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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. Critical scholars generally concede that empirical methods are unable to determine if a genuine miracle is historical, considering the issue theological or philosophical. Islamic scholars also believe in most of the miracles of healing and the miracles of resurrecting dead people to life.
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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, and at other times employs elaborate rituals using material (e.g. spit or mud). Generally they are recorded in the Synoptic Gospels but not John.
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 Gospels tell another group of stories concerning Jesus' power over nature:
The Canonical Gospels report three cases where Jesus calls a dead person back to life:
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 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.
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."[1] 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.
Major events in Jesus' life from the Gospels |
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To many Christians, the miracles represent actual historical events, while liberal Christians may consider these stories to be figurative. Most Christians accept the resurrection of Jesus as fact, indeed defining being a Christian with a belief in the resurrection. 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 : 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.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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; healing the deaf has been interpreted as simply meaning that people who could not, or would not, listen to true teachings were made to; similarly, healing paralysis has been interpreted as an allegory for rectifying inaction; and healing leprosy for removing the societal stigmatism associated with certain stances. 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. [2]
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. 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. 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. 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.
Some modern scholars dismiss exorcisms as simply being cases of mental illness and afflictions such as epilepsy. Some scholars typically see these exorcisms of such illness as allegorical, representative of Jesus' teachings clearing even the most troubled mind. 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.
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.
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[3]. The chronological order of the miracles is difficult to determine, so this list should not be viewed as a sequence.
Miracle | Matthew | Mark | Luke | John | Other sources |
Annunciation | Luke 1:26-38 | Qur'an 3:45-51, 19:16-26 | |||
Miraculous baptism | Matt 3:13-17 | Mark 1:9-11 | Luke 3:21-22 | John 1:32-34 | |
Angels protected Jesus in the desert | Matthew 4:11 | Mark 1:12-13 | |||
Miraculous conversion of Nathanael | John 1:45-51 | ||||
Turned water into wine | John 2:1-11 | ||||
Exorcism in Capernaum | Mark 1:21-28 | Luke 4:31-37 | |||
Healed every disease | Matt 4:23-25 | Mark 1:39 | |||
Caught large number of fish, converted fishermen to "fishers of men" | Luke 5:1-11 | ||||
Jesus' name exorcises demons and performs many miracles | Matt 7:22 | Mark 9:38-40, 16:17 | Luke 9:49-50, 10:17 | John 1:12-13. 2:23, 3:18, 14:13-14, 17:11-12 | Acts 3:6, 4:10, 4:30, 16:18, 19:11-20 |
Cured a leper | Matt 8:1-4 | Mark 1:40-45 | Luke 5:12-16 | Egerton Gospel 2, Qur'an | |
Miraculous conversion of a Samaritan woman | John 4:28-29 | ||||
Cured a centurion's boy-servant | Matt 8:5-13 | Luke 7:1-10 | |||
Cured a royal official's son | John 4:46-54 | ||||
Cured Peter's mother-in-law's fever and drove out many evil spirits | Matt 8:14-17 | Mark 1:29-34 | Luke 4:38-41 | ||
Drove 7 demons out of Mary Magdalene | Mark 16:9 | Luke 8:2 | |||
Calmed a storm at sea by rebuking the wind and waves | Matt 8:23-27 | Mark 4:35-41 | Luke 8:22-25 | ||
Healed the Gerasene Demoniac | Matt 8:28-34 | Mark 5:1-20 | Luke 8:26-39 | ||
Cured a paralytic at Capernaum | Matt 9:1-8 | Mark 2:1-12 | Luke 5:17-26 | ||
Cured a paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda | John 5:1-18 | ||||
Raised the son of a widow at Nain | Luke 7:11-17 | ||||
Raised Jairus' daughter by saying Talitha koum! | Matt 9:18-26 | Mark 5:21-43 | Luke 8:40-56 | ||
Healed a woman with a hemorrhage who touched the fringes of his garment [4] | Matt 9:20-22 | Mark 5:24-34 | Luke 8:43-48 | ||
Healed two blind men, a mute, and every disease and ailment | Matt 9:27-35 | ||||
Twelve Apostles given authority to exorcise demons and raise the dead | Matt 10:1, 10:8 | Mark 3:13-15, 6:7 | Luke 9:1 | ||
Unspecified miracles at Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum | Matt 11:20-24 | Luke 10:13-15 | |||
Healed a man's withered hand | Matt 12:9-13 | Mark 3:1-6 | Luke 6:6-11 | ||
Healed huge crowds | Matt 12:15-21 | Mark 3:7-12 | Luke 6:17-19 | ||
Healed a blind and dumb demoniac | Matt 12:22-32 | Mark 3:20-30 | Luke 11:14-23; 12:10 | ||
Fed 5000 | Matt 14:13-21 | Mark 6:30-44 | Luke 9:10-17 | John 6:1-14 | |
Walked on water | Matt 14:22-33 | Mark 6:45-52 | John 6:15-21 | ||
All those who touched the fringes of his garment were cured | Matt 14:34-36 | Mark 6:53-56 | |||
Exorcised a Canaanite (Syro-Phoenician) woman | Matt 15:21-28 | Mark 7:24-30 | |||
Healed a deaf-mute by saying Ephphatha! | Mark 7:31-37 | ||||
Healed large numbers of crippled, blind and mute | Matt 15:29-31 | ||||
Fed 4000 | Matt 15:32-39 | Mark 8:1-10 | |||
Restored a man's sight at Bethsaida | Mark 8:22-26 | ||||
Transfiguration | Matt 17:1-13 | Mark 9:2-13 | Luke 9:28-36 | 2 Peter 1:17-18 | |
Exorcised a possessed boy | Matt 17:14-21 | Mark 9:14-29 | Luke 9:37-43 | ||
paid temple tax with a stater coin taken from a fish's mouth | Matt 17:23-27 | ||||
Healed a woman on the Sabbath | Luke 13:10-17 | ||||
Continued to cast out demons even though Herod Antipas wanted to kill him | Luke 13:31-32 | ||||
Raised Lazarus | John 11:1-44 | Qur'an | |||
Healed a man with dropsy | Luke 14:1-6 | ||||
Healed ten lepers | Luke 17:11-19 | ||||
Healed large crowds in Judea | Matt 19:1-2 | ||||
Healed two blind men | Matt 20:29-34 | ||||
Healed the blind beggar Bartimaeus | Mark 10:46-52 | Luke 18:35-43 | Qur'an | ||
Blind man given sight | John 9 | ||||
Healed blind and lame at Herod's Temple | Matt 21:14 | ||||
Cursed a fig tree | Matt 21:18-22 | Mark 11:12-14, 11:20-25 | |||
Transubstantiation of bread and wine[5] | Matt 26:26-30 | Mark 14:22-26 | Luke 22:14-20 | John 6:48-66 | 1 Cor 11:23-26 |
Satanic possession of Judas | John 13:26-30 | ||||
Healed High Priest's servant's ear | Luke 22:49-51 | ||||
Darkness like a Solar eclipse during Passover, see also Crucifixion eclipse | Matt 27:45 | Mark 15:33 | Luke 23:44-45 | Apocryphal sources:Gospel of Peter[6] and Gospel of Nicodemus[7] | |
Many of the dead resurrected when Jesus died | Matt 27:50-54 | ||||
Empty tomb | Matt 27:62–28:15 | Mark 16:1–8 | Luke 24:1–12 | John 20:1-10 | Gospel of Peter 8:1-13:3 |
Resurrection appearances | Matt 28:9-10, 28:16-20 | Mark 16:9-18 | Luke 24:13-49 | John 20:11-23 | Acts 1:1-8, 2:24, Romans 10:9, 1 Cor 9:1, 15:1-15 |
Ascended to Heaven | Mark 16:19-20 | Luke 24:50-53 | John 20:17 | Acts 1:9-11, Ephesians 4:7-13, 1 Peter 3:21-22, Secret Book of James 10:1-3, Qur'an | |
Doubting Thomas | John 20:24-31 | ||||
Catch of 153 fish post-resurrection | John 21:1-14 | ||||
Miraculous conversion of Paul | Acts 9:1-19,22:1-22,26:9-24 | ||||
Descended into Hell | Ephesians 4:8-10, Acts 2:27, 2:31, 1 Peter 3:19-20, 4:6, Apostles' Creed, Ante-Nicene Fathers | ||||
Sent Paraclete/Holy Spirit | Matt 3:10-12 | Mark 1:8 | Luke 3:16-17 | John 14:16, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7 | Acts 1:5, 1:8, 2:4, 2:38, 11:16, Qur'an |
Rich young man raised from the dead | Secret Gospel of Mark 1 | ||||
Water controlled and purified | Infancy Thomas 2.2 | ||||
Made birds of clay and brought them to life | Infancy Thomas 2.3, Qur'an 3:49 | ||||
Resurrected dead playmate Zeno | Infancy Thomas 9 | ||||
Healed a woodcutter's foot | Infancy Thomas 10 | ||||
Held water in his cloak | Infancy Thomas 11 | ||||
Harvested 100 bushels of wheat from a single seed | Infancy Thomas 12 | ||||
Stretched a board that was short for carpentry | Infancy Thomas 13 | ||||
Resurrected a teacher he earlier struck down | Infancy Thomas 14-15 | ||||
Healed James' viper bite | Infancy Thomas 16 | ||||
Resurrected a dead child | Infancy Thomas 17 | ||||
Resurrected a dead man | Infancy Thomas 18 | ||||
Miraculous Virgin Birth verified by midwife | Infancy James 19-20 |