Miracles attributed to Jesus

According to the canonical Gospels, Jesus worked many miracles in the course of his ministry, which may be categorized into cures, exorcisms, dominion over nature, three instances of raising the dead, and various others. To many Christians, the miracles represent actual historical events, while Liberal Christians may consider these stories to be figurative.
*Paralysis - 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, 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, and that it was the centurion's servant that was sick, while the Gospel of John states that the official was a royal offical, originating from Canaan, and that it was his son who was sick.

Exorcisms

According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus performed many exorcisms of demoniacs. 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 - Jesus exorcised an unclean spirit and forbidding the demon from informing people that he was the "Holy One of God". (, )
*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, "...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 what had happened. ()
*Jesus drove a demon out of a mute man who then spoke, the Pharisees said it was by the power of Beelzebub. (, , , )
*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. (, , 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." [John 1:48,49] 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.

Interpretations

Christian

To many Christians, the miracles represent actual historical events, while liberal Christians may consider these stories to be figurative.

Some modern scholars dismiss exorcisms as simply being cases of mental illness and afflictions such as epilepsy. Fact|date=February 2007 Some scholars typically see these "exorcisms" of such illness as allegorical, representative of Jesus' teachings clearing even the most troubled mind. Fact|date=February 2007 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. Fact|date=February 2007

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 [This count includes his own resurrection, but excludes transubstantiation.] . The chronological order of the miracles is difficult to determine, so this list should not be viewed as a sequence.

See also

* 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. , 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
* [http://www.christianity.com/Christian%20Foundations/Jesus/11540141/ List of Jesus' Miracles and Biblical References]

Notes

External links

Apologist

* [http://christiancadre.org/topics/historicaljesus.html#miracles The Historicity of Jesus' Miracles] a feature of the Christan Cadre.
* [http://www.bible-history.com/sketches/ancient/pool-bethesda.html Pool of Bethesda]