Miracles of Jesus Chronology and Full Miracles of Jesus Study In the Word of God

Miracles of Jesus
Chronology and Full Miracles of Jesus Study In the Word of God

Contents
1 Miracles of Jesus 1
1.1 Types and motives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 Cures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.2 Exorcisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.3 Resurrection of the dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.4 Control over nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 List of miracles found outside the New Testament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Setting and Interpretations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.1 Cultural background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.2 Traditional Christian interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3.3 Liberal Christianity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3.4 Non-religious views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 Gallery of miracles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.1 Cures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.2 Power Over Demonic Spirits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.3 Resurrection of the dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4.4 Control over nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.5 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.7 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2 Healing the mother of Peter’s wife 9
2.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3 Healing the deaf mute of Decapolis 10
3.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4 Healing the man blind from birth 11
4.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.3 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
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5 Healing the paralytic at Bethesda 13
5.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6 Blind man of Bethsaida 14
6.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.2 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
7 Healing the blind near Jericho 15
7.1 Narrative development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7.2 Son of David . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7.3 Bartimaeus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
7.4 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
7.5 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
7.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
7.7 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
8 Healing the centurion’s servant 17
8.1 Scriptures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
8.2 Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
8.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
9 Jesus healing an inﬁrm woman 19
9.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
9.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
10 Healing the man with a withered hand 20
10.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
10.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
11 Jesus cleansing a leper 21
11.1 Biblical narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
11.2 Leviticus 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
11.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
11.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
12 Cleansing ten lepers 23
12.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
12.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
13 Healing a man with dropsy 24
13.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
13.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

CONTENTS iii
14 Jesus healing the bleeding woman 25
14.1 Gospels of Matthew and Luke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
14.2 In art and later traditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
14.3 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
15 Healing the paralytic at Capernaum 28
15.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
15.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
16 Jesus healing in the land of Gennesaret 29
16.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
16.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
17 Healing the two blind men in Galilee 30
17.1 Narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
17.2 Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
17.3 Signiﬁcance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
17.4 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
17.5 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
18 Exorcising a boy possessed by a demon 31
18.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
18.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
19 Exorcism of the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter 32
19.1 The Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
19.2 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
19.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
19.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
20 Exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac 34
20.1 Narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
20.2 Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
20.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
20.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
21 Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum 36
21.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
21.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
22 Jesus exorcising at sunset 37
22.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
22.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
23 Exorcising the blind and mute man 38

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23.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
23.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
24 Jesus exorcising a mute 40
24.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
24.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
25 Raising of the son of the widow of Nain 41
25.1 Biblical account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
25.2 Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
25.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
25.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
26 Raising of Jairus’ daughter 43
26.1 Interpretations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
26.2 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
26.3 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
27 Raising of Lazarus 45
27.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
27.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
28 Marriage at Cana 47
28.1 Biblical account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
28.2 Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
28.3 Geography and archaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
28.4 In art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
28.5 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
28.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
28.7 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
29 Jesus walking on water 50
29.1 Biblical narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
29.2 Interpretations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
29.2.1 Christian teachings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
29.2.2 Historical-critical analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
29.2.3 Literary-critical analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
29.2.4 Gospel of Mark (c.66-70 CE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
29.2.5 Gospel of Matthew (c. 80-90 CE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
29.2.6 Gospel of John (c. 90-100 CE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
29.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
29.4 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
29.5 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

CONTENTS v
30 Calming the storm 55
30.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
30.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
31 Transfiguration of Jesus 57
31.1 New Testament accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
31.2 Theology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
31.2.1 Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
31.2.2 Historical development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
31.2.3 Transfiguration and Resurrection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
31.2.4 Presence of prophets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
31.3 Location of the mountain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
31.4 Feast and commemorations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
31.5 Gallery of images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
31.5.1 Paintings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
31.5.2 Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
31.5.3 Churches and monasteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
31.6 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
31.7 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
31.8 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
32 Feeding the multitude 64
32.1 The Feeding of the 5,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
32.2 The Feeding of the 4,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
32.3 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
32.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
32.5 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
33 Miraculous catch of fish 66
33.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
33.2 First miraculous catch of fish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
33.3 Second miraculous catch of fish—153 large ones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
33.3.1 153 fish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
33.4 Gallery of art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
33.5 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
33.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
34 Cursing the fig tree 69
34.1 The text in Mark and Matthew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
34.2 Interpretations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
34.3 Parallels in other texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
34.4 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
34.5 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

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34.6 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
35 Coin in the ﬁsh’s mouth 71
35.1 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
35.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
36 Chronology of Jesus 73
36.1 Context and overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
36.2 Date of birth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
36.2.1 Nativity accounts: Luke and Matthew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
36.2.2 Working backwards from when Jesus began preaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
36.3 Years of preaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
36.3.1 Reign of Tiberius and the Gospel of Luke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
36.3.2 Jerusalem Temple and the Gospel of John . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
36.3.3 Josephus’ reference to the Baptist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
36.4 Date of death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
36.4.1 Prefecture of Pontius Pilate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
36.4.2 Reign of Herod Antipas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
36.4.3 Conversion of Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
36.4.4 Astronomical analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
36.4.5 Day of death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
36.5 Other approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
36.6 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
36.7 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
36.8 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
37 Ministry of Jesus 85
37.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
37.2 Baptism and early ministry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
37.3 Ministry in Galilee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
37.3.1 Early Galilean ministry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
37.3.2 Major Galilean ministry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
37.3.3 Final Galilean ministry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
37.4 Judea and Perea to Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
37.4.1 Later Judean ministry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
37.4.2 Later Perean ministry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
37.5 Final ministry in Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
37.6 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
37.7 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
38 Jesus 95
38.1 Etymology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
38.2 In the Gospels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

CONTENTS vii
38.2.1 Canonical gospel accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
38.2.2 Genealogy and nativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
38.2.3 Early life, family, and profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
38.2.4 Baptism and temptation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
38.2.5 Public ministry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
38.2.6 Disciples and followers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
38.2.7 Teachings, preachings, and miracles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
38.2.8 Proclamation as Christ and Transﬁguration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
38.2.9 Final week: betrayal, arrest, trial, and death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
38.2.10 Resurrection and ascension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
38.3 Historical views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
38.3.1 Judea and Galilee in the 1st century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
38.3.2 Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
38.3.3 Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
38.3.4 Historicity of events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
38.3.5 Portraits of Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
38.3.6 Language, ethnicity, and appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
38.3.7 Christ myth theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
38.4 Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
38.4.1 Christian views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
38.4.2 Jewish views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
38.4.3 Islamic views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
38.4.4 Bahá'í views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
38.4.5 Other views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
38.5 Depictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
38.6 Associated relics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
38.7 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
38.8 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
38.9 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
38.9.1 Explanatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
38.9.2 Citations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
38.10External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
38.11Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
38.11.1 Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
38.11.2 Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
38.11.3 Content license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Chapter 1
Miracles of Jesus
Christ Walks on Water, by Ivan Aivazovsky, 1888.
The miracles of Jesus are the supernatural[1]
deeds at-
tributed to Jesus in Christian and Islamic texts. The ma-
jority are faith healing, exorcisms, resurrection of the
dead and control over nature.[2][3]
In the Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, and Luke),
Jesus refuses to give a miraculous sign to prove his
authority.[4]
In the Gospel of John, Jesus is said to have
performed seven miraculous signs that characterize his
ministry, from changing water into wine at the start of his
ministry to raising Lazarus from the dead at the end.[5]
To many Christians and Muslims, the miracles are actual
historical events.[6][7][8]
Others, including liberal Chris-
tians, consider these stories to be figurative.[9]
Since the
Enlightenment scholars have taken a highly skeptical ap-
proach to claims about miracles.[10]
1.1 Types and motives
In most cases, Christian authors associate each mira-
cle with specific teachings that reflect the message of
Jesus.[11]
In The Miracles of Jesus, H. Van der Loos describes two
main categories of miracles attributed to Jesus: those that
affected people, e.g., the Blind Man of Bethsaida and are
called “healings”, and those that “controlled nature”, e.g.,
Walking on Water. The three types of healings are cures
where an ailment is cured, exorcisms where demons are
cast away and the resurrection of the dead. Karl Bath said
that, among these miracles, the Transfiguration of Jesus
is unique in that the miracle happens to Jesus himself.[12]
According to Craig Blomberg, one characteristic shared
among all miracles of Jesus in the Gospel accounts is that
he delivered benefits freely and never requested or ac-
cepted any form of payment for his healing miracles, un-
like some high priests of his time who charged those who
were healed.[13]
In Matthew 10:8 he advised his disciples
to heal the sick without payment and stated: “freely ye
received, freely give.”[13]
It is not always clear when two reported miracles re-
fer to the same event. For example, in the Healing the
Centurion’s servant, the Gospels of Matthew[8:5-13]
and
Luke[7:1-10]
narrate how Jesus healed the servant of a Ro-
man Centurion in Capernaum at a distance. The Gospel
of John[4:46-54]
has a similar account at Capernaum, but
states that it was the son of a royal official who was cured
at a distance.
1.1.1 Cures
The largest group of miracles mentioned in the New Tes-
tament involve cures. The Gospels give varying amounts
of detail for each episode, sometimes Jesus cures simply
by saying a few words, at other times employs material
such as spit and mud. Generally they are referred to in
the Synoptic Gospels but not in the Gospel of John.
1

2 CHAPTER 1. MIRACLES OF JESUS
The blind
The canonical Gospels tell a number of stories of Jesus
healing blind people. The earliest is a story of the healing
of a blind man in Bethsaida in the Gospel of Mark.[14]
The Mark Gospel also has an account of the healing of
a man named Bartimaeus, done as Jesus is leaving Jeri-
cho. [15]
The Gospel of Matthew [16]
has a simpler ac-
count loosely based on this, with two unnamed blind
men instead of one (this 'doubling' is a characteristic of
Matthew’s treatment of the Mark text) and a slightly dif-
ferent version of the story, taking place in Galilee, earlier
in the narrative.[17]
The Gospel of Luke tells the same
story of Jesus healing an unnamed blind man, but moves
the event in the narrative to when Jesus approaches Jeri-
cho. [18][19]
the Gospel of John describes an episode in which Jesus
heals a man blind from birth , placed during the Festival
of Tabernacles, about six months before his crucifixion.
Jesus mixes spittle with dirt to make a mud mixture,
which he then places on the man’s eyes. He asks the man
to wash his eyes in the Pool of Siloam. When the man
does this, he is able to see. When asked by his disciples
whether the cause of the blindness was the sins of the
man’s father or his mother, Jesus states that it was nei-
ther. ([9:1-12]
Lepers
A story in which Jesus cures a leper appears in Mark
1:40-45, Matthew 8:1-4 and Luke 5:12-16. Having cured
the man, he instructs him to offer the requisite ritual
sacrifices as prescribed by the Deuteronomic Code and
Priestly Code, and not to tell anyone who had healed him;
but the man disobeyed, increasing Jesus’ fame, and there-
after Jesus withdrew to deserted places, but was followed
there.
In an episode in the Gospel of Luke Luke 17:11-19,
while on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus sends ten lepers who
sought his assistance to the priests, and they were healed
as they go, but the only one who comes back to thank
Jesus is a Samaritan.
Paralytics
Healing the paralytic at Capernaum appears in Matthew
9:1-8, Mark 2:1-12 and Luke 5:17-26. 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 irri-
tated the Pharisees. Jesus is described as responding to
the anger by asking whether it is easier to say that some-
one’s sins are forgiven, or to tell the man to get up and
walk. Mark and Luke state 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 cure is described in the Gospel of John as the
Healing the paralytic at Bethesda[Jn 5:1-18]
and occurs at
the Pool of Bethesda. In this cure Jesus also tells the man
to take his mat and walk.[Jn 5:1-18] [Mt 12:9-13]
Women
The Cure of a bleeding woman miracle appears in Mark
5:21-43, Matthew 9:18-26 and Luke 8:40-56, along with
the miracle of the Daughter of Jairus.[20]
The Gospels
state that while heading to Jairus’ house Jesus was ap-
proached by a woman who had been suffering from bleed-
ing for 12 years, and that she touched Jesus’ cloak (fringes
of his garment) and was instantly healed. Jesus turned
about and, when the woman came forward, said “Daugh-
ter, your faith has healed you, go in peace”.
Healing the mother of Peter’s wife. The Synoptics[21]
de-
scribe Jesus as healing the mother-in-law of Simon Peter
when he visited Simon’s house in Capernaum, around the
time of Jesus recruiting Simon as an Apostle (Mark has
it just after the calling of Simon, while Luke has it just
before). The Synoptics imply that this led other people
to seek out Jesus.
Jesus healing an infirm woman appears in Luke 13:10-17.
While teaching in a synagogue on a Sabbath, Jesus cured
a woman who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen
years and could not stand straight at all.
Other healings
Healing a man with dropsy is described in Luke 14:1-
6. In this miracle, Jesus cured a man with dropsy at the
house of a prominent Pharisee on the Sabbath. Jesus jus-
tified the cure by asking: “If one of you has a child or an
ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not
immediately pull it out?"
In the Healing of the man with a withered hand
miracle,[22]
the Synoptics state that Jesus entered a
synagogue on Sabbath, and found a man with a with-
ered hand there, whom Jesus healed, having first chal-
lenged 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
so much that they started to contemplate killing Jesus.
The Healing the deaf mute of Decapolis miracle only ap-
pears in the Gospel of Mark.[7:31-37]
The Gospel states
that Jesus went to the Decapolis 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 af-
ter spitting, and then said Ephphatha!, an Aramaic word
meaning Be opened.

1.1. TYPES AND MOTIVES 3
Other
The Healing the Centurion’s servant miracle is re-
ported in Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10. These two
Gospels narrate how Jesus healed the servant of a Roman
Centurion in Capernaum. John 4:46-54 has a similar ac-
count at Capernaum, but states that it was the son of a
royal official who was cured at a distance.
Jesus healing in the land of Gennesaret appears in
Matthew 14:34-36 and Mark 6:53-56. As Jesus passes
through Gennesaret all those who touch his cloak are
healed.
Matthew 9:35-36 also reports that after the miracle of
Jesus exorcising a mute, Jesus went through all the towns
and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming
the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease
and sickness.
1.1.2 Exorcisms
See also: Exorcism in Christianity § New Testament
According to the three Synoptic Gospels, Jesus per-
formed many exorcisms of demoniacs. These incidents
are not mentioned in the Gospel of John and appear to
have been excluded due to theological considerations.[23]
The seven major exorcism accounts in the Synoptic
Gospels which have details, and imply specific teachings,
are:
• Exorcism at the Synagogue in Capernaum, where
Jesus exorcises an evil spirit who cries out, “What
do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you
come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy
One of God!".[24]
• Exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac: Jesus exor-
cises a possessed man (changed in the Gospel of
Matthew to two men). When Jesus asks the demon’s
name (finding the name of the possessing demon
was an important traditional tool of exorcists),[25]
he is given the reply Legion, "...for we are many”.
When the demons asked to be expelled into a nearby
group of pigs rather than be sent out of the area, Je-
sus obliges, but the pigs then run into the lake and
are drowned.[26]
• Exorcising the Canaanite woman’s daughter, ap-
pears in Matthew 15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-30. A
Gentile woman asks Jesus to heal her daughter, but
Jesus refuses, saying that he has been sent only to
“the lost sheep of the house of Israel”. The woman
persists, saying that “dogs eat of the crumbs which
fall from their masters’ table”. In response Jesus
relents and informs her that her daughter has been
healed.[27]
• Exorcising the blind and mute man, appears in
Matthew 12:22-32, Mark 3:20-30, and Luke 11:14-
23. Jesus heals a demon-possessed man who was
blind and mute. People are astonished and ask,
“Could this be the Son of David?"
• Exorcising a boy possessed by a demon, appears in
Matthew 17:14-21, Mark 9:14-29, and Luke 9:37-
49. A boy possessed by a demon is brought for-
ward to Jesus. The boy is said to have foamed at the
mouth, gnashed his teeth, become rigid and invol-
untarily fallen into both water and fire. Jesus’ fol-
lowers could not expel the demon, and Jesus con-
demns the people as unbelieving, but when the fa-
ther of the boy questions if Jesus could heal the boy,
he replies “everything is possible for those that be-
lieve”. The father then says that he believes and the
child is healed.[28]
• The miracle of Jesus exorcising at sunset appears in
the Synoptic Gospels just after healing the mother
of Peter’s wife, in Matthew 8:16-17, Mark 1:32-34
and Luke 4:40-41. In this miracle Jesus heals people
and cast out demons.
• The miracle of Jesus exorcising a mute appears in
Matthew 9:32-34 immediately following the account
of the miracle of Jesus healing two blind men. A
man who is demon-possessed and could not talk is
brought to Jesus, who exorcises the demon, and the
man is able to speak.
There are also brief mentions of other exorcisms, e.g.:
• Jesus had cast seven devils out of Mary Magdalene.
(Mark 16:9, Luke 8:2)
• Jesus continued to cast out devils even though Herod
Antipas wanted to kill him. (Luke 13:31-32)
1.1.3 Resurrection of the dead
See also: Resurrection of the dead
All four Canonical Gospels describe Jesus being raised
from the dead but also relate three occasions on which
Jesus calls a dead person back to life:
• Daughter of Jairus.[Mk 5:21-43]
Jairus, a major patron
of a synagogue, asks Jesus to heal his daughter, but
while Jesus is on the way, Jairus is told his daughter
has died. Jesus tells him she was only sleeping, and
wakes her with the words Talitha kum!
• The Young Man from Nain.[Lk 7:11-17]
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.[Jn 11:1-44]
A close friend of
Jesus who had been dead for four days is brought
back to life when Jesus commands him to get up.
1.1.4 Control over nature
The Gospels include eight pre-resurrection accounts con-
cerning Jesus’ power over nature:
• Turning Water into Wine—at a wedding, when the
host runs out of wine, the host’s servants fill ves-
sels 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.
• The miracle of draught of fishes[Lk 5:1-11]
takes place
early in Jesus’s ministry and results in Saints Peter,
James, son of Zebedee and John joining Jesus as his
Apostles.
• 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 af-
terward.
• 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, and the Old
Testament prophets Moses and Elijah appeared next
to him.[29]
• Calming the 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.
• Finding a Coin in the fish’s mouth is reported in
Matthew 17:24-27.[30]
• The Cursing of the Fig Tree—Jesus cursed a fig tree,
and it withered.
Post-resurrection miracles attributed to Jesus are also
recorded in the Gospels:
• A similar miracle to the miracle of draught of
fishes—also called the catch of 153 fish, to dis-
tinguish it from the account in Luke—is reported
in the Gospel of John but takes place after the
Resurrection of Jesus.
1.2 List of miracles found outside
the New Testament
Accounts of Jesus performing miracles are also found
outside the New Testament. Later, 2nd century texts,
called Infancy Gospels, narrate Jesus performing mira-
cles during his childhood.
Miracles performed by Jesus are mentioned in two sec-
tions of the Quran (suras 3:49 and 5:110) in broad strokes
with little detail or comment.[31]
In the Book of Mormon Jesus appears as a resurrected
being and performs additional miracles.
1.3 Setting and Interpretations
1.3.1 Cultural background
Miracles were widely believed in around the time of Je-
sus. Gods and demigods such as Heracles (better known
by his Roman name, Hercules), Asclepius (a Greek physi-
cian who became a god) and Isis of Egypt all were
thought to have healed the sick and overcome death (i.e.
have raised people from the dead).[32]
Some thought that
mortal men, if sufficiently famous and virtuous, could
do likewise; there were myths about philosophers like
Pythagoras and Empedocles calming storms at sea, chas-
ing away pestilences, and being greeted as gods,[33]
and
similarly some Jews believed that Elisha the Prophet had
cured lepers and restored the dead.[34]
The achievements
of the 1st century Apollonius of Tyana, though occur-
ring after Jesus’ life, were used by a 3rd-century oppo-
nent of the Christians to argue that Christ was neither
original nor divine (Eusebius of Caesaria argued against
the charge).[35]
The first Gospels were written against this background of
Hellenistic and Jewish belief in miracles and other won-
drous acts as signs - the term is explicitly used in the
Gospel of John to describe Jesus’ miracles - seen to be
validating the credentials of divine wise men.[36]
1.3.2 Traditional Christian interpretation
Many Christians believe Jesus’ miracles were historical
events and that his miraculous works were an important
part of his life, attesting to his divinity and the Hypostatic
union, i.e., the dual natures of Jesus as God and Man.[37]
They see Jesus’ experiences of hunger, weariness, and
death as evidences of his humanity, and miracles as evi-
dences of his divinity.[38][39][40]
Christian authors also view the miracles of Jesus not
merely as acts of power and omnipotence, but as works of
love and mercy, performed not with a view to awe by om-
nipotence, but to show compassion for sinful and suffer-

1.3. SETTING AND INTERPRETATIONS 5
ing humanity.[37][41]
And each miracle involves specific
teachings.[42]
Since according to the Gospel of John,[20:30]
it was impos-
sible to narrate all of the miracles performed by Jesus, the
Catholic Encyclopedia states that the miracles presented
in the Gospels were selected for a twofold reason: first
for the manifestation of God’s glory, and then for their
evidential value. Jesus referred to his “works” as evi-
dences of his mission and his divinity, and in John 5:36
he declared that his miracles have greater evidential value
than the testimony of John the Baptist.[37]
John 10:37-38
quotes Jesus as follows:[43]
“Do not believe me unless I do what my Fa-
ther does. But if I do it, even though you do not
believe me, believe the miracles, that you may
know and understand that the Father is in me,
and I in the Father.”
In Christian teachings, the miracles were as much a ve-
hicle for Jesus’ message as his words. Many emphasize
the importance of faith, for instance in Cleansing ten lep-
ers,[Lk 17:19]
Jesus did not say: “My power has saved you”
but said:[44][45]
“Rise and go; your faith has saved you.”
Similarly, in the Walking on Water miracle, Apostle Peter
learns an important lesson about faith in that as his faith
wavers, he begins to sink.[Mt 14:34-36] [46]
Christian authors have discussed the miracles of Jesus at
length and assigned specific motives to each miracle, e.g.,
authors Pentecost and Danilson suggest that the Walking
on Water miracle centered on the relationship of Jesus
with his apostles, rather than their peril or the miracle it-
self. And that the miracle was specifically designed by
Jesus to teach the apostles that when encountering obsta-
cles, they need to rely on their faith in Christ, first and
foremost.[47]
Authors Donahue and Harrington argue that the Daughter
of Jairus miracle teaches that faith as embodied in the
bleeding woman can exist in seemingly hopeless situa-
tions, and that through belief, healing can be achieved, in
that when the woman is healed, Jesus tells her “Your faith
has healed you”.[48]
1.3.3 Liberal Christianity
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 Chris-
tians such as Erasmus and the Deists in the 15th–17th
centuries.[49]
In the 19th century, self-identified liberal
Christians sought to elevate Jesus’ humane teachings as
a standard for a world civilization freed from cultic tra-
ditions and traces of pagan belief in the supernatural.[50]
The debate over whether a belief in miracles was mere su-
perstition or essential to accepting the divinity of Christ
constituted a crisis within the 19th-century church, for
which theological compromises were sought.[51]
Attempts to account for miracles through scientific or ra-
tional explanation were mocked even at the turn of the
19th–20th century.[52]
A belief in the authenticity of mir-
acles was one of five tests established in 1910 by the
Presbyterian Church to distinguish true believers from
what they saw as false professors of faith such as “edu-
cated, 'liberal' Christians.”[53]
Contemporary liberal Christians may prefer to read Jesus’
miracles as metaphorical narratives for understanding the
power of God.[54]
Not all theologians with liberal inclina-
tions reject the possibility of miracles, but may reject the
polemicism that denial or affirmation entails.[55]
1.3.4 Non-religious views
The Scottish philosopher David Hume published an influ-
ential essay on miracles in his An Enquiry Concerning Hu-
man Understanding (1748) in which he argued that any
evidence for miracles was outweighed by the possibility
that those who described them were deceiving themselves
or others:
“As the violations of truth are more common
in the testimony concerning religious miracles,
than in that concerning any other matter of fact;
this must diminish very much the authority of
the former testimony, and make us form a gen-
eral resolution, never to lend any attention to
it, with whatever specious pretence it may be
covered.”[56]
Bart Ehrman states that what makes science possible is
the assumption of the uniformity of the laws of nature,
but given that miracles are by definition events that go
against the usual way nature works, historians are virtually
unable to confirm or refute reports of Jesus’ miracles.[57]
According to the Jesus Seminar Jesus probably cured
some sick people,[58]
but described Jesus’ healings in
modern terms, relating them to “psychosomatic mal-
adies.” They found six of the nineteen healings to be
“probably reliable”.[59]
Most participants in the Jesus
Seminar believe Jesus practiced exorcisms, as Josephus,
Philostratus, and others wrote about other contemporary
exorcists, but do not believe the gospel accounts were ac-
curate reports of specific events or that demons exist.[60]
They did not find any of the nature miracles to be histor-
ical events.[59]

1.4 Gallery of miracles
1.4.1 Cures
• Healing the mother of Peter’s wife
• Healing the deaf mute of Decapolis
• Healing the blind at birth
• Healing the Paralytic at Bethesda
• The Blind Man of Bethsaida
• The Blind man Bartimaeus in Jericho
• Healing the Centurion’s servant
• Christ healing an infirm woman
• The man with a withered hand
• Cleansing a leper
• Cleansing ten lepers
• Healing a man with dropsy
• Healing the bleeding woman
• Healing the paralytic at Capernaum
• Healing in Gennesaret
• Two blind men
1.4.2 Power Over Demonic Spirits
• A boy possessed by a demon
• The Canaanite woman’s daughter
• The Gerasenes demonic
• At the Synagogue in Capernaum
• Christ exorcising at sunset
• The blind and mute man
• Exorcising a mute
1.4.3 Resurrection of the dead
• Young Man from Nain
• Daughter of Jairus
• Raising of Lazarus
1.4.4 Control over nature
• Marriage at Cana
• Walking on water
• Calming the storm
• Transfiguration
• Feeding the multitude
• Draught of fishes
• Cursing the fig tree
• Coin in the fish’s mouth
1.5 See also
• Chronology of Jesus
• Jesus in Christianity
• Life of Jesus in the New Testament
• Ministry of Jesus
• Parables of Jesus
• Sayings of Jesus
1.6 References
[1] Baker Theological Dictionary of the Bible defines a mira-
cle as “an event in the external world brought about by the
immediate agency or the simple volition of God.” It goes
on to add that a miracle occurs to show that the power
behind it is not limited to the laws of matter or mind as
it interrupts fixed natural laws. So the term supernatural
applies quite accurately. Elwell, Walter A., ed. (2001).
Baker Theological Dictionary of the Bible. Baker Aca-
demic. ISBN 978-0801022562.
[2] Graham H. Twelftree, Jesus the Miracle Worker: A His-
torical and Theological Study (InterVarsity Press, 1999)
page 263.
[3] H. Van der Loos, 1965 The Miracles of Jesus, E.J. Brill
Press, Netherlands.
[4] Mark 8:11-12, Matthew 16:1-4, Matthew 12:38-40, Luke
11:29-30. Cited in Funk, Robert W., Roy W. Hoover, and
the Jesus Seminar. The five gospels. HarperSanFrancisco.
1993. p. 72-73.
[5] Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto:
Mayfield. 1985. “John” p. 302-310
[6] "Islamic beliefs include many miracles of healing and of
resurrection of the dead.” Heribert Busse, 1998 Islam, Ju-
daism, and Christianity, ISBN 1-55876-144-6 page 114

1.6. REFERENCES 7
[7] Graham H. Twelftree, Jesus the miracle worker: a histor-
ical & theological study ISBN 0-8308-1596-1 page 19
[8] Gary R. Habermas, 1996 The historical Jesus: ancient ev-
idence for the life of Christ ISBN 0-89900-732-5 page 60
[9] See discussion under Liberal Christianity and miracles.
[10] Mark Allan Powell, Jesus as a Figure in History: How
Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee (Westmin-
ster John Knox Press, 1998), page 22.
[11] Craig A. Evans, 2001 Jesus and his contemporaries ISBN
0-391-04118-5 pages 6-7
[12] Karl Barth Church dogmatics ISBN 0-567-05089-0 page
478
[13] The Miracles of Jesus by Craig Blomberg, David Wenham
1986 ISBN 1-85075-009-2 page 197
[14] [8:22-26]
[15] [10:46-52]
[16] [20:29-34]
[17] Daniel J. Harrington, The Gospel of Matthew (Liturgical
Press, 1991) page 133.
[18] Luke 18:35-43
[19] Brent Kinman, Jesus’ Entry Into Jerusalem: In the Context
of Lukan Theology and the Politics of His Days (BRILL,
1995) page 67.
[20] Mark 5:21-43, Matthew 9:18-26 and Luke 8:40-56.
[21] Mark 1:29-34, Luke 4:38-39 and Matthew 8:14-15
[22] Mt 12:10, Mk 3:1-3, Lk 6:6-8
torical and Theological Study (InterVarsity Press, 1999),
page 283.
[24] Mark 1:21-28 Luke 4:31-37
[25] Craig S. Keener, A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew
(Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999) page 282.
[26] Matthew 8:28-34, Mark 5:1-20, Luke 8:26-39
[27] Matthew 15:21-28 Mark 7:24-30
[28] Matthew 17:14-21, Mark 9:14-29, Luke 9:37-49
[29] Henry Rutter, Evangelical harmony Keating and Brown,
London 1803. page 450
[30] Matthew 17:24-27
[31] George W. Braswell, 2000 What you need to know about
Islam & Muslims ISBN 0-8054-1829-6 page 112
[32] Wendy Cotter, “Miracles in Greco-Roman antiquity: a
sourcebook” (Routledge, 1999) pp.11-12, ﬀ.
sourcebook” (Routledge, 1999) pp.37-38
sourcebook” (Routledge, 1999) pp.50-53
[35] Everett Ferguson, Michael P. McHugh, Frederick W.
Norris, “Encyclopedia of early Christianity, Volume 1”,
p.804
[36] Watson E. Mills, Roger Aubrey Bullard, “Mercer dictio-
nary of the Bible” (Mercer University Press, 1991) p.61
[37] Catholic Encyclopedia on Miracles
[38] Lockyer, Herbert, 1988 All the Miracles of the Bible
ISBN 0-310-28101-6 page 25
[39] William Thomas Brande, George William Cox, A dictio-
nary of science, literature, & art London, 1867, also Pub-
lished by Old Classics on Kindle, 2009, page 655
[40] Bernard L. Ramm 1993 An Evangelical Christology ISBN
1-57383-008-9 page 45
[41] Author Ken Stocker states that “every single miracle was
an act of love": Facts, Faith, and the FAQs by Ken Stocker,
Jim Stocker 2006 ISBN page 139
[42] Warren W. Wiersbe 1995 Classic Sermons on the Mira-
cles of Jesus ISBN 0-8254-3999-X page 132
[43] The emergence of Christian theology by Eric Francis Os-
born 1993 ISBN 0-521-43078-X page 100
[44] Berard L. Marthaler 2007 The creed: the apostolic faith in
contemporary theology ISBN 0-89622-537-2 page 220
[45] Lockyer, Herbert, 1988 All the Miracles of the Bible ISBN
0-310-28101-6 page 235
[46] Pheme Perkins 1988 Reading the New Testament ISBN
0-8091-2939-6 page 54
[47] Dwight Pentecost .The words and works of Jesus Christ.
Zondervan, 1980. ISBN 0-310-30940-9, p.234
[48] John R. Donahue, Daniel J. Harrington. The Gospel of
Mark. Zondervan 1981. ISBN 0-8146-5965-9 p.182
[49] Linda Woodhead, “Christianity,” in Religions in the Mod-
ern World (Routledge, 2002), pp. 186 online and 193.
[50] Burton L. Mack, The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and
Christian Origins (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 29 online.
[51] The Making of American Liberal Theology: Imagining
Progressive Religion 1805–1900, edited by Gary J. Dor-
rien (Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), passim, search
miracles.
[52] F.J. Ryan, Protestant Miracles: High Orthodox and Evan-
gelical Authority for the Belief in Divine Interposition in
Human Aﬀairs (Stockton, California, 1899), p. 78 online.
Full text downloadable.
[53] Dan P. McAdams, The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans
Live By (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 164 online.
[54] 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.

[55] The Making of American Liberal Theology: Idealism, Re-
alism, and Modernity, 1900-1950, edited by Gary J. Dor-
rien (Westminster John Knox Press, 2003), passim, search
miracles, especially p. 413; on Ames, p. 233 online; on
Niebuhr, p. 436 online.
[56] Modern History Sourcebook: David Hume: On Miracles
[57] Ehrman, Bart D.. Jesus, Interrupted, HarperCollins,
2009. ISBN 0-06-117393-2 page 175: “We would call
a miracle an event that violates the way nature always, or
almost always, works ... By now I hope you can see the
unavoidable problem historians have with miracles. His-
torians can establish only what probably happened in the
past, but miracles, by their very nature, are always the least
probable explanation for what happened”
[58] Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Je-
sus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. Harper-
SanFrancisco. 1998. p. 566.
[59] Funk 1998, p. 531
[60] Funk 1998, p. 530f
1.7 Bibliography
• Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar, 1998 The
Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of
Jesus. Polebridge Press, San Francisco. ISBN 0-06-
062978-9
• Kilgallen, John J., 1989 A Brief Commentary on the
Gospel of Mark, Paulist Press, ISBN 0-8091-3059-9
• List of Jesus’ Miracles and Biblical References
• Lockyer, Herbert, 1988 All the Miracles of the Bible
ISBN 0-310-28101-6
• Miller, Robert J. Editor, 1994 The Complete
Gospels, Polebridge Press, ISBN 0-06-065587-9
• Murcia, Thierry, Jésus, les miracles en question,
Paris, 1999 - Jésus, les miracles élucidés par la
médecine, Paris, 2003
• Rageh Omaar 2003 The Miracles of Jesus BBC doc-
umentary
• Van der Loos, H., 1965 The Miracles of Jesus, E.J.
Brill Press, Netherlands

Chapter 2
Healing the mother of Peter’s wife
Healing Peter’s mother-in-law by John Bridges, 19th century.
Healing the mother of Peter’s wife is one of the
miracles of Jesus in the Gospels, namely in Mark 1:29-31,
Luke 4:38-41 and Matthew 8:14-15.[1][2][3][4]
In the Gospels of Simon and Judus this episode takes
place after the Beheading at the Synagogue in Caper-
naum. Jesus goes to Apostle Peter's house. There he sees
the mother of Peter’s wife lying in bed with a high fever.
Jesus touches her hand and the fever leaves her, and she
gets up and begins to wait on him.
Peters mother-in-law was sick with a great fever before
Jesus came into the house and was made aware of the
sickness. Jesus was with some of his disciples when he
walked over to her and rebuked the fever in a similar
fashion to the way he rebuked devils. Jesus commanded
the sickness to leave, and it went away immediately. She
was healed so quickly and thoroughly that not only was
the fever gone, but she was able to immediately resume
performing household duties such as serving food to the
guests. In the ancient world, fever was a distinct illness
and not just the symptom of various inﬁrmities. In the
Talmud, fever is described as a ﬁre.[5]
Following this, the Gospels report that at sunset, the peo-
ple brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sick-
ness or were demon-possessed, and laying his hands on
each one, Jesus healed them and cast demons out of them
(Matthew 8:16-18).
2.1 See also
2.2 References
[1] Biblegateway Mark 1:29-34
[2] Biblegateway Luke 4:38-41
[3] Biblegateway Matthew 8:14-15
[4] John Clowes, 1817 The Miracles of Jesus Christ published
by J. Gleave, Manchester, UK page 31
[5] van der Loos, Dr. Hendrik (1965). The Miracles of Jesus.
E.J. Brill, Leiden, Netherlands. pp. 552–555.
9

Chapter 3
Healing the deaf mute of Decapolis
Christ healing the deaf mute of Decapolis, by Bartholomeus
Breenbergh, 1635
Healing the deaf mute of Decapolis is one of the
miracles of Jesus in the Gospels, namely Mark 7:31-37.[1]
Its narration offers many parallels with the healing of the
blind man of Bethsaida in Mark 8:22-26.
According to the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus entered the
region of the Decapolis after passing through Sidon and
down the Sea of Galilee, some people brought to him a
man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged
Jesus to place his hand on him. The Gospel of Mark then
states:
33 After he took him aside, away from the
crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears.
Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34
He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh
said to him, “Ephphatha!" (which means “Be
opened!"). 35 At this, the man’s ears were
opened, his tongue was loosened and he began
to speak plainly. Jesus commanded them not to
tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more
they kept talking about it. People were over-
whelmed with amazement. “He has done ev-
erything well,” they said. “He even makes the
deaf hear and the mute speak.”
Commentator of Mark, Lamar Williamson, writes that
this is the last unit in a series of miracles concerned with
the identity of Jesus, as earlier confirmed by Apostle Pe-
ter's christological affirmation in Mark 8:29 where Peter
exclaimed: “You are the Messiah”.[2]
3.1 See also
• New Testament places associated with Jesus
• Muteness
3.2 References
[2] Lamar Williamson 1983 Mark ISBN 0-8042-3121-4
pages 138-140
•
•
•
10

Chapter 4
Healing the man blind from birth
Christ healing the blind, by Nicolas Colombel, 1682
Jesus performed the miracle of healing the man blind
at birth as recorded in the Gospel of John, 9:1-12.[1]
According to the Gospel, Jesus saw a man blind from
birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this
man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Jesus replied:
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,”
said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works
of God might be displayed in him. As long as
it is day, we must do the works of him who sent
me. Night is coming, when no one can work.
While I am in the world, I am the light of the
world.”
Having said this, he spat on the ground, made some mud
with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he
told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means
“Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home
seeing.
His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him beg-
ging asked, “Isn't this the same man who used to sit and
beg?" Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he
only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the
man.”
“How then were your eyes opened?" they asked. He
replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and
put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash.
So I went and washed, and then I could see.”
“Where is this man?" they asked him. “I don't know,” he
said.
In this miracle, Jesus applies the title Light of the World
to himself in John 9:5, saying:[2]
When I am in the world, I am the Light of the
World.
This episode leads into John 9:39 where Jesus metaphori-
cally explains that he came to this world, so that the blind
may see.[2]
According to Christian tradition, the man’s name was
Celidonius.
4.1 See also
• Light of the World
• Seven signs in the Gospel of John
4.2 References
[1] Biblegateway John 9:1-12
11

12 CHAPTER 4. HEALING THE MAN BLIND FROM BIRTH
[2] Matera, Frank J. New Testament Christology. Louisville,
Ky. : Westminster John Knox Press, 1999, 235.
4.3 External links
• Jesus Cures the Man Born Blind from The Poem of
the Man-God

Chapter 5
Healing the paralytic at Bethesda
Christ healing the paralytic at Bethesda, by Palma il Giovane,
1592.
Healing the paralytic at Bethesda is one of the mirac-
ulous healings attributed to Jesus .[1]
This occurs only in the Gospel of John, which says it
took place near the Sheep Gate close to a fountain or a
pool called Bethzatha (other versions have Bethesda and
Bethsaida).
The Gospel account describes how Jesus encounters one
of the invalids who used to lie here, a man who had been
paralysed for thirty-eight years. He asks the man if he
wants to get well. The man explains that he is unable to
enter the water when the water is stirred up, because he
has no one to help in and others go down ahead of him.
Jesus tells him to pick up his mat and walk; the man is
instantly cured and is able to do so.
The Gospel then explains that this healing took place on
the Sabbath, and the local Jews told the cured man that
the Law forbade him to carry his mat on this day. He tells
them that he had been told to do so by the man who had
healed him. They ask him who this healer was but he is
unable to tell them because Jesus had slipped away into
the crowd.
Jesus ﬁnds the man later in the temple and tells him not
to sin again, so that nothing worse happens to him. The
man goes away and tells the Jewish people that Jesus had
cured him. The man went away and told the Jews that it
was Jesus who had made him well.
The Gospel account explains that the Jews began to per-
secute Jesus because he was healing on the Sabbath. He
responds by saying that “My Father is still working, and
I also am working.” This makes them all the more de-
termined to kill him because not only is he breaking the
Sabbath but he is making himself equal to God by calling
God his father. (John 5:1-18)
5.1 See also
5.2 References
2003 ISBN 1592442854 page 462
13

Chapter 6
Blind man of Bethsaida
Christ Healing the Blind Man, Mironov.
The Blind Man of Bethsaida is the subject of one of
the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels. It is found only in
Mark 8:22-26.[1][2]
The exact location of Bethsaida in this
pericope is subject to debate among scholars, but is likely
Bethsaida Julias on the north shore of Lake Galilee.[1]
According to the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus came to
Bethsaida, a town in Galilee, he was asked to heal a blind
man. Jesus took his patient out of town, put some spit-
tle on his eyes, and laid hands on him. “I see men like
trees, walking,” said the man. Jesus repeated the pro-
cedure, resulting in clear and perfect eyesight. “Neither
go into the town,” commanded Jesus, "nor tell anyone in
the town.” (New King James Version). Even though the
story is found only in Mark, it is strongly supported by
the Criterion of Embarrassment, since early Christians
(or Christians at any time, for that matter), would not have
been happy that Jesus had to give two blessings to achieve
a proper result. We only read of one other miracle done
in Bethsaida, the feeding of the multitude in Luke 9:16,
but John 21:25 states that many other things were done
by Jesus than what is written. In Matthew 11:21, Jesus
cursed the city for their lack of belief in Him despite “the
mighty works done in you.” (ESV)
6.1 See also
• The Blind man Bartimaeus
6.2 Notes
2003 ISBN 1592442854 page 419
14

Chapter 7
Healing the blind near Jericho
Jesus healing blind Bartimaeus, by Johann Heinrich Stöver,
1861.
Each of the three Synoptic Gospels tells of Jesus healing
the blind near Jericho, as he passed through that town,
shortly before his passion.
The Gospel of Mark tells of the cure of a man named
Bartimaeus healed by Jesus as he is leaving Jericho. The
Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke include dif-
ferent versions of this story.
7.1 Narrative development
The earliest version is in the Gospel of Mark (10:46-52)
which tells of the cure of a blind beggar named Barti-
maeus (literally “Son of Timaeus”, one of the few recipi-
ents of healing who are given names). As Jesus is leaving
Jericho with his followers, Bartimaeus calls out: 'Son of
David, have mercy on me!' and persists even though the
crowd tries to silence him. Jesus has them bring the man
to him and asks what he wants; he asks to be able to see
again. Jesus tells him that his faith has cured him; he im-
mediately regains his sight and follows Jesus.
Apart from telling a miracle story that shows the power
of Jesus, the author of the Gospel uses this story to ad-
vance a clearly theological purpose. It shows a character
who understands who Jesus is and the proper way to re-
spond to him - with faith. The beggar, on being called to
Jesus, discards his cloak, symbolising the leaving behind
of possessions. And the use of the title, 'Son of David' -
the only occasion on which this is used in the Gospel of
Mark - serves to identify Jesus as the Messiah.[1]
The Gospel of Matthew changes this story in a number of
ways, and uses it twice: in one version, the blind beggar
Bartimaeus becomes two unnamed blind men, sitting by
the roadside; there is no mention of a cloak; Jesus does
not mention faith, but instead is 'moved by compassion';
and instead of simply announcing the cure, he touches
their eyes. 20:29-34 A version of the same story is told
earlier in the narrative, when Jesus is preaching in Galilee.
On this occasion, he asks the blind men if they believe
he can cure them, and when they assure them they do,
he commends their faith and touches their eyes, restoring
their sight. He warns them to tell nobody of this, but they
go and spread the news throughout the district. (Matthew
9:27-31)
The Gospel of Luke 18:35-43 handles the story in a dif-
ferent way; there is one unnamed blind man, and the au-
thor shifts the incident to take place as Jesus is approach-
ing Jericho, so it can lead into the story of Zacchaeus.[2]
7.2 Son of David
Vernon K. Robbins emphasizes that the healing of Bar-
timaeus is the last of Jesus’ healings in Mark, and links
Jesus’ earlier teaching about the suﬀering and death
of the Son of Man with his Son of David activity in
Jerusalem.[3][4]
The story blends the Markan emphasis
15

16 CHAPTER 7. HEALING THE BLIND NEAR JERICHO
on the disciples’ 'blindness’ - their inability to under-
stand the nature of Jesus’ messiahship - with the neces-
sity of following Jesus into Jerusalem, where his suffer-
ing and death make him recognizable to Gentiles as Son
of God.[5]
Paula Fredriksen, who believes that titles such as "Son
of David" were applied to Jesus only after the crucifixion
and resurrection, argued that Mark and Matthew placed
that healing with the proclamation “Son of David!"
just before “Jesus’ departure for Jerusalem, the long-
foreshadowed site of his sufferings.”[6]
The title “Son of
David” is a messianic name.[7][8]
Thus, Bartimaeus’ excla-
mation was, according to Mark, the first public acknowl-
edgement of the Christ, after St. Peter’s private confes-
sion at Mark 8:27–30.
7.3 Bartimaeus
The naming of Bartimaeus is unusual in several respects:
(a) the fact that a name is given at all, (b) the strange
Semitic-Greek hybrid, with (c) an explicit translation
“Son of Timaeus.” Some scholars see this to confirm a
reference to a historical person;[9]
however, other schol-
ars see a special significance of the story in the figurative
reference to Plato’s Timaeus who delivers Plato’s most
important cosmological and theological treatise, involv-
ing sight as the foundation of knowledge. [10]
7.4 Notes
[1] Stephen Ahearne-Kroll, The Psalms of Lament in Mark’s
Passion: Jesus’ Davidic Suffering (Cambridge University
Press, 2007) pages 138-140
[2] Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke (Liturgical
[3] Jesus the Teacher: A Socio-Rhetorical Interpretation of
Mark by Vernon K. Robbins 2009, ISBN 978-0-8006-
2595-5. 41-43.
[4] Vernon K. Robbins, “The Healing of the Blind Bartimaeus
(10:46-52) in the Marcan Theology,” Journal of Biblical
Literature 92 (1973), 224-243
[5] Vernon K. Robbins, “The Reversed Contextualization of
Psalm 22 in the Markan Crucifixion: A Socio-Rhetorical
Analysis” (1992)
[6] Fredriksen, From Jesus to Christ, p. 181.
[7] “Reflections: The blind Bartimaeus: Mark 10:46-52,” Oc-
tober 24, 2009, The Manila Bulletin, The Manila Bulletin
website, citing365 Days with the Lord, (St. Paul’s, Makati
City, Philippines) from St. Paul’s website (dead link). Ac-
cessed October 28, 2009.
[8] Barrie Wetherill, “Jesus cures blind Bartimaeus,” from
The Life of Jesus Christ, found at easy English Bible study.
Accessed October 28, 2009.
[9] Vincent Taylor. The Gospel according to St. Mark. 1966
St. Martin’s Press Inc. p 448.
[10] Mary Ann Tolbert, Sowing the Gospel: Mark’s World
in Literary-Historical Perspective 1996, Fortress Press.
p189.
7.5 See also
• The Blind Man of Bethsaida
7.6 References
• Paula Fredriksen, From Jesus to Christ (2000), ISBN
0-300-08457-9
• Vernon K. Robbins, Jesus the Teacher: A Socio-
Rhetorical Interpretation of Mark 2009, ISBN 978-
0-8006-2595-5
7.7 External links
• Additional images of Bartimaeus

Chapter 8
Healing the centurion’s servant
“Matthew 8:5-13” redirects here.
“Luke 7:1-10” redirects here.
Healing the Centurion’s servant by Paolo Veronese, 16th century.
Healing the centurion’s servant is one of the miracles
of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew [1]
and Luke.[2]
According to the Gospels, a Roman centurion asked Jesus
for help because his boy servant was ill. Jesus offered to
go to the centurion’s house to perform the healing, but
the centurion suggested that Jesus perform the healing at
a distance. When Jesus heard this, he said:
Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone
in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that
many will come from the east and the west, and
will take their places at the feast with Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But
the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown out-
side, into the darkness, whern there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth. Go! Let it be
done just as you believed it would.
And the boy was healed at that very hour.
8.1 Scriptures
Matthew 8:5-13 (TNVI)
Luke 7:1-10 (TNVI)
8.2 Commentary
The centurion supported the Jewish community by build-
ing them a synagogue and showing love for the Israelite
nation. Since Gentiles were considered unclean by Jews,
the actions of the Jewish elders approaching Jesus to peti-
tion him to heal the centurion’s servant who was critically
ill and about to die provides evidence that this particular
centurion was viewed in a different light than a typical
Gentile. Out of humility and respect for Jewish custom
regarding clean and unclean, the centurion did not want
Jesus to come into his house and become unclean, so he
sent out friends to meet Jesus as he was coming close to
the house.
The faith of the centurion is highlighted by Jesus to the
crowd that followed since he believed that Jesus only
needed to speak the word, and his servant would be
healed. This shows his absolute confidence in the power
of Jesus’s word over the power of sickness. Jesus could
erase the sickness without even being physically present
next to the servant child. The authority of Jesus is com-
pared to that of a military commander that can command
someone to go or to come and the instructions would be
obeyed. Being a soldier, the centurion would be inti-
mately familiar with the process of issuing and obeying
commands. He had faith that Jesus could command and
drive out evil powers because of his authority in the spirit
world.[3]
For the local Jewish population, a Roman centurion is the
principal representative of the Roman Empire in the area,
both militarily and administratively. He is Rome as far as
they are concerned, so the recognition of the Lordship of
Jesus by this principle Roman representative of military
power provides strong affirmation of the supremacy of
Christ.[4]
Author John Clowes commented that the use of Abra-
ham, Isaac and Jacob refers to the degree of blessedness
by which people are admitted to the feast, in that Abra-
ham signifies the celestial degree, Isaac the spiritual and
Jacob the natural degree.[5]
Only Luke 7:2 refers to the servant as doulos, unambigu-
ously meaning “servant”. Elsewhere the term translated
from the Greek as “servant” is pais, which can be trans-
17

18 CHAPTER 8. HEALING THE CENTURION’S SERVANT
lated in a number of different ways including “child”
(e.g., Matt 2:16; Luke 2:43,8:51-54 where it refers to
a girl), “son” (John 4:51), “servant” (Luke 15:26, Acts
4:25), “male concubine”, or be unclear.[6]
According to James Neill, the Greek term “pais” used for
the servant in Matthew’s account almost always had a sex-
ual connotation.[7]
In support of this view, he remarks that
the word pais, along with the word “erasthai” (to love) is
the root of the English word "pederasty".[7]
He sees in the
fact that, in Luke’s parallel account, the centurion’s ser-
vant is described as “valued highly”[8]
by the centurion an
indication of a homosexual relationship between the two,
and says that the Greek word “doulos” (a slave) used of
him in Luke’s account suggests he may have been a sex
slave.[7]
Daniel A. Helminiak writes that the word pais
was sometimes given a sexual meaning.[9]
Theodore W.
Jennings Jr. and Tat-Siong Benny Liew write that Ro-
man historical data about patron-client relationships and
about same-sex relations among soldiers support the view
that the pais in Matthew’s account is the centurion’s “boy-
love” and that the centurion did not want Jesus to enter
his house for fear the boy would be enamoured of Jesus
instead. D.B. Saddington writes that while he does not
exclude the possibility, the evidence the two put forward
supports “neither of these interpretations”,[10]
The Gospel of John narrates a similar account of Jesus
healing the son of a royal official at Capernaum at a dis-
tance in John 4:46-54. Some, such as in Fred Crad-
dock in his commentary on Luke,[11]
treats them as the
same miracle. However, in his analysis of Matthew, R. T.
France presents linguistic arguments against the equiva-
lence of pais and son and considers these two separate
miracles.[12]
Merrill C. Tenney in his commentary on
John[13]
and Orville Daniel in his Gospel harmony[14]
also
consider them two different incidents.
8.3 See also
• Homosexuality in the New Testament: Pais
8.4 References
[4] Kyrychenko, Alexander (January 31, 2014). The Roman
Army and the Expansion of the Gospel. Walter de Gruyter.
p. 182. ISBN 978-3-11-034402-8.
[5] John Clowes, 1817 The Miracles of Jesus Christ published
by J. Gleave, Manchester, UK page 27
[6] Marston, Paul (2003). Christians, Gays and Gay Chris-
tians. Free Methodists. Archived from the original on
2006-04-27.
[7] Neill, James (2009). The Origins and Role of Same-Sex
Relations In Human Societies. McFarland. p. 216.
[8] Luke 7:2
[9] Daniel A. Helminiak, ''Sex and the Sacred'' (Rout-
ledge 2012 ISBN 978-1-13657075-9), p. 192.
Books.google.com. Retrieved 2013-04-10.
[10] “The Centurion in Matthew 8:5–13: Consideration of the
Proposal of Theodore W. Jennings, Jr., and Tat-Siong
Benny Liew”. jstor.org.
[11] Fred Craddock: Luke, 2009 ISBN 0-664-23435-6, page
94
[12] The Gospel according to Matthew: an introduction and
commentary by R. T. France 1987 ISBN 0-8028-0063-7
page 154
[13] Merrill Tenney: John, Expositor’s Bible Commentary,
vol. 9, Zondervan.
[14] Orville Daniel: A Harmony of the Four Gospels, 2nd Ed,
Baker Books Pub.

Chapter 9
Jesus healing an infirm woman
Christ healing an infirm woman by James Tissot, 1886-1896.
Jesus healing an infirm woman is one of the miracles
of Jesus in the Gospels (Luke 13:10-17).[1]
According to the Gospel, Jesus was teaching in one of the
synagogues on Sabbath, and a woman was there who had
been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent
over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw
her, he called her forward and said to her:
“Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.”
Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she
straightened up and praised God.
Indignant because Jesus had healed on Sabbath, the syn-
agogue ruler said to the people, “There are six days for
work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the
Sabbath.”
Jesus answered him:
“You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the
Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall
and lead it out to give it water? Then should
not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom
Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years,
be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound
her?"
When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but
the people were delighted with all the wonderful things
he was doing.
9.1 See also
9.2 References
19

Chapter 10
Healing the man with a withered hand
Christ healing the man with a withered hand, Byzantine mosaic.
Healing the man with a withered hand is one of the
miracles of Jesus in the Gospels, namely in Mark 3:1-6,
Luke 6:6-11 and Matthew 12:9-13.[1][2][3][4]
On a Sabbath when Jesus went into the synagogue, the
Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a
reason to accuse him, so they watched him closely to see
if he would heal on the Sabbath and they asked him: “Is it
lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" According to the Gospel
of Matthew:
He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep
and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you
not take hold of it and lift it out? How much
more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore
it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then he
said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he
stretched it out and it was completely restored,
just as sound as the other.
According to the Gospel of Mark, the Pharisees then went
out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might
kill Jesus.
This miracle is the subject of the spoken sermon portion
of composer John Adams' "Christian Zeal and Activity".
10.1 See also
• Miracles of Jesus
10.2 References
[1] Bible Knowledge Background Commentary: Matthew-
Luke by David C. Cook and Craig A. Evans (Feb 27,
2003) ISBN 0781438683 pages 240-241
20

Chapter 11
Jesus cleansing a leper
Christ cleansing a leper by Jean-Marie Melchior Doze, 1864.
Jesus cleansing a leper is one of the miracles of Jesus
in the Gospels, namely in Matthew 8:1-4, Mark 1:40-45
and Luke 5:12-16.[1][2][3]
11.1 Biblical narrative
According to the Gospels, when Jesus came down from
the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man
full of leprosy came and knelt before Him and begged
him saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me
clean?"
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am
willing,” he said. “Be clean!" Instantly he was cured of
his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don't
tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer
the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them”.
Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading
the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town
openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people
still came to Him from everywhere.
11.2 Leviticus 13
There is some speculation as to whether the illness now
called Hansen’s disease is the same described in Biblical
times as leprosy.[4]
As the disease progresses, pain turns
to numbness, and the skin loses its original color and be-
comes thick, glossy and scaly. Sores and ulcers develop,
especially around the eyes and ears, and the skin begins to
bunch up with deep furrows between the swelling so that
the face of the afflicted individual looks similar to that of
a lion. Since the disease attacks the larynx also, the voice
becomes hoarse and acquires a grating quality.[5]
Leviticus 13 outlines specific procedures for dealing with
a person suspected of being infected with leprosy. A
priest would have to inspect he lesion, and after a period
of monitoring and observation, if the condition did not
improve, the person would be declared ritually “unclean”.
To be declared unclean because of leprosy meant that the
unfortunate person had to tear his clothes and put a cov-
ering upon his upper lip and cry, “unclean, unclean.”[6]
As the Jews were concerned that the condition was con-
tagious, such individuals were to live separated outside
the camp. Ostracized from the community, they were
left homeless without the support structure of family and
friends. In approaching Jesus, the man was in violation of
Levitical law. In touching the leper, Jesus defies Levitical
law.[7]
When Jesus sent forth the disciples with instructions to
heal the sick, cleansing the lepers was specifically men-
tioned in Matthew 10:8.
British Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon
preached a sermon likening the condition of a person af-
flicted with leprosy to that of someone in a state of sin.[8]
Leprosy symbolizes the defilement of sin which results in
separation from God and the community.
21

22 CHAPTER 11. JESUS CLEANSING A LEPER
11.3 See also
• Cleansing ten lepers
• Tzaraath
11.4 References
[1] Gundry, Robert H., Mark (May 10, 2009) ISBN
0802829104 page 95
[4] van der Loos, Hendrik (1968). The Miracles of Jesus.
Brill Archive. p. 464.
[5] McArthur, Dr. John (1987). Matthew 8-15 MacArthur
New Testament Commentary. The Moody Bible Institute
of Chicago. p. 8:1-4. ISBN 0-8024-0763-3.
[7] Farren, Suzy. “Jesus’ Healing of the Leper Is a Mes-
sage for Our Ministry”, Health Progress, May-June 2002,
Catholic Health Association of the United States
[8] Spurgeon, C. H., “The Cleansing of the Leper”, Exeter
Hall, Strand, December 30, 1860

Chapter 12
Cleansing ten lepers
James Tissot - The Healing of Ten Lepers (Guérison de dix
lépreux) - Brooklyn Museum
Christ cleansing ten lepers is one of the miracles of Jesus
in the Gospels (Gospel of Luke 17:11-19).[1][2]
According to the Gospel, on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus
traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.
As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy
met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud
voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"
When he saw them, he said:
“Go, show yourselves to the priests.”
And as they went, they were cleansed.
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back,
praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’
feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
Jesus asked:
“Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the
other nine? Was no one found to return and
give praise to God except this foreigner?"
Then he said to him:
“Rise and go; your faith has saved you.”
This miracle emphasizes the importance of faith, for Je-
sus did not say: “My power has saved you” but attributed
the healing to the faith of the beneﬁciaries.[3][4]
12.1 See also
• Christ cleansing a leper
• Related Bible part: Luke 17
12.2 References
2003) ISBN 0781438683 page 365
[3] Berard L. Marthaler 2007 The creed: the apostolic faith in
contemporary theology ISBN 0-89622-537-2 page 220
[4] Lockyer, Herbert, 1988 All the Miracles of the Bible ISBN
0-310-28101-6 page 235
23

Chapter 13
Healing a man with dropsy
Christ Healing, by Rembrandt, 1649
Healing a man with dropsy is one of the miracles of
Jesus in the Gospels (Luke 14:1-6).[1][2]
According to the Gospel, one Sabbath, Jesus went to eat
in the house of a prominent Pharisee, and he was being
carefully watched. There in front of him was a man suf-
fering from dropsy, i.e. abnormal swelling of his body.
Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law:
“Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?"
But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he
healed him and sent him on his way.
Then he asked them:
“If one of you has a child or an ox that falls into
a well on the Sabbath day, will you not imme-
diately pull it out?"
And they had nothing to say.
13.1 See also
• Pikuach nefesh
13.2 References
2003) ISBN 0781438683 page 245
[2] Biblegateway Luke 14:1-6, biblegateway.com
24

Chapter 14
Jesus healing the bleeding woman
Christ Healing a bleeding woman, as depicted in the Catacombs
of Rome.
Jesus healing the bleeding woman (or “woman with an
issue of blood” and other variants) is one of the miracles
of Jesus in the Gospels (Mark 5:21-43, Matthew 9:18-26,
Luke 8:40-56).[1] [2][3][4]
In the Gospel accounts, this miracle immediately follows
the exorcism at Gerasa and is combined with the miracle
of the Daughter of Jairus. The incident occurred while
Jesus was traveling to Jairus’ house, amid a large crowd:
And a woman was there who had been subject
to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered
a great deal under the care of many doctors and
had spent all she had, yet instead of getting bet-
ter she grew worse. When she heard about Je-
sus, she came up behind him in the crowd and
touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I
just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Imme-
diately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her
body that she was freed from her suffering.
At once Jesus realized that power had gone
out from him. He turned around in the crowd
and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You
see the people crowding against you,” his dis-
ciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who
touched me?’ ” But Jesus kept looking around
to see who had done it.Then the woman, know-
ing what had happened to her, came and fell at
his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the
whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your
faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed
from your suffering.”
The woman’s condition, which is not clear in terms of a
modern medical diagnosis, is translated as an “issue of
blood” in the King James Version and a “flux of blood”
in the Wycliffe Bible and some other versions. In schol-
arly language she is often referred to by the original
New Testament Greek term as the haemorrhoissa (ἡ
αἱμοῤῥοοῦσα, “bleeding woman”).
Because of the continual bleeding, the woman would have
been continually regarded in Jewish law as a niddah or
menstruating woman, and so ceremonially unclean. In or-
der to be regarded as clean, the flow of blood would need
to stop for at least 7 days. Because of the constant bleed-
ing, this woman lived in a continual state of uncleanness
which would have brought upon her social and religious
isolation.[5]
14.1 Gospels of Matthew and Luke
Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts specify the “fringe” of his
cloak, using a Greek word which also appears in Mark
6.[6]
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia article on
fringes in scripture, the Pharisees (one of the sects of
Second Temple Judaism) who were the progenitors of
modern Rabbinic Judaism, were in the habit of wearing
extra-long fringes or tassels (Matthew 23:5), a reference
to the formative çîçîth. Because of the Pharisees’ author-
ity, people regarded the fringe with a mystical quality.[7]
25

26 CHAPTER 14. JESUS HEALING THE BLEEDING WOMAN
14.2 In art and later traditions
Coin of Hadrian; he accepts the homage of a figure representing
Achaea in this example
Eusebius, writing in the reign of Constantine I says
he himself saw a pair of statues in bronze in Panease
or Caesarea Philippi (on the Golan Heights in modern
terms) of Jesus and the haemorrhoissa, sculpture being at
this time an unusual form for the depiction of Jesus. By
his description they resembled a sculptural version of the
couple as they were shown in a number of paintings in the
Catacombs of Rome (see illustration at top). He sees this
in terms of ancient traditions of commemorating local no-
tables rather than newer ones of Early Christian art. The
statues were placed outside the house of the woman, who
came from the city, and was called Veronica (meaning
“true image”), according to the apocrypha Acts of Pilate
and later tradition, which gave other details of her life.[8]
When Julian the Apostate became emperor in 361 he in-
stigated a programme to restore Hellenic paganism as the
state religion.[9]
In Panease this resulted in the replace-
ment of the statue of Christ, with results described by
Sozomen, writing in the 440s:
”Having heard that at Caesarea Philippi, other-
wise called Panease Paneades, a city of Phoeni-
cia, there was a celebrated statue of Christ,
which had been erected by a woman whom the
Lord had cured of a flow of blood. Julian com-
manded it to be taken down, and a statue of
himself erected in its place; but a violent fire
from the heaven fell upon it, and broke off the
parts contiguous to the breast; the head and
neck were thrown prostrate, and it was trans-
fixed to the ground with the face downwards at
the point where the fracture of the bust was;
and it has stood in that fashion from that day
until now, full of the rust of the lightning.” [10]
However, it has been pointed out since the 19th century
that the statues were probably a misunderstanding or dis-
tortion of a sculptural group in fact originally representing
the submission of Judea to the Emperor Hadrian. Im-
ages of this particular coupling, typical of Roman Impe-
rial adventus imagery, appear on a number of Hadrian’s
coins, after the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt of
132-136. The statues seem to have been buried in a land-
slide and some time later rediscovered and interpreted as
Christian. Since Caesarea Philippi had been celebrated
for its temple of the god Pan, a Christian tourist attraction
was no doubt welcome news for the city’s economy.[11]
Representations of the episode which seem clearly to
draw on the lost statue, and so resemble surviving coins
of the imperial image, appear rather frequently in Early
Christian art, with several in the Catacombs of Rome, as
illustrated above, on the Brescia Casket and Early Chris-
tian sarcophagi, and in mosaic cycles of the Life of Christ
such as San Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna. It continued to
be depicted sometimes until the Gothic period, and then
after the Renaissance.[12]
The story was later elaborated in the 11th century in the
West by adding that Christ gave her a portrait of him-
self on a cloth, with which she later cured Tiberius. This
Western rival to the Image of Edessa or Mandylion even-
tually turned into the major Western icon of the Veil of
Veronica, now with a different story for “Veronica”. The
linking of this image with the bearing of the cross in the
Passion, and the miraculous appearance of the image was
made by Roger d'Argenteuil's Bible in French in the 13th
century,[13]
and gained further popularity following the
internationally popular work, Meditations on the life of
Christ of about 1300 by a Pseudo-Bonaventuran author.
It is also at this point that other depictions of the image
change to include a crown of thorns, blood, and the ex-
pression of a man in pain,[14]
and the image became very
common throughout Catholic Europe, forming part of the
Arma Christi, and with the meeting of Jesus and Veronica
becoming one of the Stations of the Cross.
14.3 References
[1] John R. Donahue, Daniel J. Harrington 2005 The Gospel
of Mark ISBN 0-8146-5965-9 page 182
[5] McArthur, Dr. John (1987). Matthew 8-15 MacArthur
New Testament Commentary. The Moody Bible Institute
of Chicago. pp. 79–80. ISBN 0-8024-0763-3.
[6] κράσπεδον/kraspedon, see Strong’s G2899
[7] Knight, Kevin (2009), “Fringes (in Scripture)", The
Catholic Encyclopedia, retrieved 30 December 2011
[8] Wace, Henry, “Veronica” in the Dictionary of Christian
Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century
A.D., with an Account of the Principal Sects and Heresies,
online; Schiller, I, 78-79
[9] Brown, Peter, The World of Late Antiquity, W. W. Norton,
New York, 1971, ISBN 0-393-95803-5 p. 93.

14.3. REFERENCES 27
[10] Wilson, John Francis. (2004) ibid p 99
[11] Wace, op. cit., note 2296; for other possibilities, and pos-
sible visual depictions of the statue, see Caesarea Philippi:
Banias, The Lost City of Pan, pp. 90-97, John Wil-
son, 2004, IB Taurus, ISBN 1-85043-440-9, ISBN 978-
1-85043-440-5
[12] Schiller, Gertud, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. I,
1971 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries,
London, ISBN 0-85331-270-2, pp. 178-179
[13] G Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. II,1972 (En-
glish trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, pp.
78–9, ISBN 0-85331-324-5
[14] G Schiller, op. & page cit

Chapter 15
Healing the paralytic at Capernaum
Christ healing the paralytic at Capernaum by Bernhard Rode
1780.
Healing the paralytic at Capernaum is one of the
miracles of Jesus in the Gospels in Matthew (9:1-8), Mark
(2:1-12) and Luke (5:17-26).[1][2][3][4]
According to the Gospels, when Jesus entered
Capernaum, the people heard that he had come
home. They gathered in such large numbers that there
was no room left, not even outside the door, and he
preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing
to him a paralyzed man, carried by four other people.
Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the
crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus
by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man
was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the
paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
15.1 See also
15.2 References
2003 ISBN 1592442854 page 440
28

Chapter 16
Jesus healing in the land of Gennesaret
Jesus healing the sick by Gustav Dore, 19th century
Jesus healing in the land of Gennesaret is one of the
miracles of Jesus in the Gospels, i.e. Matthew 14:34-36
and Mark 6:53-56.[1][2]
According to the Gospel of Mark, as Jesus passes through
Gennesaret, just after the miracle of Walking on Water,
all those who touch the edge of his cloak are healed:
“When they had crossed over, they landed at
Gennesaret and anchored there. As soon as
they got out of the boat, people recognized Je-
sus. They ran throughout that whole region and
carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard
he was. And wherever he went—into villages,
towns or countryside—they placed the sick in
the marketplaces. They begged him to let them
touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who
touched him were healed.”
1st-century historian Flavius Josephus refers to the Gen-
nesaret area as having very rich soil.[3]
The town was per-
haps half way between Capernaum and Magdala.[4]
16.1 See also
• Christianity and fringed garments
16.2 References
[1] Biblegateway Matthew 14:34-36, biblegateway.com
[2] Biblegateway Mark 6:53-56, biblegateway.com
[3] The Physical Geography, Geology, and Meteorology of
the Holyand by Henry Baker Tristram 2007 ISBN
1593334826 page 11
[4] Lamar Williamson 1983 Mark ISBN 0804231214 pages
129-130
29

Chapter 17
Healing the two blind men in Galilee
Christ and the two blind men by Julius Schnorr, 19th century
Jesus healing two blind men is a miracle attributed to
Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. [1]
It follows immediately
on the account of the Daughter of Jairus.[2]
17.1 Narrative
According to the Gospel account, as Jesus continues his
journey after raising the daughter of Jairus, two blind
men follow him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of
David!" When he had gone indoors, the blind men come
to him, and he asks : “Do you believe that I am able to
do this?" They reply, “Yes, Lord”. He then touches their
eyes, and says, “According to your faith let it be done to
you"; and their sight is restored. He warns them sternly,
to tell nobody, but they go and spread the news of the
healing 'throughout that district'. [3]
17.2 Development
The story is a loose adaptation of one in Gospel of Mark,
of the healing of a blind man called Bartimeus. In a prac-
tice characteristic of the author of the Matthew Gospel,
the number of persons is doubled and unnecessary details
removed. The same story is told later in the same Gospel
(Matthew 20:29-34) with almost identical details.[4]
17.3 Signiﬁcance
The author of the Matthew Gospel introduces the term
'Son of David' to indicate that the healings show Jesus as
the Messiah.[5]
17.4 See also
17.5 References
[1] The Gospel of Matthew (New International Commentary
on the New Testament) by R. T. France (Jul 27, 2007)
ISBN 080282501X page 365
[3] Matthew 9:27-31
[4] Daniel J. Harrington, The Gospel of Matthew (Liturgical
torical and Theological Study (InterVarsity Press, 1999)
page 120.
30

Miracles of Jesus Chronology and Full Miracles of Jesus Study In the Word of God

Miracles of Jesus Chronology and Full Miracles of Jesus Study In the Word of God

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