Historical attestation: Eyewitness testimony

• “We” material in Acts 20:9-12; 28:8-9

• Paul cites Corinthians’ knowledge (2 Cor 12:12; cf. 1 Cor 12; Gal 3)

• Paul cites his own (Rom 15:19)

Jesus’ miracles

• Every layer of G. tradition (Q [Is 35], Mk, special M, L, Jn; also Rev, Paul)

• Jos. Ant. 18.63: Jesus worked paradoxa – In 9.182, used for

Elisha’s miracles

Opponents of early Christianity

–Celsus

–Rabbis

– Sorcery charge

• Thus most scholars today admit that Jesus was so experienced by Galileans (R. Brown, O. Betz, E. P. Sanders; J. Meier; M. Smith)

Eschatological signs

• Q (Matt 11:5/Lk 7:22)

– May allude to Is 35:5-6

– Qumran may have combined these same texts (4Q521) • Suggesting popular understanding of what Jesus meant

– Messianic era/Kingdom and healings

• Also Matt 12/Lk 11: “If I by the finger/Spirit of God cast out demons, the Kingdom has come on you”

• (more effective than Josephus’ false prophets)

Some thinkers deny eyewitnesses

• They deny both ancient eyewitnesses and modern ones

• Ironically, they should have known better!

• E.g.,

– Rudolf Bultmann

– David Friedrich Strauss

– Ethan Allen (Deist)

• Some NT scholars still treat many NT miracle reports as if they must reflect legendary accretions and cannot reflect eyewitness sources

• Bultmann:

– “mature” modern people do not believe in miracles

– “no one can or does seriously maintain” the New Testament worldview

Bultmann dismissed “legends” about Blumhardt

• Karl Barth considered Blumhardt a mentor

• Information about Blumhardt NOT legendary

• We have firsthand diaries, letters, including of other witnesses

Earlier, David

Friedrich Strauss (1808-

1874)

(picture in common domain, copyright expired;

Wikipedia Commons)

But Strauss’ friend cured!

• German Lutheran pastor Johann Christoph Blumhardt

• (photo in public domain)

Ethan Allen, deist, 1738-1789

• 1784/5 pamphlet: Reason the Only Oracle of Man (sold 200 copies): – “In those parts of the world where learning and science

have prevailed, miracles have ceased; but in those parts of it as are barbarous and ignorant, miracles are still in vogue”

• Irony: his grandson, Ethan O. Allen (1813-1902): effective healing minister (info from Paul King)

US p

ublic d

om

ain

Modern Worldviews and Miracles

Problem today: views from David

Hume (1711-1776)

miracles are not part of

human experience

Hume’s first argument

1. Miracles violate natural law

2. Natural law cannot be violated

3. Therefore, miracles don’t happen

• BUT WHO SAYS that God cannot act upon, change or violate natural law if he wills? Hume simply presupposes this without admitting that he’s doing so. This is a statement of Hume’s opinion, not an argument.

Many early Enlightenment scientific thinkers

– E.g., Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle (father of chemistry)

– Envisioned laws in nature “only because there had been a Legislator,” and expressly insisted “that God was free to change them”

– Early Newtonians accepted biblical miracles

Earlier, Sister Celeste was Galileo’s daughter and spiritual advisor

Much of Hume’s argument

• Depends on miracles violating deterministic natural law

• But modern physics has a completely different conception of natural law!

Hume’s view of natural law • Depends on observed regularities

in nature

• This in turn relates to his Argument #2—his major argument

Supposedly inductive, but (often noted) actually circular

– “Experience” shows no miracles

– Well-supported eyewitness claims for miracles must be rejected because miracles cannot happen (or at least be shown to have probably happened)

Thus dismissed Jansenist reports

• Easy target (Catholic, Protestant polemic)

Healing of Pascal’s niece’s running sore

– Instant

– Public

– Queen Mother’s physician

Recent major philosophic challenges to Hume on miracles:

– J. Houston, Reported Miracles: A critique of Hume (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994)

– David Johnson, Hume, Holism, and Miracles (Cornell Studies in the Philosophy of Religion; Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999)

– John Earman, Hume’s Abject Failure (Oxford, 2000) (not from Christian view)

– Much of Richard Swinburne, The Concept of Miracle (New Studies in the Philosophy of Religion; London: Macmillan and Co., 1970)

For each subject, we use the appropriate method

• Much science involves experiments

• Events in history, including miracles, not subject to experiments

History, journalism, law often depend on eyewitnesses

Hume’s principle of uniformity: past not different from today

– Adopted by Troeltsch, others

– Itself possibly open to challenge, but: acceptable for current point

– Principle of analogy today supports healings in Gospels (Gerd Theissen, others)

– Most historical Jesus scholars see Jesus as miracle-worker (Vermes, Sanders, Theissen, M. Smith)

• (w/o viewing them as divine)

Merely philosophic premises

• Not neutral

• R. Bultmann: – “Mature” modern people do not believe in

miracles—case closed

• 1989 poll: 82% of U.S. believes in miracles (only 6% completely rejected)

Limits of Hume’s/Bultmann’s Monocultural samples Hume’s range of considered “experience” too narrow

Hume: only “ignorant and barbarous nations” affirm miracles

• If someone said this today, we would call him/her an ethnocentric bigot

Hume’s racism part 1

• Hume’s anti-Semitism is known

• Hume said all great inventions, art, etc., from white civilizations

Hume’s racism part 2

• Hume supported slavery

• Abolitionists had to argue against him

Hume’s racism part 3

• Hume doubted “exceptional” persons of color

• Thus e.g., Francis Williams (picture in public domain)

Bultmann: “mature” modern people do not believe in miracles

• “It is impossible to use the electric light and the wireless … and … to believe in the New Testament world of spirits and miracles.”

Bultmann: “mature” modern people do not believe in miracles

Doesn’t offer an argument —merely dismisses those who disagree

Bultmann: Modern world denies miracles

• Excludes from the “modern” world: – All traditional Jews

– Traditional Christians

– Traditional Muslims

– Traditional tribal religionists

– Spiritists

• Limits the modern world to: – Westerners shaped by the radical Enlightenment:

• Deists & atheists (including Marxist derivatives)

• Justo González (citing Latino churches):

– “what Bultmann declares to be impossible is not just possible, but even frequent”

• Hwa Yung, retired Methodist bishop of Malaysia – Bultmann’s issue is W., not relevant in Asia

• Philip Jenkins: – Christianity in the global South is quite interested

in “the immediate workings of the supernatural”

• John S. Mbiti: – most western scholars “expose their own

ignorance, false ideas, exaggerated prejudices and a derogatory attitude” that fails to take seriously genuine experiences pervasive in Africa

How widespread are healing claims?

(starting with churches known for that emphasis)

Major academic studies, e.g. …