THE MIRACLES OF JESUS

Was Jesus a miracle worker? If not, then why believe Him! This too was exactly His reasoning:

·       “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” (John 10:37-38; ESV)

If Jesus had routinely been performing miracles, it strongly suggests that He was doing so by the hand of God to authenticate His teachings. Therefore, His contemporaries should have had every reason in the world to believe in Him, even though they refused.

But why should we believe? For one thing, many of us have experienced the authenticating miracles of God. For another thing, the historical evidence in favor of this is so overwhelming that even the skeptics of the Jesus Seminar had acknowledged that He had been performing miracles. Here is a small sampling of their opinions:

·       “On historical grounds it is virtually indisputable that Jesus was a healer and exorcist.” (Marcus Borg) http://reasonsforjesus.com/6-reasons-takes-faith-to-deny-jesus/

·        “Jesus was both an exorcist and a healer” (John Crossan, ‘The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant’)

Based on the historical evidence, many other unbelieving scholars acknowledged that Jesus was a miracle worker:

·       “An ability to work cures, further, coheres with another datum from Jesus’ mission: He had a popular following, which such an ability helps to account for.” (Paula Fredriksen, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’)

·       “[W]e note that Jesus as exorcist, healer (even to the point of raising the dead), and miracle worker is one of the strongest, most ubiquitous, and most variously attested depictions in the Gospels. All strata of this material–Mark, John, M-traditions, L-traditions, and Q–make this claim. This sort of independent multiple attestation supports arguments for the antiquity of a given tradition, implying that its source must lie prior to its later, manifold expressions, perhaps in the mission of Jesus himself.” (Paula Fredriksen; ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’)

·       “Whatever you think about the philosophical possibility of miracles of healing, it’s clear that Jesus was widely reputed to have done them.” (Bart Ehrman, ‘The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings’)

·       “Most of the miracle stories contained in the gospels are legendary or at least are dressed up with legends. But there can be no doubt that Jesus did such deeds, which were, in his and his contemporaries’ understanding, miracles, that is, deeds that were the result of supernatural, divine causality. Doubtless he healed the sick and cast out demons.” (Rudolf Bultmann, ‘Jesus’)

In light of the above, Christian scholars have concluded:

·       “Even the most skeptical critics cannot deny that the historical Jesus carried out a ministry of miracle-working and exorcism.” (William Lane Craig; ‘The Evidence for Jesus’)

·       “Most historical Jesus scholars today, regardless of their personal theological orientation, do accept that Jesus drew crowds who believed that he performed cures and exorcisms.” (Craig Keener; ‘The Gospels as Sources for Historical Information about Jesus’)

·       “It is noteworthy that Jesus’ enemies are not presented as denying that he did extraordinary deeds; rather they attributed them to evil origins, either to the devil (Mark 3:22-30) or in the 2d-century polemic to magic (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 2.32.3-5).” (Raymond Brown; ‘An Introduction to New Testament Christology.’)

Brown’s reflections are particularly true of the ancient Jewish writings, which reluctantly acknowledge Jesus’ miracles. Here are some references from the Talmud, a compilation (550 AD) of earlier rabbinic writings, where Jesus is often pejoratively called “Jesu” instead of “Jesus.” The Talmud dismissively refers to his miracles as “magic” or “sorcery,” products of Satan. However, these pejorative terms also acknowledge that Jesus had been performing miracles:

·       "On Passover Eve they hanged Jesus of Nazareth. He practiced sorcery, incited and led Israel astray...Was Jesus of Nazareth deserving of a search for an argument in his favor? He was an enticer and the Torah says, 'You shall not spare, nor shall you conceal him!" (Sanhedrin 43A)

·       "Jesus was a magician and a fool. Mary was an adulteress". (Shabbath 104b,).

·       "Jesus... stood up a brick to symbolize an idol and bowed down to it. Jesus performed magic and incited the people of Israel and led them astray." (Sanhedrin 107B)

Celsus, writing against the Christian faith, 150-170 AD, confirms that the Talmudic assertions are about Jesus:

·       "Let us imagine what a Jew - let alone a philosopher - might say to Jesus: 'Is it not true, good sir, that you fabricated the story of your birth from a virgin to quiet rumors about the true and unsavory circumstances of your origins? Is it not the case that far from being born in the royal David's city of Bethlehem, you were born in a poor country town, and of a woman who earned her living by spinning? Is it not the case that when her deceit was uncovered, to wit, that she was pregnant by a roman soldier called Panthera [as in Shabbath 104b] she was driven away by her husband- the carpenter- and convicted of adultery?"

How do modern rabbinic authorities regard this evidence? According to The Jewish Encyclopedia, Jesus was often accused by the Talmudists of performing magic:

·       “It is the tendency of all these sources to belittle the person of Jesus by ascribing to him illegitimate birth, magic, and a shameful death …

·       Magic may have been ascribed him over against the miracles recorded in the Gospels …

·       The sojourn of Jesus in Egypt is an essential part of the story of his youth. According to the Gospels he was in that country in his early infancy, but Celsus says that he was in service there and learned magic …

o   According to Celsus (in Origen, “Contra Celsum,” i. 28) and to the Talmud (Shab. 104b), Jesus learned magic in Egypt and performed his miracles by means of it; the latter work, in addition, states that he cut the magic formulas into his skin. It does not mention, however, the nature of his magic performances (Tosef., Shab. xi. 4; Yer. Shab. 18d); but as it states that the disciples of Jesus healed the sick “in the name of Jesus Pandera” (Yer. Shab. 14d; Ab. Zarah 27b; Eccl. R. i. 8) it may be assumed that its author held the miracles of Jesus also to have been miraculous cures. Different in nature is the witchcraft attributed to Jesus in the “Toledot.” When Jesus was expelled from the circle of scholars, he is said to have returned secretly from Galilee to Jerusalem, where he inserted a parchment containing the “declared name of God” (“Shem ha-Meforash”), which was guarded in the Temple, into his skin, carried it away, and then, taking it out of his skin, he performed his miracles by its means. This magic formula then had to be recovered from him, and Judah the Gardener (a personage of the “Toledot” corresponding to Judas Iscariot) offered to do it; he and Jesus then engaged in an aerial battle (borrowed from the legend of SIMON MAGUS), in which Judah remained victor and Jesus fled.

·       The accusation of magic is frequently brought against Jesus. Jerome mentions it, quoting the Jews: “Magum vocant et Judaei Dominum meum” (“Ep. 1v., ad Ascellam,” i. 196, ed. Vallarsi); Marcus, of the sect of the Valentinians, was, according to Jerome, a native of Egypt, and was accused of being, like Jesus, a magician (Hilgenfeld, “Ketzergesch.” p. 870, Leipsic, 1884). The accusation of magic is frequently brought against Jesus … As Balaam the magician and, according to the derivation of his name, "destroyer of the people", was from both of these points of view a good prototype of Jesus, the latter was also called "Balaam.”

·       Jesus performed all his miracles by means of magic …”— (The Jewish Encyclopedia, http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/censorship_2.html)

Jewish historian Josephus (90 AD) also attested to Jesus’ miracles. However, without any hard evidence, most scholars regard all or part of this as an interpolation (a later addition):

·       About this time arose Jesus, a wise man, who did good deeds and whose virtues were recognized. And many Jews and people of other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. However, those who became his disciples preached his doctrine. They related that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. Perhaps he was the Messiah in connection with whom the prophets foretold wonders. (Jewish Antiquities, XVIII 3.2)

In summary, even the skeptics and those who had only contempt for Jesus have acknowledged His miracles. Even though they do not regard these miracles as attesting to the fact that Jesus is the promised Messiah, this is where the evidence points. Besides, if Jesus is who He claimed to be, we are coerced by the evidence to accept His testimony about Scripture:

·       But he answered [the devil], “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)

Jesus believed that every Word of Scripture came from God (Matthew 5:16-19). If we are to call ourselves followers of Jesus, we also must receive Scripture as Jesus did.