Miracles

Question 1

What Greek word is used to describe miracles in the synoptics?

Answer 1

‘Dynamis’ - meaning act of power

Question 2

How did Jesus perform his miracles?

Answer 2

In a public and dramatic fashion, creating wonder and amazement

Question 3

What kind of miracles did Jesus perform?

Answer 3

• Healing people with visible disabilities
• Driving out demons and unclean spirits that shriek and curse
• More astonishing powers, like multiplying food and walking on water

Question 4

How does David Hume describe miracles?

Answer 4

‘A transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the diety

Question 5

What does Jesus’ ability to perform miracles and break the laws of nature show about him?

Answer 5

That the creator and lord of nature is present within him

Question 6

What two types does H. Van Der Loos divide miracles into?

Answer 6

• Miracles of healing
• Miracles of control over nature

Question 7

How do contemporary Christians interpret the miracles where Jesus banished evil spirits?

Answer 7

• Fundamentalist Christians argue that there really are demons possessing people
• Liberal Christians argue that this was a pre-modern interpretation of mental illness
• Both see Jesus curing it with a word as a miracle

Question 8

What two categories does C.S Lewis divide miracles into?

Answer 8

• Miracles of old creation - These represent the powers that Jesus held by virtue of being a divine human (Adam and Eve has these powers, and so would all mankind if not for the fall)
• Miracles of the new creation - Powers that foreshadow what resurrected life will be like for humans

Question 9

How do atheists and liberal christians often look to explain these miracles?

Answer 9

In a naturalist (non-supernatural) fashion

Question 10

Which two naturalist approaches are most common amongst atheists and liberal Christians?

Answer 10

• Jesus was a hypnotist
• Jesus was an illusionist

Question 11

Explore the idea that Jesus was a hypnotist

Answer 11

• Jesus had a powerful charisma and hypnotic powers
• Some miracles were caused by people hallucinating in the excitement generated
• The miracles were an early example of the placebo effect
• Jesus was able to cure many people psychologically. This might especially to exorcisms, with the love and respect Jesus showed them helping to cure their mental illness

Question 12

What is the issue with viewing Jesus’ miracles as mere hypnosis?

Answer 12

• It is not possible to hypnotise non-consenting people in a crowd
• Some of the cures were too dramatic to be the placebo effect
• Some of the disabilities were physical rather than psychological

Question 13

What would Jesus’ tricks have had to have been if he was just an illusionist?

Answer 13

Mere tricks of stage magic

Question 14

How do those who believe Jesus to be an illusionist discredit his specific miracles?

Answer 14

• They say that he was walking on a sand bank rather than actually walking on water
• They believe that many of the lame and blind people he healed were really confederates - actors that pretended to be ill and healed by Jesus

Question 15

Why would it be wrong to call Jesus a charlatan if his miracles were just illusions?

Answer 15

Because he was not trying to get rich from them; he made life alot more dangerous for himself instead

Question 16

Explain the idea that Jesus performed illusions to act as enacted parables

Answer 16

They illustrate Jesus’ teachings and allow us to understand God through them

Question 17

Explain the idea that Jesus’ miracles were a kind of spiritual theatre

Answer 17

Perhaps they were understood as theatrical events by his audiences - in the same way as people may watch magicians perform today

Question 18

What are two main problems with the idea that Jesus was just an illusionist?

Answer 18

• Jesus was executed for what he did and his followers would go on to become missionaries and martyrs, which they would not have done if they were just accomplices of a stage magician
• In the earliest gospel, Mark, Jesus tries to keep his miracles secret. He heals people quietly and asks them to tell no-one. This view is therefore incompatible with the Marcan idea of the messianic secret