Bible Dictionaries
Miracles (2)

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

MIRACLES.—The process of thought and research, both theological and scientific, has led to a position where belief in the actuality, in the career of Jesus, of those remarkable activities and manifestations summed up under the comprehensive and popular term ‘miracle,’ is made possible if not inevitable. The prevailing negative attitude of science shows signs of being abandoned in view of enlarging understanding of the possibilities both in Matter and in Spirit, and theology is coming to see that the miraculous events recorded of Him who was the Son of God and the Regenerator of the Race must not be conceived of as in any sense or degree a violation of the order of Nature; and that viewed in this way they become, instead of difficulties and stumbling-blocks in the way of faith, some of its most convincing reinforcements. It is scarcely too much to affirm that a belief in these occurrences as vital parts of the Christian revelation is rising, compared with which all previous belief is feeble and superficial. Without being unduly optimistic, we may anticipate that the ‘ages of faith’ in every department of Christian truth, and not least in that of miracle, are yet to come. This consummation is being prepared for in modern conceptions of the Order of Nature, of Human Personality, and of the Divine Being.

1. Modern conceptions of the Order of Nature. Christian advocates are becoming thoroughly disposed to accept unreservedly the scientific teaching of the Unity of Nature, carefully guarding the admission from being read as the Uniformity of Nature. They recognize and take account of the inalienable connexion between cause and effect by which the Universe consists. They do not regard the miracles of the Gospels as in the least degree arbitrary interruptions of the Order of Nature, but rather as a revelation of the infinite extent of that order. The ancient antagonism between the Natural and the Supernatural has broken down, and the two spheres are seen to be one, regarded from opposite poles. Grave objections lie against the term ‘supernatural,’ which is entirely un-Scriptural, and many modern thinkers prefer the term ‘spiritual’ to express the animating and sustaining Power which pervades all things. Without the spiritual the physical universe has no ground of being, and nothing exists, not the least fraction of the material, still less anything of human affection and sympathy and personal life-force, apart from the Universal Life. If the term ‘supernatural’ be retained, it must be on the distinct understanding that while all things may be conceived of as super-naturally sustained, it may with equal propriety be asserted that the whole Universe, including not only the physical but the mental, moral, and spiritual in human personality, is a part of the Order of Nature. The powers and sympathies that work in man cannot be separated from that order, and it is most natural, most agreeable to the whole constitution of human nature, that it shall be animated, sustained, and governed by the Divine Power and Life. Men of science, moreover, are increasingly willing to admit the necessity of the spiritual and rational as the ultimate ground of the physical; and recent investigations into the make of the so-called ‘atom,’ and the vast potentialities of Matter, will further develop the distrust of all dogmatic assertion that nothing in the nature of the events recorded in the Gospels and called ‘miracles’ is possible or credible. Sir Oliver Lodge (Hibbert Journal, October 1902) writes:

‘The root question or outstanding controversy between science and faith rests upon two distinct conceptions of the universe: the one, that of a self-contained and self-sufficient universe, with no outlook into or links with anything beyond, uninfluenced by any life or mind except such as is connected with a visible and tangible material body; and the other conception, that of a universe lying open to all manner of spiritual influences, permeated through and through with a Divine spirit, guided and watched by living minds, acting through the medium of law indeed, but with intelligence and love behind the law; a universe by no means self-sufficient or self-contained, but with feelers at every pore groping into another supersensuous order of existence, where reign laws hitherto unimagined by science, but laws as real and as mighty as those by which the material universe is governed.’

2. The nature of Human Personality.—Researches, anthropological and psychological, into the nature and possibilities of man have greatly multiplied during the present generation, and something of the vast region of potentiality lying above and beneath and beyond all that is actually realized has been revealed. The conception of the ideal human personality has been immeasurably enlarged and exalted. Psychological investigation is only in its infancy, and yet enough has been arrived at to make it certain that the powers of humanity remain essentially unfathomed. Beneath or above the ordinary consciousness of man, and beyond the powers which at present his will controls and organizes, are other and larger powers at present uncontrolled and unorganized by the personal force, but manifest in exceptional phases of human life, such as dreams, hypnosis, clairvoyance, clairaudience, somnambulism, or unwonted excitement and spiritual exaltation. We may call man, as we are acquainted with him, a personality, a living centre of original will and action, made in the image of the Deity. But yet it is far truer to regard him as a personality which has not yet arrived, the mere rudiment of a personality whose powers, as he controls them, Teach out beyond his control to regions of potentiality as yet unrecognized, and showing that the true personality is vastly greater and mightier than the present actual. ‘Man partly is, and wholly hopes to be.’ The powers at present possessed and controlled by man are the veriest suggestion of the powers that are his by right of nature, made as he was for intimate alliance with the Divine Being. But the perfect Personality was realized in the Son of Man who was also Son of God. The perfect Personality cannot be conceived of apart from the Divine Personality, for it is of the very essence of the Ideal Man that his nature shall be possessed and controlled by the Divine. By the Divine power the human nature consists. And the Lord Jesus plainly marked it as the essential condition of His power that He was morally and spiritually one with God.

3. The Divine Nature.—A wholesome feature of modern conceptions of the Being of God is their sense of mystery. Holding fast, on the one hand, to the essential knowableness of the Deity and to His self-revelation as the centre of all Divine action, theologians, on the other hand, admit the impossibility of giving dogmatic expression to the mode of the Divine Being. ‘In mystery the soul abides,’ not only the Divine but even the human soul. But taking the teaching of the Lord Jesus, interpreted as it was by His life before God and man, and as it is by an increasing Christian experience, they conceive of God as the Infinite Will and Intelligence that animates while it transcends the whole creation, visible and invisible, a Divine Presence ever seeking self-realization and self-revelation in His creation, in some true measure expressing Himself in all the works of His hands, even in the non-human creation; but most really of all in human life with its manifold sympathies and powers, actual and potential, conscious and sub-conscious (or super-conscious). The conception is of a Living God present and active in all life, but supremely in the nobler impulses and humanities that glorify mankind. In the life of men as they are, in their poor actual, the Divine Mind finds a real though feeble and fragmentary expression, and as that nature is developed and its latent powers are evoked and made part of the conscious life, is destined to find a fuller channel for its living action. And the nature which was fitted to be a complete channel, and more than channel—an active co-operator with Himself—the Divine Being, revealing Himself as Father, finds in Him who was perfectly one with man and at the same time morally, spiritually, and essentially one with God.

In this fact, that the Divine Power dwelt in its fulness in the personality of Jesus, we find the unifying principle for all the miracles of the Gospels. The master-principle of them all is contained in our Lord’s own declaration, ‘If I by the finder of God cast out devils, then is the kingdom of God come upon you’ (Luke 11:20). This declaration is in complete harmony with His repeated affirmations that the ultimate power by which He wrought His beneficent and mighty works was the same as that by which He knew and taught the truth—the Divine power dwelling in Him (John 5:19; John 5:30; John 14:10).

The great deeds of healing and of revelation were due to the direct action of the Infinite Life and active Power by which all things consist (1) on the nature of Jesus, and (2) through Him, so empowered, upon the life of man and upon the world. Our Lord makes it perfectly plain that the miraculous deeds were morally conditioned, were therefore a moral achievement, and depended upon His living faith in and union with God. Of Himself He could do nothing (John 5:19). But He also has the feeling and knowledge that in His own nature there was a potentiality of superhuman working. And the chief point to emphasize is that the Personality of Jesus cannot be conceived of even momentarily as apart from the Divine Life. He perfectly lived in God. The purpose of all was to accomplish the Divine will by the establishment of His Kingdom among men. Here and elsewhere the miracles are represented, not as an arbitrary putting forth of a supernatural power altogether out of relation to any human capacity or possibility, but as arising spontaneously out of the unique relation He sustained to the Infinite Life; not as something given, while it could have been withheld, for the sake of commending the moral and spiritual and personal claims of Jesus, but as vital and essential parts of the Divine Revelation. The evidential value of the work was secondary, the need of man and the Divine impulse primary.

In order to get an intelligent faith in the Gospel miracles, it is of great consequence at what point we approach the problem. The important matter is to begin with the less obscure, with those works which are most closely and obviously related to what may be called the innate forces of human nature. This gives us as our starting-point the healing works of Jesus. Careful study must be given to the principles and methods employed in these cases of restoration from sickness, infirmity, and distress. A growing disposition is evident to receive these as genuinely historical, on the ground that they are not in themselves inconceivable, related as they are to the forces perceived to be at work in the complex nature of man. Psychical research has brought, and is more fully bringing, to light a vast wealth of resource in the depths and heights of human personality. And a close study of the method Of Jesus convinces us that He worked upon this complex nature (see art. Cures). His miracles were not simply the output of an alien force, but the living exercise of a Divine force, deeply akin to all human powers, already working in the capacities, sympathies, and life-ties of humanity, utilizing the known in all their unknown ramifications, and also the unknown and unsuspected. These works are no less Divine because they are not emphasized as supernatural, the Divine energy being more truly conceived of as the normal and natural. If these deepest principles which our Lord followed are duly recognized in our faith and conception, then the remaining miracles, most of which are rejected by many who receive the healings, become not only not incredible, but inevitable as the completion of a revelation otherwise essentially incomplete. One who has gained a rational and imaginative faith in the healing of body and mind, by the incarnate pity and power of God in Christ Jesus, will be prepared to believe that it is extremely unlikely that Christ should so freely reveal the power of God in this sphere, and not go beyond to give visible expression to the power that resides in and animates and at the same time controls all Nature. And those miracles which are associated with the life and career of Jesus, being wrought not so much by the power of our Lord, as by the Divine Power acting upon Him, have a strong presumption in their favour, congruous as they are with the whole method of His mighty works and with the one revelation given in Him.

A. Miracles of Jesus.

1. Our Lord’s own description of them.—A distinction must be made between what Jesus Himself said of the miracles and the description given by the people of the time, who were under the influence of low and vulgar ideas of a Divine revelation, and by the Evangelists, who were not altogether emancipated from current conceptions. (1) It must he borne in mind that the Synoptics give very few specific terms which our Lord applied to His own supernormal action. They are the record of His deeds, not of His speech concerning them. But the Evangelists’ description may be taken without much deduction as a faithful reflexion of the Master’s usage. Jesus does refer to His works, as in Matthew 16:9-10; He speaks of casting out demons by the Spirit of God (Matthew 12:28) or by the finger of God (Luke 11:20), and declares that ‘this kind’ (τοῦτο δὲ τὸ γένος) goeth not out except by prayer (Matthew 17:21 Textus Receptus ). He refers to the deed itself and its blessed result, without characterizing it by any specific term. (2) His favourite term for them, according to the Fourth Gospel, was ἕργα, ‘works’ (John 5:36; John 10:25; John 10:32; John 10:37-38). He uses the same word also of the good and beautiful acts of others (καλὸν ἒργον, Mark 14:6). He makes no great distinction between His ordinary works of mercy and the extraordinary, regarding them all alike as wrought simply and naturally in the way of His life and vocation. The miracles were not the highest works; they belong to a lower level of manifestation as compared with His moral and spiritual revelation of God (John 14:11). But He also qualifies ἔργα: ‘the works that none other man did’ (John 15:24), probably including under that category the healing and other mighty deeds. Utility was the chief element in His view of all His deeds and actions. (3) He also calls them δυνάμεις (‘powers’ or ‘mighty works’), emphasizing the striking manifestation of Divine Power overpassing all human capacity (Matthew 11:21). The Evangelists also commonly employ this term (Matthew 13:58, Mark 6:5). (4) He also speaks of His works as σημεῖα, ‘signs’ (John 6:26), carefully separating Himself from the popular estimate of what constituted a Divinely significant act (see art. Sign). The Fourth Gospel consistently applies this word to the works of Jesus. Probably we must see in the fact a feature due to prolonged reflexion on the events in the light of after-history. But the term is singularly fitting to describe the Divinely significant works of our Lord as signs of another and higher order of things, leading on the thought and imagination to higher spheres of being, fuller powers of soul, Diviner possibilities for humanity. (5) The word τέρατα (‘prodigies’) is never applied by Jesus to His own working. Only once He uses the word, and then to disavow the idea involved in it and to sever His action from it (John 4:48). In the Apocalyptic discourse these τέρατα are associated with false Christs and false prophets (Matthew 24:24, Mark 13:22). (6) The popular use of σημεῖον was most akin to the τέρας. With this the English word ‘miracle’ has most affinity. It is not the equivalent of any word used by Jesus. The Authorized Version uses it to translate σημεῖον and δύναμις. The Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 practically abandons it. The idea of the word ‘supernatural’ also is not found in the NT or in the whole Bible, and the term should be relegated to the region of the obsolete. The word ‘spiritual’ is an excellent substitute, conserving the idea expressed by it without committing the mind to any untenable and indefensible philosophy.

2. Characteristics of our Lord’s miracles.—Briefly, the features of the miracles which commend them to our judgment and affection may be stated as—(1) Spontaneity. They arise out of the occasion—are never deliberated, unless the raising of Lazarus be an exception (John 11:4), but spring from the present practical impulse of compassion and desire to help man, and the prompting of the Divine Spirit (John 2:4 ff., Luke 18:40-42 etc.). (2) High moral purpose. The miracles of Jesus ever sought the highest and Divinest ends, and were never ends in themselves. In all His works there were no signs of any ostentatious exercise of power. Sternly He forbade any public advertisement of His healings, etc., which might rouse the popular excitement. (3) Strong restraint in use of supernormal power. The Temptation of the wilderness witnesses to what was characteristic of all His life, His constant refusal to use His power for personal ease, gratification, or convenience. Nothing was done by extraordinary which could be done by ordinary means. (4) Moral dignity and congruity with the whole spirit and life of Jesus. His miracles spring out of His innermost nature, and reveal the moral harmony and winsomeness of His Person. Herein lies a most fruitful comparison with other alleged miracles, ecclesiastical and mediaeval and modern. The vast majority of these latter fail to commend themselves to us as worthy exercises of a Divine power. The criterion must not, however, be unduly pressed, for natures differ widely in what they regard as morally fitting and suitable for Divine action. But, employed broadly, it may help us to discriminate between alleged miraculous events as to how far they are worthy of credence. (5) Helpfulness to mankind was the abiding characteristic of our Lord’s miracles. In most cases they were wrought for the immediate succour of suffering humanity, and for the revelation, in and through this, of the Divine love and pity. In His works on the non-human world also the need of man was continually served, more especially his need for vision of the higher facts of existence. His action never issued in meaningless marvels or needless wonders and in those that seem farthest removed from the requirements of mankind a revelation was given of the kind of power which animated and sustained all nature, and ordered its course.

3. The whole texture of the Gospel narratives is complicated with the supernormal. They presuppose a unique relation to God in Jesus, and His possession of a miracle-working power. ‘In most of the reports the action of Jesus is so interwoven with unmistakably authentic words, that the two elements cannot he separated’ (A. B. Bruce, art. ‘Jesus’ in Encyc. Bibl.). If excision be made from the Evangelic records (1) of all that directly narrates His unique action as a healer and wonderworker, (2) of all that presupposes the possibility and actuality of such unique action, (3) of all that testifies to His authority and power due to a unique relation to God—the Gospels are left bald and bare and mutilated beyond description. The very warp and woof of the fabric is destroyed.

As an example, apply the process to Mark 1-3. As a residue we have—

1. The account of the Baptist’s preaching (without the reference to the prophetic witness).

2. The Baptism of John (robbed of the spiritual endowment of Jesus and its accompaniments).

3. The bare mention of a temptation in the wilderness (with angels excluded. The story cannot be filled up by reference to the other Evangelists, for their account presupposes a miracle-working power in Jesus).

4. John’s imprisonment, and announcement of the Kingdom by Jesus.

5. Call of Peter, Andrew, James, and John.

6. Teaching of Jesus in the synagogue, and spread of His fame (the latter left like a pyramid on its apex without the restoration of the demoniac).

7. Entrance to house of Peter (healing of wife’s mother excluded).

8. Account of solitary prayer (with no action of Jesus to account for such prolonged prayer).

9. Preaching in synagogue (mere repetition apart from healing of leper and casting out devil).

10. Account of sudden popularity (with no adequate reason given for it).

11. Another repetition of the statement that He taught the people (Mark 2:3-12 all being excised as entirely complicated with miracle).

12. Call of Matthew.

13. Conflict with scribes and Pharisees in regard to eating and drinking with publicans and sinners, and fasting, and His teaching consequent thereon.

14. Pharisees and Herodians take counsel to kill Him (but no reason given—the healing of withered hand being removed).

15. Withdrawal of Jesus (following by multitude being omitted because of motive given in Mark 2:8).

16. Call of disciples (commission reduced to preaching and teaching. Teaching in Mark 3:20-30 cut out as entirely dependent on His exorcism of demons).

17. Teaching of true relationship to Himself (strongly savouring of presumption, apart from reasons which have disappeared in process of excision).

The whole narrative is rendered colourless and dislocated, the only section which is left fairly unmutilated being Mark 2:13-28. ‘That the healing ministry was not only a fact, but a great outstanding fact, is attested by the popularity of Jesus and by the various theories which were invented to account for the remarkable phenomena’ (A. B. Bruce, l.c.). The above analysis forcibly illustrates this assertion.

4. Chronological list of miracles of Jesus.

(a) Preliminary Period, from Baptism to call of leading Apostles.

(b) First Period of Galilaean Ministry, to Death of John the Baptist.

(c) Second Period of Galilaean ministry, to its close.

(d) Ministry in Judaea and Peraea.

(e) Closing Days of Life.

Examining the above list, we may remark—

(1) The same event is probably referred to in 2 and 39. Possibly also, but on the whole not probably, 3 and 14 refer to same healing.

(2) Instances which seem to come so near to familiar human experience as to need no assumption of miracle are 2, 4, 41.

(3) In 31 no indication is given that the command of Jesus was meant to be obeyed. It may readily have been understood by the disciple as a parabolic expression of the surety of providential care.

(4) Cases where the reporting of the healing is so casual that nothing as to the method of Jesus can be securely built upon the narrative are 10, 12, 33, 34, 40. The chief interest of the Evangelist lies in the other part of the story. In the case of Malchus, St. John, who reports the injury, makes no mention of any healing, and the interest of St. Luke is evangelical rather than medical, emphasizing the generosity and compassion of Jesus.

(5) ‘Nature miracles’ are found (a) in each period; (b) in the Fourth Gospel; (c) in the Synoptic tradition, both in the Double and Triple Synopsis. They are therefore as well attested as the works of healing. The walking on the sea is found in the Double Synopsis; the stilling of the storm and the withering of the fig-tree in the Triple Synopsis; the feeding of the multitude in all four Gospels.

(6) The healings of nervous diseases, which many are more willing to accept on the ground of their likeness to well-known medical facts of to-day, are not better attested than those involving physical disorder and disease. The healings of fever, leprosy, issue of blood, and blindness are all recorded in the Triple Synopsis. The raising of the dead is found in all four Gospels; one case, the daughter of Jairus, is attested by the three Synoptics. The NT makes no distinction between these classes of miracles, but the evidence for all the classes is equally strong (see art. Cures, § 11).

5. Classification of miracles of Jesus.—As a typical example of the customary classification of miracles, may be given that of Westcott (Introd. to the Gospels)—

I. Miracles on Nature. 1. Miracles of creative power: (α) water made wine, (β) bread multiplied, (γ) walking on the water. 2. Miracles of Providence: (α) miracles of blessing: (1) first draught of fishes, (2) storm stilled, (3) stater in fish’s mouth, (4) second draught of fishes; (β) Miracle of judgment: withering of fig-tree.

II. Miracles on Man. (α) Miracles of personal faith: (1) organic defects (blind): (α) faith special (Matthew 9:29-31), (b) faith absolute—Bartimaeus restored; (2) chronic impurity: (α) open (leprosy)—faith special, the one leper—faith special and absolute contrasted, the ten lepers; (b) secret—woman with issue. (β) Miracles of intercession: (1) organic defects (simple intercession): (a) the blind (Mark 8:22-26), (b) the deaf and dumb (Mark 7:31-37); (2) mortal sicknesses—intercession based on natural ties: (a) fever (John 4:46-54), (b) paralysis—centurion’s servant and man borne of four. (γ) Miracles of love: (1) organic defect—blindness (John 9); (2) disease—(a) fever, (b) dropsy, (c) withered hand, (d) impotent man, (e) woman with spirit of infirmity; (3) death—(a) death chamber, (b) the bier, (c) the tomb.

III. Miracles on Spirit World. (α) Miracles of intercession: (1) simple intercession—(a) dumb man with devil, (b) blind and dumb man; (2) intercession based on natural ties—(α) Syro-Phœnician’s daughter, (b) lunatic boy. (β) Miracles of antagonism: (1) in synagogue—unclean spirit cast out, (2) in tombs—the lepers cast out.

The chief defect in the above is its endorsement of the term ‘Nature miracles’ as applied to the first class. If ‘Nature’ be rightly measured, the term may legitimately be used to cover the whole ground of our Lord’s working, for the complex nature of man cannot be severed from the universal order. Moreover, the distinction is, apart from that consideration, an arbitrary one, for several of these so-called ‘Nature miracles’ are wrought in the sphere of our Lord’s human nature, and are conceivably extensions of human, mental, and psychical faculty; and some of them are wrought in and upon the bodily form of Jesus Himself. The walking upon the water is an example of the latter. The draught of fishes is a miracle of vision, an extension of human perception, as well as an example of Divine control of the animal creation. A similar element must be traced in the instance of the coin in the fish’s month, if we are to understand a miracle here.* [Note: The power of the mind over the body may reasonably be conceived as at work in these instances, for it is impossible, with the growing knowledge of the inter-relations of mind and body, to set an arbitrary limit to that influence.] Other defects are: ‘Miracles of Providence,’ ‘Miracles of Blessing’ and of ‘Love,’ are terms that may be applied to other than the classes given.

A truer classification may be suggested as follows:

I. Healings of bodily ailments—as blindness, leprosy, lameness, dropsy, deafness and dumbness, fevers, and manifold ailments and infirmities.

II. Healings of nervous diseases—as paralysis or palsy, simple epilepsy, possibly the woman with the spirit of infirmity (unless her ailment be physical).

III. Healings of nervous and psychical disorders—epilepsy associated with idiocy or insanity, and varieties of mania.

IV. Revelations of power in the nature of Jesus—walking on the sea.

V. Revelation of Jesus in nature and upon the organic world—as draughts of fishes, and stater in fish’s mouth.

VI. Power upon the organic world—multiplied loaves and fishes, water made wine, fig-tree withered.

VII. Power upon the inorganic world—stilling of the tempest.

VIII. Raising of the dead—Jairus’ daughter, son of widow of Nain, Lazarus.

B. ‘Miraculous’ events associated with Career of Jesus.