is viewed as a miracle only in Churches that believe in transubstantiation, such as Roman Catholicism. Protestant churches do not view the Lord's Supper as a miracle.
- ^ Gospel of Peter Fragment I: V-15.
- ^ Acts of Pilate. In W. Barnston (Ed.) (1984). The Other Bible (pp. 368). New York: HarperCollins Publishers ISBN 0-06-250030-9.
External links
Apologist
- The Historicity of Jesus' Miracles a feature of the Christan Cadre.
- Pool of Bethesda
Categories: Miracles attributed to Jesus
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Catholic Online
... Jesus , consecrated hosts bleeding, blood appearing spontaneously in a tabernacle, and others miracles as well. Many miraculous healings were attributed ...
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