Miracle

A miracle (from Latin: miraculum meaning "something wonderful") is an extraordinary and amazing event that defies social expectation, and is often attributed to divine intervention in the universe by which the ordinary course and operation of Nature is overruled, suspended, or modified. Although many religious texts and people confirm witnessing "miracles", it is disputed whether such events are scientifically confirmed occurrences. Sometimes the term "miracle" may refer to the action of a supernatural being that is not a god. Thus, the term "divine intervention", by contrast, would refer specifically to the direct involvement of a deity, demons Simon Magus.

In casual usage, "miracle" may also refer to any statistically unlikely but beneficial event, (such as the survival of a natural disaster) or even to anything which is regarded as "wonderful" regardless of its likelihood, such as birth.

Levitation

Definition

According to the philosopher David Hume, a miracle is "a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent." Some religious believers hold that there is a scientific basis for believing in supernatural miracles. They hold that in the absence of a plausible, parsimonious scientific theory, the best explanation for these events is that they were performed by a supernatural being, e.g. God. In this view, a miracle is a violation of normal laws of nature by a god or some other supernatural being. Some scientist-theologians like Polkinghorne suggest that miracles are not violations of the laws of nature but "exploration of a new regime of physical experience".

The logic behind an event being deemed a miracle varies significantly. In most cases a religious text, such as the Bible or Quran, states that a miracle occurred, and believers accept this as a fact.Therefore, there is probably a supernatural being (i.e., God) that performs what appear to be miracles. However, some scientists criticise this kind of thinking a subversion, or perhaps deliberate misuse, of Ockham's Razor.

Many adherents of monotheistic religions assert that miracles, if established, are logical proof of the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent god. A number of criticisms of this point of view exist:

1. While the existence of miracles may imply the existence of a supernatural miracle worker, that supernatural miracle worker need not be an omnipotent, omniscient, and all-benevolent god; it could be any supernatural being. That is, it only proves that gods might exist, not that there is a monotheistic god.
2. Some argue that miracles, if established, are evidence that a perfect god does not exist, as such a being would not want to, or need to, violate his own laws of nature.^{[citation needed]}
   • Catholic theologians do not accept this reasoning; they conclude that the miracles are from an omnipotent god, because they accept as already logically proven (through concepts like the prime mover) that there must be a single omnipotent, omniscient god, when speaking philosophically.
3. Laws of nature are inferred from empirical evidence. Thus if an accepted law of nature ever appeared to have been violated, it could simply be that the accepted law was an erroneous inference from an insufficient set of empirical observations, rather than a supernatural disruption of the true course of nature.

To many Christians, the miracles represent actual historical events, while liberal Christians may consider these stories to be figurative. ^{[citation needed]} Many Christians accept that exorcisms as having really happened as actual evictions of real demons ^{[citation needed]}: the Roman Catholic Church maintains a detailed protocol of what is to be done to perform an exorcism, and most local denominations have an exorcism 'specialist' at hand, as does the Anglican Church of England, which maintains an exorcist in each diocese. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglo Catholics, consider the last supper and transubstantiation a miraculous event, which requires taking Jesus' words literally. ^{[citation needed]} Most Protestants reject this instance. ^{[citation needed]}Most Christians accept the resurrection of Jesus as fact, indeed defining being a Christian with a belief in the resurrection. ^{[citation needed]} The exact nature of the resurrection, whether physical and bodily has been disputed among Christians for thousands of years.^{[citation needed]}

To some Gnostics, death had a profoundly allegorical meaning; people who had renounced their lack of knowledge and their carnality, becoming gnostics, were referred to as having died, since they had metaphorically escaped the prison of the body. ^{[citation needed]} Some Gnostics viewed resurrection as an allegory for people attaining gnosis, and not as something that had to literally have happened, hence viewing these miracles as metaphors, and teaching devices, not actual events. ^{[citation needed]} According to those who see Gnosticism as the original version of Christianity, this is how the events were intended to be interpreted, and hence they were non historic, never really having been meant to be seen as historic. {{Fact|date=February 2007}

Miracles in the Bible

In the Hebrew Bible

The descriptions of most miracles in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) are often the same as the common definition of the word: God intervenes in the laws of nature.

A literal reading of the Tanakh shows a number of ways miracles are said to occur: God may suspend or speed up the laws of nature to produce a supernatural occurrence; God can create matter out of nothing; God can breathe life into inanimate matter. The Tanakh does not explain details of how these miracles happen.

The Tanakh attributes many natural occurrences to God, such as the sun rising and setting, and rain falling.

Today many Orthodox Jews, most Christians, and most Muslims adhere to this view of miracles. This view is generally rejected by non-Orthodox Jews, liberal Christians and Unitarian-Universalists.

Many events commonly understood to be miraculous may not actually be instances of the impossible, as commonly believed. For instance, consider the parting of the Sea of Reeds (in Hebrew Yâm-Sûph; often mistranslated as the "Red Sea"). This incident occurred when Moses and Israelites fled from bondage in Egypt, to begin their exodus to the promised land. The book of Exodus does not state that the Reed Sea split in a dramatic fashion. Rather, according to the text God caused a strong wind to slowly drive the shallow waters to land, overnight. There is no claim that God pushed apart the sea as shown in many films; rather, the miracle would be that Israel crossed this precise place, at exactly the right time, when Moses lifted his staff, and that the pursuing Egyptian army then drowned when the wind stopped and the piled waters rushed back in.

Most events later described as miracles are not labeled as such by the Bible; rather the text simply describes what happened. Often these narratives will attribute the cause of these events to God.

n rabbinic Judaism, many rabbis mentioned in the Talmud held that the laws of nature were inviolable. The idea of miracles that contravened the laws of nature were hard to accept; however, at the same time they affirmed the truth of the accounts in the Tanakh. Therefore some explained that miracles were in fact natural events that had been set up by God at the beginning of time.

In this view, when the walls of Jericho fell, it was not because God directly brought them down. Rather, God planned that there would be an earthquake at that place and time, so that the city would fall to the Israelites. Instances where rabbinic writings say that God made miracles a part of creation include Midrash Genesis Rabbah 5:45; Midrash Exodus Rabbah 21:6; and Ethics of the Fathers/Pirkei Avot 5:6.

These views are held by both classical and modern thinkers.

In Numbers 22 is the story of Balaam and the talking donkey. Many hold that for miracles such as this, one must either assert the literal truth of this biblical story, or one must then reject the story as false. However, some Jewish commentators (e.g. Saadiah Gaon and Maimonides) hold that stories such as these were never meant to be taken literally in the first place. Rather, these stories should be understood as accounts of a prophetic experience, which are dreams or visions. (Of course, such dreams and visions could themselves be considered miracles.)

Joseph H. Hertz, a 20th century Jewish biblical commentator, writes that these verses "depict the continuance on the subconscious plane of the mental and moral conflict in Balaam's soul; and the dream apparition and the speaking donkey is but a further warning to Balaam against being misled through avarice to violate God command."

In the New Testament

The descriptions of most miracles in the Christian New Testament are often the same as the commonplace definition of the word: God intervenes in the laws of nature. In St John's Gospel the "miracles" are referred to as "signs" and the emphasis is on God demonstrating his underlying normal activity in remarkable ways.

Jesus can turn water into wine; Jesus can create matter out of nothing, and thus turn a loaf of bread into many loaves of bread, Jesus can revive the lives of people considered to be dead. Jesus can rise from the dead. The New Testament does not explain details of how these miracles happen.

According to the canonical Gospels, Jesus worked many miracles in the course of his ministry, which may be categorized into cures, exorcisms, dominion over nature, three instances of raising the dead, and various others. To many Christians, the miracles represent actual historical events, while Liberal Christians may consider these stories to be figurative. ^{[citation needed]} Critical scholars generally concede that empirical methods are unable to determine if a genuine miracle is historical, considering the issue theological or philosophical. Islamic scholars also believe in most of the miracles of healing and the miracles of resurrecting dead people to life. ^{[citation needed]}

Types of miracles

Cures

The largest group of miracle stories mentioned in the New Testament are those concerning disease and disability. The Gospels give varying amounts of detail for each episode, sometimes Jesus cures simply by saying a few words, or laying on of hands, and at other times employs elaborate rituals using material (e.g. spit or mud). Generally they are recorded in the Synoptic Gospels but not John.

• Fever - The Synoptics describe 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 seeking out Jesus, and him traveling over the whole of Galilee to preach to them.
• Leprosy - The Synoptics state that, early in Jesus' ministry, he healed a leper, whom he then instructed to offer the requisite ritual sacrifices as proscribed by the Deuteronomic Code and Priestly Code. Jesus instructed the ex-leper not to tell anyone who had healed him, but the man disobeyed, increasing Jesus' fame, and thereafter Jesus withdrew to deserted places, but was followed there. Luke also states that later, while on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus sent ten lepers, who had sought his assistance, to the priests, and that they were healed as they went, but that the only one that came back to thank Jesus was a Samaritan.
• Long term bleeding - The Synoptics state that while heading to Jairus' house (see the section below on power over death), Jesus was approached by a woman who had been suffering from bleeding for 12 years, and that she touched Jesus' cloak (fringes of his garment: Matt 9:20, 14:36), and was instantly healed. Jesus turned about and, when the woman came forward, said "Daughter, your faith has healed you, go in peace." The bleeding is sometimes interpreted as menorrhagia, but most scholars consider that the duration, 12 years, makes it more plausible that something more like hemophilia is being referred to.
• Withered hands - The Synoptics state that Jesus entered a synagogue on the Sabbath, and found a man with a withered hand there, whom Jesus healed, having first challenged the people present to decide what was lawful for a 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 plot about killing Jesus.
• Dropsy - Luke alone states that, during a Sabbath, Jesus ate in the house of a prominent Pharisee, opposite someone who suffered from dropsy, and Jesus asked the Pharisees that were present if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath, but, after getting no reply, healed the man. Jesus then challenged the Pharisees to say that they would not immediately pull out an ox, or a son (or a donkey, according to some ancient manuscripts of Luke), if it fell into a well during a Sabbath.
• Deafness - Mark alone 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 after spitting, and then said Ephphatha!, an Aramaic word meaning Be opened
• Blindness - The Synoptics state that Jesus met a beggar (Mark gives the name: bar-Timai or son of Timai) who, though blind, still identified Jesus as the Jewish Messiah; Jesus said that the man's faith has healed him, and he received his sight, and was allowed to follow Jesus. This happened when Jesus was leaving Jericho, and Matthew adds that there was another healed at the same time. John mentions as similar event that happened near the Pool of Siloam, with the following details:
  • The disciples first questioned Jesus whether the man's curse was for his own sins, or those of his parents. Jesus said it was for neither reason, "but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."
  • Jesus healed him by spitting on the ground, mixing his spit with mud, and putting the mixture into his eyes, then sent him to wash in the Pool of Siloam
  • The event happened on a Sabbath, and the Pharisees said, "this man is not of God, because he does not keep the Sabbath." They asked the formerly blind man concerning Jesus, who said, "he is a prophet."
  • The Jews did not believe that the healed man was the same person as the man who had been blind from birth, and asked his parents if the healed man was their son, and the parents responded that he was, and had been born blind
  • Jesus identified himself as the Son of God, and the cured man worshiped him

Additionally, Mark alone states that Jesus went to Bethsaida and met another man there who was blind, and then cured him. Specifically, Jesus is described as spitting in the man's eyes, to which the man responded that his vision is now blurred, and then Jesus touched the man's eyes, and the man responded that he can see clearly now. John's account of the healing of has been argued by some scholars to be a conflation of the account of bar-Timai in Mark, together with the healing method given by Mark's account of the second healing of a blind man.^{[citation needed]}

• Paralysis - 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 according to the Synoptics irritated the Pharisees, and according to John irritated the people in general. Jesus is described as responding to the anger by asking whether it is easier to say that someone's sins are forgiven, or to tell the man to get up and walk. The Synoptics state that this happened in Capernaum, Luke adding 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 account is given in John and occurs at the Pool of Bethesda; some have argued this is another version of the event described in the synoptics, rather than a separate cure.
• Unspecified sickness - All four Canonical Gospels state that Jesus was asked by an official to heal a person important to them, and although Jesus is somewhat annoyed at being constantly asked to perform miracles, rather than being asked for teachings, he says that the person would be healed, and the official returned home to find that this has happened. The Synoptics state that official was one of royalty, originating from Canaan, and that it was his son who was sick, while the Gospel of John states that the official was a centurion, and that it was the centurion's servant that was sick.

Exorcisms

According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus performed many exorcisms of demoniacs. These incidents are not mentioned by the Gospel of John.

The accounts in the Synoptic Gospels are:

• The man possessed by a demon at Capernaum - Jesus exorcised an unclean spirit and forbidding the demon from informing people that he was the "Holy One of God". (Mark 1:21-28, Luke 4:31-37)
• Jesus drove out evil spirits with a word. (Matthew 8:8, 8:14-17, Mark 1:29-39; Luke 4:33-41)
• The man possessed by demons at Gerasenes, whom the people had tried to chain up but had escaped, and lived in caves, and roamed the hills, screaming - Jesus inquired the man's name, but is told by the man/demons that his name is Legion, "...for we are many"; then the demons asked to be expelled into a group of swine, which Jesus did, and thereafter the pigs fell into a lake and drowned. The pig owners tell the townsfolk what had happened, and when the townsfolk see that the man is now sane, they besought Jesus to leave "for they were taken with great fear." The man, on the other hand, informs the whole of the decapolis what had happened. (Matthew 8:28-34, Mark 5:1-20, Luke 8:26-39)
• Jesus drove a demon out of a mute man who then spoke, the Pharisees said it was by the power of Beelzebub. (Matthew 9:32-34, Mark 3:20-22)
• Jesus gave the Twelve Apostles the authority to drive out evil spirits. (Matthew 10:1-8, Mark 3:15, 6:7, 6:13, Luke 9:1, 10:17)
• Jesus said if he drove out demons by the Spirit of God or Finger of God then the Kingdom of God has come. (Matthew 12:22-32, Luke 11:14-23, 12:10;, Mark 3:20-30)
• The possessed daughter of the Canaanite or phoenician woman in Tyre - the woman asks Jesus to heal her daughter, but Jesus says "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." The woman replies, "Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table," whereupon Jesus tells her that her daughter is healed, and when the woman returns home she finds that this is true. (Matthew 15:21-28, Mark 7:24-30)
• The boy possessed by a demon that is brought forward to Jesus straight after Jesus' transfiguration, and who foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, becomes rigid, and involuntarily falls into both water and fire - Jesus' followers cannot expel the demon, and Jesus condemns the people as unbelieving, but when the father of the boy questions if Jesus can heal the boy, Jesus says everything is possible for those that believe, so the father says he believes that the boy could be healed, and Jesus does so. (Matthew 17:14-21, Mark 9:14-29, Luke 9:37-49)
• Jesus had driven seven demons out of Mary Magdalene. (Mark 16:9, Luke 8:2)
• Jesus continued to cast out demons even though Herod Antipas wanted to kill him. (Luke 13:31-32)

Controlling nature

The Gospels tell another group of stories concerning Jesus' power over nature:

• The Feeding of the 5000 and of the 4000 men - Jesus, praying to God and using only a few loaves of bread and fish, feeds thousands of men, along with an unspecified number of women and children; there are even a number of baskets of leftovers afterward.
• The Cursing of the Fig Tree - Jesus cursed a fig tree, and it withered.
• Turning Water into Wine - at a wedding, when the host runs out of wine, the disciples of Jesus fill vessels with water, but the waiter pronounces the content of the vessels as the best wine that has been served that night.
• Walking on water - Jesus walked on a lake to meet a boat.
• Transfiguration of Jesus - Jesus climbed a mountain and been changed so that his face glowed.
• The Catch of 153 fish - Jesus instructed the disciples to throw their net over the side of the water, resulting in them hauling in the huge catch (for hand fishing) of 153 fish.
• Calming a 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.
• Transubstantiation during the last supper; disputed by some denominations. (see Christian Interpretations below)

Power over death

The Canonical Gospels report three cases where Jesus calls a dead person back to life:

• Jairus' daughter - Jairus, a major patron of a synagogue, asks Jesus to heal his daughter, but while Jesus is on his way, men tell Jairus that his daughter has died. Jesus says she was only sleeping and wakes her up with the word Talitha koum!.
• The son of the widow at Nain - 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 - a close friend of Jesus who has been dead for four days is brought back to life when Jesus commands him to get up.
• Jesus' own resurrection from the dead.

While the raising of the daughter of Jairus is in all the Synoptic Gospels (but not in the Gospel of John), the raising of the son of the widow of Nain appears only in the Gospel of Luke, and the raising of Lazarus appears only in the Gospel of John. It has been argued by several scholars and commentators ^{[citation needed]} that the story of the raising of Lazarus and that of the Nain widow's son really refer to the same event, considered to derive from the raising of the youth in the original Mark.

Supernatural knowledge

The ability of Jesus to know things by supernatural means could also be classed as a miracle. This may explain the reason why Nathaniel responded to Jesus saying, "Before that Philip called thee, when thou was under the fig tree, I saw thee", by answering, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel." It could be perhaps that when he was under the fig tree, Nathaniel had been praying in secret which elicited this response, rather than that he did not know that he had merely been observed in the natural way.

List of miracles attributed to Jesus in various sources

It is not always clear when two reported miracles refer to the same event. An attempt has been made to indicate those that probably are related. Summarizing the table below, there are 47 miracles of Jesus recorded during his life-time, 40 of them recorded in the canonical Gospels and 7 recorded only in non-canonical sources. The chronological order of the miracles is difficult to determine, so this list should not be viewed as a sequence.

Miracle	Matthew	Mark	Luke	John	Other sources
Annunciation			Luke 1:26-38		Qur'an 3:45-51, 19:16-26
Miraculous baptism	Matt 3:13-17	Mark 1:9-11	Luke 3:21-22	John 1:32-34
Angels protected Jesus in the desert	Matthew 4:11	Mark 1:12-13
Miraculous conversion of Nathanael				John 1:45-51
Turned water into wine				John 2:1-11
Exorcism in Capernaum		Mark 1:21-28	Luke 4:31-37
Healed every disease	Matt 4:23-25	Mark 1:39
Caught large number of fish, converted fishermen to "fishers of men"			Luke 5:1-11
Jesus' name exorcises demons and performs many miracles	Matt 7:22	Mark 9:38-40, 16:17	Luke 9:49-50, 10:17	John 1:12-13. 2:23, 3:18, 14:13-14, 17:11-12	Acts 3:6, 4:10, 4:30, 16:18, 19:11-20
Cured a leper	Matt 8:1-4	Mark 1:40-45	Luke 5:12-16		Egerton Gospel 2, Qur'an
Miraculous conversion of a Samaritan woman				John 4:28-29
Cured a centurion's boy-servant	Matt 8:5-13		Luke 7:1-10
Cured a royal official's son				John 4:46-54
Cured Peter's mother-in-law's fever and drove out many evil spirits	Matt 8:14-17	Mark 1:29-34	Luke 4:38-41
Drove 7 demons out of Mary Magdalene		Mark 16:9	Luke 8:2
Calmed a storm at sea by rebuking the wind and waves	Matt 8:23-27	Mark 4:35-41	Luke 8:22-25
Healed the Gerasene Demoniac	Matt 8:28-34	Mark 5:1-20	Luke 8:26-39
Cured a paralytic at Capernaum	Matt 9:1-8	Mark 2:1-12	Luke 5:17-26
Cured a paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda				John 5:1-18
Raised the son of a widow at Nain			Luke 7:11-17
Raised Jairus' daughter by saying Talitha koum!	Matt 9:18-26	Mark 5:21-43	Luke 8:40-56
Healed a woman with a hemorrhage who touched the fringes of his garment	Matt 9:20-22	Mark 5:24-34	Luke 8:43-48
Healed two blind men, a mute, and every disease and ailment	Matt 9:27-35
Twelve Apostles given authority to exorcise demons and raise the dead	Matt 10:1, 10:8	Mark 3:13-15, 6:7	Luke 9:1
Unspecified miracles at Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum	Matt 11:20-24		Luke 10:13-15
Healed a man's withered hand	Matt 12:9-13	Mark 3:1-6	Luke 6:6-11
Healed huge crowds	Matt 12:15-21	Mark 3:7-12	Luke 6:17-19
Healed a blind and dumb demoniac	Matt 12:22-32	Mark 3:20-30	Luke 11:14-23; 12:10
Fed 5000	Matt 14:13-21	Mark 6:30-44	Luke 9:10-17	John 6:1-14
Walked on water	Matt 14:22-33	Mark 6:45-52		John 6:15-21
All those who touched the fringes of his garment were cured	Matt 14:34-36	Mark 6:53-56
Exorcised a Canaanite (Syro-Phoenecian) woman	Matt 15:21-28	Mark 7:24-30
Healed a deaf-mute by saying Ephphatha!		Mark 7:31-37
Healed large numbers of crippled, blind and mute	Matt 15:29-31
Fed 4000	Matt 15:32-39	Mark 8:1-10
Restored a man's sight at Bethsaida		Mark 8:22-26
Transfiguration	Matt 17:1-13	Mark 9:2-13	Luke 9:28-36		2 Peter 1:17-18
Exorcised a possessed boy	Matt 17:14-21	Mark 9:14-29	Luke 9:37-43
Payed temple tax with a stater coin taken from a fish's mouth	Matt 17:23-27
Healed a woman on the Sabbath			Luke 13:10-17
Continued to cast out demons even though Herod Antipas wanted to kill him			Luke 13:31-32
Raised Lazarus				John 11:1-44	Qur'an
Healed a man with dropsy			Luke 14:1-6
Healed ten lepers			Luke 17:11-19
Healed large crowds in Judea	Matt 19:1-2
Healed two blind men	Matt 20:29-34
Healed the blind beggar Bartimaeus		Mark 10:46-52	Luke 18:35-43		Qur'an
Blind man given sight				John 9
Healed blind and lame at Herod's Temple	Matt 21:14
Cursed a fig tree	Matt 21:18-22	Mark 11:12-14, 11:20-25
Transubstantiation of bread and wine	Matt 26:26-30	Mark 14:22-26	Luke 22:14-20	John 6:48-66	1 Cor 11:23-26
Satanic possession of Judas				John 13:26-30
Healed High Priest's servant's ear			Luke 22:49-51
Darkness like a Solar eclipse during Passover, see also Crucifixion eclipse	Matt 27:45	Mark 15:33	Luke 23:44-45
Many of the dead resurrected when Jesus died	Matt 27:50-54
Empty tomb	Matt 27:62–28:15	Mark 16:1–8	Luke 24:1–12	John 20:1-10	Gospel of Peter 8:1-13:3
Resurrection appearances	Matt 28:9-10, 28:16-20	Mark 16:9-18	Luke 24:13-49	John 20:11-23	Acts 1:1-8, 2:24, Romans 10:9, 1 Cor 9:1, 15:1-15
Ascended to Heaven		Mark 16:19-20	Luke 24:50-53		Acts 1:9-11, 1 Peter 3:21-22, Secret Book of James 10:1-3
Doubting Thomas				John 20:24-31
Catch of 153 fish post-resurrection				John 21:1-14
Miraculous conversion of Paul					Acts 9:1-19,22:1-22,26:9-24
Descended into Hell					Ephesians 4:8-10, Acts 2:27, 2:31, 1 Peter 3:19-20, 4:6, Apostles' Creed, Ante-Nicene Fathers
Sent Paraclete/Holy Spirit	Matt 3:10-12	Mark 1:8	Luke 3:16-17	John 14:16, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7	Acts 1:5, 1:8, 2:4, 2:38, 11:16, Qur'an
Rich young man raised from the dead					Secret Gospel of Mark 1
Water controlled and purified					Infancy Thomas 2.2
Made birds of clay and brought them to life					Infancy Thomas 2.3, Qur'an 3:49
Resurrected dead playmate Zeno					Infancy Thomas 9
Healed a woodcutter's foot					Infancy Thomas 10
Held water in his cloak					Infancy Thomas 11
Harvested 100 bushels of wheat from a single seed					Infancy Thomas 12
Stretched a board that was short for carpentry					Infancy Thomas 13
Resurrected a teacher he earlier struck down					Infancy Thomas 14-15
Healed James' viper bite					Infancy Thomas 16
Resurrected a dead child					Infancy Thomas 17
Resurrected a dead man					Infancy Thomas 18
Miraculous Virgin Birth verified by midwife					Infancy James 19-20

Miracles in Islam

Muslims consider the the Holy Qur'an itself to be a miracle. There are many miracles claimed in connection with Qur'an, either recorded in the Qur'an itself or believed by some Muslims about the book. The Qur'an claims that it has been created in miraculous way as a revelation from Allah (God), as a perfect copy of what was written in heaven and existed there from all eternity. Therefore the verses of the book are referred to as ayat, which also means "a miracle" in the Arabic language.

The Quran claims that Muhammad was illiterate and neither read a book nor wrote a book (^{[Quran 7:157]}, ^{[Quran 29:48]}) and that he did not know about past events nor could he have possibly known the scientific facts that are mentioned in the Quran.(^{[Quran 3:44]}, ^{[Quran 11:49]}, ^{[Quran 28:44]}). This is used as an argument in favor of the divine origin of the book. On the other side, some scholars have stated that the claim about Muhammad's illiteracy is based on weak traditions and that it is not convincing.

Miracle in the Qur'an can be defined as a supernatural intervention in the life of human beings. According to this definition, Miracles are present "in a threefold sense: in sacred history, in connection with Muhammad himself and in relation to revelation." The Qur'an does not use the technical Arabic word for miracle (Muʿd̲j̲iza) literally meaning "that by means of which [the Prophet] confounds, overwhelms, his opponents". It rather uses the term 'Ayah'(literally meaning sign). The term Ayah is used in the Qur'an in the above mentioned threefold sense: it refers to the "verses" of the Qur'an (believed to be the divine speech in human language; presented by Muhammad as his chief Miracle); as well as to miracles of it and the signs( particularly those of creation).

According to historian Denis Gril, although according to the Qur'an, Muhammad did prophesied but he was not granted to perform miracles in their traditional sense "as they were not, ipso facto, sufficient to convince unbelievers." Miracles in traditional sense, are however reported in the Muslim tradition.

A systematic definition of Miracles performed by apostles can be found in the work of the Muslim scholar al-Īd̲j̲ī Mawāḳif, historian A.J. Wensinck states. The main purpose of miracle is to prove the sincerity of the apostle and has to satisfy the following conditions:

1. It must be performed by God
2. "It must be contrary to the usual course of things"
3. It should be impossible to contradict it
4. "It must happen at the hands of him who claims to be an apostle
5. "It must be in conformity with his announcement of it, and the miracle itself must not be a disavowal of his claim"
6. "It must follow on his claim"

The Qur'an does not mention any miracle for Adam as he was not supposed to convince anybody. Verses ^{[Quran 11:40]} and ^{[Quran 23:27]} mention miracles of Noah, "The oven (tannur) out of which the water burst and announced the flood". Hud, the first of five Arabian prophets of the Qur'an, prophet for the ancient tribe of 'Ad does not have any particular miracle(thus according to historian Denis Gril prefiguring Muhammad). See ^{[Quran 7:69]} for his response when he was rebuked for not producing a miracle.

Hindu milk miracle

A statue of Ganesha

The Hindu milk miracle was a phenomenon reported to have occurred on September 21, 1995. Before dawn, a Hindu worshipper at a temple in south New Delhi made an offering of milk to a statue of Lord Ganesha. When a spoonful of milk from the bowl was held up to the trunk of the statue, the liquid was seen to disappear, apparently taken in by the idol. Word of the event spread quickly, and by mid-morning it was found that statues of the entire Hindu pantheon in temples all over North India were taking in milk, with the family of Shiva (Parvati, Ganesha, and Kartikeya) apparently the "thirstiest". By noon the news had spread beyond India, and Hindu temples in Britain, Canada, Dubai, and Nepal among other countries had successfully replicated the phenomenon, and the World Hindu Council (an Indian Hindu organisation) had announced that a miracle was occurring.

The apparent miracle had a significant effect on the areas around major temples; vehicle and pedestrian traffic in New Delhi was dense enough to create a gridlock lasting until late in the evening. Many stores in areas with significant Hindu communities saw a massive jump in sales of milk, with one Gateway store in England selling over 25,000 pints of milk, and overall milk sales in New Delhi jumped over 30%. Many minor temples struggled to deal with the vast increase in numbers, and queues spilled out into the streets.

File:Milk statue, The Sun.jpg

A person offering a spoonful of milk to a Hindu idol.Template:Replacethisimage

Seeking to explain the phenomenon, scientists from India's Ministry of Science and Technology travelled to a temple in New Delhi and made an offering of milk containing a food colouring. As the level of liquid in the spoon dropped, it became obvious that after the milk disappeared from the spoon, it coated the statue beneath where the spoon was placed. With this result, the scientists offered capillary action as an explanation; the surface tension of the milk was pulling the liquid up and out of the spoon, before gravity caused it to run down the front of the statue. This explanation did nothing to reduce the numbers of faithful rushing to the temples, however, and queues of people carrying pots, pans, and buckets of milk continued to gather.

To those who believed in the miracle, further proof was offered when the phenomenon seemed to cease before the end of the day, with many statues refusing to take more milk even before noon. A small number of temples outside of India reported the effect continuing for several more days, but no further reports were made after the beginning of October. However, skeptics hold the incident to be an example of mass hysteria, and when reports of the Monkey-man of New Delhi began to appear in 2001, many newspapers harked back to the event. The story was picked up, mostly as a novelty piece, by news services around the world, including CNN, the BBC, the New York Times and the Guardian. Alternative theories about how the phenomenon began have since been raised; including that Nemi Chand Jain, also known as Chandraswami, spread the rumour to take public attention away from the criminal charges that were being levelled at him at the time for harbouring a murderer.

The "miracle" occurred again on 20-21 August 2006 in almost exactly the same fashion, although initial reports seem to indicate that it occurred only with statues of Ganesh, Shiva, and Durga. The first reported occurrence was on the evening of the 20th in the city of Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, from where it spread throughout India like wildfire. However, rationalists are heavily skeptical about the issue, attributing it to capillary action yet again. The phenomenon had reappeared only days after reports of sea water turning sweet that led to mass hysteria in Mumbai.

Contemporary claims of miracles and evidence

The Roman Catholic Church is hesitant extending validity to a putative miracle. The Church requires a certain number of miracles to occur before granting sainthood to a putative saint, with particularly stringent requirements in validating the miracle's authenticity. [1] The process is overseen by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints [2].

Followers of the Indian gurus Sathya Sai Baba and Swami Premananda claim that they routinely perform miracles. The dominant view among sceptics is that these are predominantly sleight of hand or elaborate magic tricks.

Some modern religious groups claim ongoing occurrence of miraculous events. While some miracles have been proven to be fraudulent (Peter Popoff for an example) others (as the Paschal Fire in Jerusalem) have not proven susceptible to analysis. Some groups are far more cautious about proclaiming apparent miracles genuine than others, although official sanction, or the lack thereof, rarely has much effect on popular belief.

Flying Saints

Saint Joseph of Cupertino is considered a flying saint.

There are numerous saints to whom the ability to fly or levitate in spite of their weight has been attributed. Most of these flying saints are mentioned as such in literature and sources associated with them.

The ability was also attributed to other figures in early Christianity. The apocryphal Acts of Peter gives a legendary tale of Simon Magus' death. Simon is performing magic in the forum, and in order to prove himself to be a god, he flies up into the air. The apostle Peter prays to God to stop his flying, and he stops mid-air and falls, breaking his legs, whereupon the crowd, previously non-hostile, stones him to death.

The church of Santa Francesca Romana claims to have been built on the spot in question (thus claiming that Simon Magus could indeed fly), claims that Saint Paul was also present, and that a dented slab of marble that it contains bears the imprints of the knees of Peter and Paul during their prayer.

The phenomenon of levitation was recorded again and again for certain saints. Saint Francis of Assisi is recorded as having been "suspended above the earth, often to a height of three, and often to a height of four cubits." St. Alphonsus Liguori, when preaching at Foggia, was lifted before the eyes of the whole congregation several feet from the ground. Liguori is also said to have had the power of bilocation.

Flying or levitation was also associated with witchcraft. When it came to female saints, there was a certain ambivalence expressed by theologians, canon lawyers, inquisitors, and male hagiographers towards the powers that they were purported to have. As Caroline Walker Bynum writes, "by 1500, indeed, the model of the female saint, expressed both in popular veneration and in official canonizations, was in may ways the mirror image of society’s notion of the witch." Both witches and female saints were suspected of flying through the air, whether in saintly levitation or bilocation, or in a witches’ Sabbath.

Skepticism

Many people believe that miracles do not happen and that the entire universe operates on unchangable laws, without any exceptions. Aristotle rejected the idea that God could or would intervene in the order of the natural world. Jewish neo-Aristotelian philosophers, who are still influential today, include Maimonides, Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon, and Gersonides. Directly or indirectly, their views are still prevalent in much of the religious Jewish community.

Littlewood's Law states that individuals can expect a miracle to happen to them at the rate of about one per month.

The law was framed by Cambridge University Professor J. E. Littlewood, and published in a collection of his work, A Mathematician's Miscellany; it seeks (among other things) to debunk one element of supposed supernatural phenomenology and is related to the more general Law of Truly Large Numbers, which states that with a sample size large enough, any outrageous thing is likely to happen.

Littlewood's law, making certain suppositions, is explained as follows: a miracle is defined as an exceptional event of special significance occurring at a frequency of one in a million; during the hours in which a human is awake and alert, a human will experience one thing per second (for instance, seeing the computer screen, the keyboard, the mouse, the article, etc.); additionally, a human is alert for about eight hours per day; and as a result, a human will, in 35 days, have experienced, under these suppositions, 1,008,000 things. Accepting this definition of a miracle, one can be expected to observe one miraculous occurrence within the passing of every 35 consecutive days — and therefore, according to this reasoning, seemingly miraculous events are actually commonplace.

Thus, Littlewood's law states that individuals can expect miracles to happen to them, at the rate of about one per month. By its definition, seemingly miraculous events are actually commonplace. In other words, miracles do not exist, but are rather examples of low probability events that are bound to happen by chance from time to time.

Others have suggested that miracles are the products of creative art and social acceptance. In this view, miracles do not really occur. Rather, they are the product of creative story tellers. They use them to embellish a hero or incident with a theological flavor. Using miracles in a story allow characters and situations to become bigger than life, and to stir the emotions of the listener more than the mundane and ordinary.

Critical scholarship

Aside from literal interpretations, and assumptions of them being fiction, numerous other explanations of the events have been put forward throughout history. Beginning with the Gnostics, it has been suggested that the reports of alleged miracles were actually intended just as allegories, not as factual events. ^{[citation needed]} Healing the blind has been argued to be a metaphor for people who previously could not, or would not, see the truth being shown it; ^{[citation needed]} healing the deaf has been interpreted as simply meaning that people who could not, or would not, listen to true teachings were made to; ^{[citation needed]} similarly, healing paralysis has been interpreted as an allegory for rectifying inaction; ^{[citation needed]} and healing leprosy for removing the societal stigmatism associated with certain stances. ^{[citation needed]} It has also been argued that bar-Timai is a direct reference to Plato's Timaeus, a philosophical work, and that bar-Timai symbolizes the hellenic audience of Mark's gospel, and that curing his blindness is a metaphor for the Gospel giving a revelation to the audience.

Other scholars have suggested that the Bible is more literal than that, but that the events can be scientifically explained by arguing that Jesus had a high knowledge of herbalism, as was common amongst the teachers of many mystery religions, and ascetic groups like the Essenes, and simply applied quite ordinary and scientific cures for the symptoms described. ^{[citation needed]} Though things like blindness and deafness may seem incurable without very modern medicine, it has been argued by these scholars that it is not true blindness, deafness, etc., being referred to, but more easily curable illness such as conjunctivitis, and glue ear. ^{[citation needed]} Out of the Canonical Gospels, Matthew adds several other episodes of Jesus healing people who are blind, deaf, mute, lame, or some combination of these four; many scholars see this as an example of the common trait of Matthew trying to portray Jesus as fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy, in this case Isaiah 35:5-6. ^{[citation needed]} Those who believe the miracles happened as literally stated also sometimes think there is a reference to this part of Isaiah, though in their case, these believers argue that Jesus was fulfilling the prophecy, rather than the author editing Jesus to fit it. ^{[citation needed]}

Some modern scholars dismiss exorcisms as simply being cases of mental illness and afflictions such as epilepsy. ^{[citation needed]} Some scholars typically see these exorcisms of such illness as allegorical, representative of Jesus' teachings clearing even the most troubled mind. ^{[citation needed]} Some critical scholars, however, have suggested that the events could have been real, though with the scientific explanation of the illnesses, and that the cures given were really just psychological drugs that Jesus, like many others in the era, would have been aware of; for example, Sage and Mistletoe were used in early times to treat epilepsy, and Snakeroot was used to treat schizophrenia. ^{[citation needed]}

A study by the Jesus Seminar of what aspects of the Gospel accounts are likely to be factual, held that while the various cures Jesus gave for diseases are probably true, since there were many others in the ancient world credited with healing power, most of the other miracles of Jesus are nonfactual, at least in their literal interpretation from the Bible. The veracity of exorcisms carried out by Jesus is questioned among some scholars, as according to modern science there is no evidence for demonic possession.

Concerning the resurrection, most non-Christian scholars point to the paucity of evidence, ^{[citation needed]} as well as the lack of evidence for other people having come back from the dead, and so reject the resurrection's historicity. ^{[citation needed]} The Jesus Seminar concluded: "in the view of the Seminar, he did not rise bodily from the dead; the resurrection is based instead on visionary experiences of Peter, Paul, and Mary." [3] Raymond E. Brown however argued that the seminar used an a priori bias against the supernatural and that events such as the resurrection had no chance of being admitted by the group as historical.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Charpak, Georges and Henri Broch, translated from the French by Bart K. Holland, Debunked! ESP, Telekinesis, Other Pseudoscience, Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-7867-5
• Colin Brown. Miracles and the Critical Mind. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984. (Good survey).
• Colin J. Humphreys, Miracles of Exodus. Harper, San Francisco, 2003.
• Krista Bontrager, It’s a Miracle! Or, is it?
• Eisen, Robert (1995). Gersonides on Providence, Covenant, and the Chosen People. State University of New York Press.
• Goodman, Lenn E. (1985). Rambam: Readings in the Philosophy of Moses Maimonides. Gee Bee Tee.
• Houdini, Harry. Miracle Mongers and Their Methods: A Complete Expose Prometheus Books; Reprint edition (March 1993) originally published in 1920 ISBN 0-87975-817-1
• Kellner, Menachem (1986). Dogma in Medieval Jewish Thought. Oxford University Press.
• Lewis, C.S. Miracles: A Preliminary Study. New York, Macmillan Co., 1947.
• C. F. D. Moule (ed.). Miracles: Cambridge Studies in their Philosophy and History. London, A.R. Mowbray 1966, 1965 (Good survey of Biblical miracles as well).
• Graham Twelftree. Jesus the Miracle Worker: A Historical and Theological Study. IVP, 1999. (Best in its field).
• Woodward, Kenneth L. (2000). The Book of Miracles. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-82393-4.
• M. Kamp, MD. Bruno Gröning. The miracles continue to happen. 1998, (Chapters 1 - 4)
• Littlewood's Miscellany, edited by B. Bollobás, Cambridge University Press; 1986. ISBN 0-521-33702-X
• Trench, Richard Chenevix, Notes on the miracles of our Lord, London : John W. Parker, 1846 and many later editions
• Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament, Doubleday, 1997 ISBN 0-385-24767-2
• Brown, Raymond E. et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary Prentice-Hall, 1990 ISBN 0-13-614934-0
• Kilgallen, John J. A Brief Commentary on the Gospel of Mark, Paulist Press, 1989. ISBN 0-8091-3059-9
• Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, v. 2, Mentor, Message, and Miracles, Doubleday, 1994, ISBN 0-385-46992-6
• Miller, Robert J. Editor The Complete Gospels, Polebridge Press, 1994 ISBN 0-06-065587-9=
• (1993) A Lion Handbook The World's Religion. Lion Publishing plc. ISBN 0-85648-187-4. 
• Ibrahim, I.A (1997). A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam. Darussalam. ISBN 9960-34-011-2. 

External links

• Human anomalies
• The Historicity of Jesus' Miracles a feature of the Christan Cadre.
• Pool of Bethesda
• Final Words on the Miracles of Jesus
• God's Miracles, Islamic perspective
• An Indian Skeptic's explanation of miracles: By Yuktibaadi
• Religious miracles
• The Quran Miracles Encyclopedia
• Medical Miracles of the Quran
• Skeptic's Dictionary on miracles
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
• Why Don't Miracles Happen Today? - A Jewish view on miracles nowadays chabad.org
• On the Cessation of the Charismata — the problem of miracles today.
• Andrew Lang, "Science and 'Miracles'", The Making of Religion Chapter II, Longmans, Green, and Co., London, New York and Bombay, 1900, pp 14-38.
• Littlewood's Law described in a review of Debunked! ESP, Telekinesis, Other Pseudoscience by Freeman J. Dyson, in the New York Review of Books. Full article requires purchase.
• Koran and Nature's Testimony
• The Quran Miracles Encyclopedia
• Exploring The Scientific Miracle of The Qur'an
• Medical Miracles of the Quran
• Quran: The Living Miracle
• Harunyahya.com
• Thewaytotruth.org
• Answering-Islam.org: critique of muslim claims of miracles
• Answering-Christianity.com: Counter-criticism of Answering-Islam's arguements
• Miracles of islam
• BBC archive footage showing a believer feeding a statue of Ganesha
• A believers' website devoted to the "Milk Miracle"

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