Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MIRACLES

Extraordinary events that manifest divine power, that are wonders to human understanding, and therefore what human beings perceive as signs from God. The various Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek words used in the Bible to describe “miracles” actually denote “wonders,” “powers,” and “signs.” The manifestation of the divine power may happen with or without human agents of God.

In the OT the greatest miracle is God’s creation of the world and everything in it (Gen. 1:1–2:3; 2:4–3:24). Biblical writers repetitively praise God’s activity of creation (e.g., Ps. 8:3[MT 4]; 65:6-13[7-14]; Isa. 40:26; Amos 4:13). All other miracle stories are based on Israel’s understanding of God’s continuous sovereignty over the created world and its history. Although the stories about the manifestation of God’s wonders and signs are spread throughout the OT, they are mostly concentrated in two streams of traditions, one in the Exodus and Conquest traditions, and the other in the Elijah and Elisha traditions. In the traditions of the Exodus and the Conquest, God is understood as a national God and a military warrior par excellence. Thus most miracles depict God’s activity in destroying enemies and delivering God’s people Israel (e.g., Exod. 19:12-25; Josh. 10:11-14). Sometimes, however, God’s signs of judgment and deliverance are confined within Israel. God punishes the Israelites for their disobedience (e.g., Exod. 32:35; Num. 11:1-3) and saves them from difficulties or dangers (e.g., Exod. 16:13-31; 17:1-16). The two themes, judgment and deliverance, are sometimes combined in one story, as in the account of the serpents sent by God which killed a number of Israelites and that of the serpent of bronze which saved those bitten (Num. 21:4-9). The prominent human agents of these wonders and signs of God are the prophet Moses and other leaders of the Conquest.

In the traditions of Elijah (1 Kgs. 17-19, 21; 2 Kgs. 1) and Elisha (2 Kgs. 2-8), although the depiction of God as a national God strongly continues in the battles against the Canaanite god Baal and its worshippers, God’s power as healer and sustainer is most emphasized. As the human agent of God’s power, Elijah provides food (1 Kgs. 17:8-16), brings the dead back to life (vv. 17-24), and controls drought and rain (ch. 18). After Elijah is taken up to heaven, his disciple Elisha succeeds him as God’s agent through the spirit of his teacher. Elisha provides water (2 Kgs. 2:19-22), food (4:38-41, 42-44) and other necessary things (4:1-7; 6:1-7), enables the barren to bear children (4:11-17), brings the dead back to life (4:18-37), and heals sick people (5:1-27). Noteworthy are the parallels between the miracle stories of Elijah and those of Elisha on the one hand (resuscitation and provision), and between miracle stories of these two prophets and those of Jesus and his disciples in the NT on the other (resuscitation, healing, and provision).

In all four canonical Gospels miracles play an important role in Jesus’ ministry. About 35 miracles are ascribed to Jesus in the Gospels, and several summary statements are given (e.g., Mark 1:32-34; 3:7-12). Form criticism has conventionally categorized Jesus’ miracle stories in the Gospels into four groups: healings, exorcisms, resuscitations, and nature miracles. The boundary between healings and exorcisms, however, is sometimes ambiguous due to a popular belief of the time that a demon or spirit is responsible for causing sickness or disease. For example, in the story of Peter’s mother-in-law’s healing, in which a demon or spirit is not explicitly mentioned as the cause of her sickness, the fever — as if it were a person — leaves her (Mark 1:31 par.) and is even rebuked by Jesus (Luke 4:39). In the story of a crippled woman’s healing, she is described as being set free (Luke 13:12, 16) after having been bound by Satan by 18 years. Exorcisms and resuscitations may be regarded as belonging to healing stories in their form as well as content. Both exorcisms and resuscitations follow the same pattern of the story-telling of a typical healing story: the meeting of the healer and the sick one; detailing the nature and severity of the sickness; the healing itself; demonstration of the success; reaction of the witnesses. Regarding content, exorcisms are healings of persons possessed, and resuscitations are healings of persons who have died of illness.

Despite their overlapping ambiguity, the four categories are often quite recognizable. Although more than half of Jesus’ miracles are healings, all of the four groups are present in each Gospel except John, which includes no exorcism stories at all. The absence of exorcism in John is not difficult to explain when one notes the miracles’ differing significance in the Synoptic Gospels from that in the Gospel of John. In the Synoptics Jesus’ miracles are the warrant for the nearness and presence of God’s reign, which is the central theme of Jesus’ teaching and proclamation (cf. Luke 11:20). In John, however, miracles are signs which reveal the glory of Jesus as the Son of God and Messiah who gives new life, and thus which lead people to faith in Jesus (John 2:11; cf. 20:30-31).

Jesus not only performs miracles in the Gospels, but he himself, especially in his birth and resurrection, is the ultimate miracle. In the Infancy narratives (Matt. 1–2; Luke 1–2), both Matthew and Luke describe his miraculous birth: Jesus is born from a virgin mother through the Holy Spirit. John, in his prologue, goes even further: Jesus, as the Logos who pre-existed with God even before the creation, was God who became flesh (John 1:1-3, 14). At the end of each Gospel, Jesus is raised from death as he predicted. His tomb is empty (Mark 16:1-8; Matt. 28:1-8; Luke 24:1-11; John 20:1-10), and the risen Jesus appears to his disciples (Matt. 28:9-10, 16-20; Luke 24:13-53; John 20:11-29; 21:1-23).

Although Jesus performs most of the miracles, he is not the only person mentioned as a miracle worker in the NT. In the Synoptic Gospels Jesus sends out his disciples after giving them authority to cure diseases and to cast out demons and spirits (Mark 3:15; 6:7; Matt. 10:1; Luke 9:1). Actual descriptions of miracles performed by Jesus’ disciples, however, are rare in the Gospels and are concentrated in the Acts of the Apostles, where Peter and Paul are the leading figures who continue Jesus’ ministry. Interestingly, the miracles ascribed to these two figures are similar both in number and kind: e.g., a man who cannot walk from birth (Acts 3:1-6; 14:8-10); Peter’s shadow (5:15) and handkerchiefs or aprons which touch Paul’s skin (19:11-12); punitive miracles (5:1-11; 13:6-11); resuscitation (9:36-42; 20:9-12); liberation from prison (12:6-11; 16:25-34).

The belief in miracles as well as dispute about the authenticity of miracles (e.g., Mark 3:22-30; 2 Thess. 2:9-10) is a common phenomenon in most religions, ancient or modern. Unique in the biblical understanding of miracles over against that of other religions contemporaneous with the biblical period is that it identifies the power as originating solely with the one God.

Bibliography. J. P. Meier, A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus 2 (New York, 1994): 509-1038.

Seung Ai Yang

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MIRACLES

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)