MIRACLES: AN OVERVIEW

The history of religions has preserved the record of miracles, that is, events, actions, and states taken to be so unusual, extraordinary, and supernatural that the normal level of human consciousness finds them hard to accept rationally. These miracles are usually taken as manifestations of the supernatural power of the divine being fulfilling his purpose in history, but they are also caused to occur "naturally" by charismatic figures who have succeeded in controlling their consciousness through visions, dreams, or the practices of meditation. Although miracles have assumed diverse forms, healing miracles and exorcisms have often attracted most attention.

However diverse the forms may be, miracles are preeminently sociological phenomena. It is, of course, true that no miracles exist without miracle workers who often claim religious authority of one kind or another based on their performance of miracles; but as the etymological meaning of the word miracle (Lat., miraculum ) may suggest, one of the conditions indispensable for the creation of miracles is the presence of those people, spectators, who take the performance of miracle workers to be wonderful, extraordinary, and worthy of admiration. These people are often the followers of miracle workers, witnesses of miracles, or professional priests or laymen of the cults at whose shrines, temples, or caves miracles have occurred, and it is they who are often responsible for the creation and propagation of miracle stories in which the saving power of the divine beings and the extraordinary personality of miracle workers are extolled.

Miracles in the "Primitive" Tradition

In primitive societies religious specialists, such as magicians, medicine men, sorcerers, and shamans, are known for their performance of miracles as well as for their exercise of magico-religious powers. They have acquired such miracle-working powers through the practices of meditation, vision quest, or a series of initiatory sicknesses and dreams.

In some parts of Asia, Australia, and North America, it is believed that illness is caused by the intrusion of a magical object into the patient's body, or through his possession by evil spirits. Healing is effected by magicians, sorcerers, or medicine men through the extraction of the harmful object or the expulsion of demons. Among the Aranda in central Australia, for example, a man is initiated into the profession of medicine man through a series of hardships and rituals: one of the older medicine men pierces the index finger of the novice with a pointed magical wand. By this operation the novice acquires the ability to drive out the objects causing illness in his future patients. The old medicine man also seizes the tongue of the novice and cuts a hole in it with a sharp stone knife. This is done to enable him to suck out the evil magical forces to be found in the bodies of his patients.

The vision quest among the Indians of North America is a means of acquiring supernatural power through personal contact with the divine. In California, the vision is sought by shamans wishing to effect a cure. The shaman occupies a unique place among religious specialists due to his ability, in a trance state, to make the ecstatic journey to the beyond. He is engaged in the spiritual journey most often when he has to cure the sick; when he finds that the illness of a sick person has been caused by the loss of his soul, the shaman searches for the lost soul in heaven, in distant space, and most frequently in the underworld.

The shaman acquires the power of healing as well as other magico-religious powers through his unique psychic experience. In Siberia, as a rule, the future shaman is sick for an indefinite period of time; he stays in his tent or wanders in the wilderness, behaving in such eccentric ways that he could be mistaken for a madman: he becomes suddenly frenzied, loses consciousness, feeds on tree bark, or flings himself into water and fire. These pathological symptoms can properly be interpreted in terms of initiatory trials, which the future shaman is destined to undergo in order to be miraculously transformed into a "new being."

Significantly, in the state of sickness, dreams, and visions, the future shaman has the experience of being dismembered, reduced to bones, and then given entirely new internal organs. For example, a Tunguz shaman (Ivan Cholko) states that before a man becomes shaman he is sick for a long time, his head being in a state of confusion. The spirits of the dead shaman-ancestors come, cut his flesh in pieces, and drink his blood. They also cut off his head and throw it into a caldron. According to a Buriat shaman (Mikhail Stepanov), before a man becomes shaman he is sick for a long time. Then the spirits of dead shamans come and teach him; he becomes absentminded, speaking with the dead shamans as if he were with living persons. He alone is able to "see" the spirits. They torture him, strike him, and cut his flesh in pieces with knives. During this surgical operation the future shaman becomes half dead; the beating of his heart is scarcely heard, his breathing is weak, and his face and hands are dark blue. A Yakut shaman (Petr Ivanov) gives further details concerning the initiatory ordeal of dismemberment, followed by the renewal of the body: his limbs are removed and disjointed with an iron hook by the spirits of ancestral shamans; the bones are cleaned, the flesh scraped, the body fluids thrown away, and the eyes torn out of their sockets. After this operation all the bones are gathered up, joined together with iron, and new eyes are put in place. He is thus transformed into a new being, a shaman.

The experiences described above by no means exhaust the shaman's transforming initiatory trials. The Inuit (Eskimo) shaman, for example, acquires the qaumaneq (mystical light). "The first time a young shaman experiences this light," Knud Rasmussen states, "it is as if the house in which he is suddenly rises; he sees far ahead of him, through mountains, exactly as if the earth were one great plain, and his eyes could reach to the end of the earth" (Intellectual Culture of the Igtulik Eskimos, Copenhagen, 1930, p. 113). According to Franz Boas: "When a person becomes shaman, a light covers his body. He can see supernatural things. The stronger the light is within him, the deeper and further away he can see, and the greater is his supernatural power. The light makes his whole body feel well. When the intensity of this light increases, he feels a strong pressure, and it seems to him as though a film were being removed from his eyes which prevented him from seeing clearly. The light is always present with him. It guides him, and enables him to see into the future and back into the past" (The Eskimo of Baffin Land and Hudson Bay, New York, 1901, p. 133).

Shamans must demonstrate to spectators the new, superhuman condition that they have acquired: they gash themselves with knives, touch red-hot iron, and swallow burning coals. Shamans are masters over fire. They also incarnate the spirit of fire to the point where, during séances, they emit flames from their mouths, noses, and whole bodies. The practice of fire walking is imposed on shamans and medicine men in, for instance, Australia, Indonesia, China, and among the Manchu. Sometimes a shaman must prove his miraculous powers by resisting the most severe cold or by drying a wet sheet on his naked body. Among the Manchu, for example, nine holes are made in the ice during winter; the candidate has to dive into the first hole, come out through the second, and so on to the ninth hole. A young Labrador Inuit obtained the title of angakkoq (shaman) after remaining five days and nights in the icy sea and proving that he was not even wet. A shaman sometimes shows his miraculous powers to the public by climbing a ladder of knives. Among the Lolo in southern China, a double ladder made of thirty-six knives is built, and the barefoot shaman climbs it to the top, then comes down on the other side. Similar feats are also attested in other parts of China and among the Chingpaw of Upper Burma.

Miracles in the Mediterranean World

In archaic Greece, Abaris, Aristeas, and Epimenides were known for their wonders and miracles. Abaris was a shamanic figure; carrying the golden arrow in his hand, he passed through many lands, dispelling sickness and pestilence, and giving warning of earthquakes and other disasters. He was also known to fly through the air on his arrow, a symbol of magic flight. Aristeas of Proconnesus could appear at the same time in two places far apart, sometimes assuming the form of a crow. Epimenides was a master of the techniques of ecstasy, well known for his miraculous powers; he journeyed through many lands, bringing his health-giving arts with him, prophesying the future, interpreting the hidden meaning of past occurrences, and expelling the demonic evils that arose from misdeeds of the past.

Especially noteworthy is Pythagoras, whose image in the Hellenistic Mediterranean world was quite complex in nature. According to his biographies by Porphyry and Iamblichus dating from the third and fourth centuries ce, Pythagoras was a "divine man" (theios anēr ), combining the figure of the popular miracle worker, the portrait of the philosopher, and the idealized image of the practical statesman. His image as miracle worker was enhanced by several recurring motifs: (1) Pythagoras was seen in two cities at the same time; (2) he could recall his previous existences; (3) he was endowed with the ability to stop an eagle in flight; and (4) he could predict events in the future. It is highly probable that, as Neo-Pythagoreanism gained popularity among ordinary people, the image of Pythagoras the thaumaturge was promoted by a circle of followers quite distinct from those who wished to cultivate his reputation as a philosopher and scientist.

Apollonius of Tyana, a wandering Pythagorean philosopher of the first century ce, also worked miracles. It is generally accepted that early traditions about his activity as a miracle worker were incorporated into subsequent accounts of his life, which were apologetically intended to present him as a philosopher. Apollonius described exorcisms and instances of healing the blind, the lame, and the paralytic in India (see Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius of Tyana 3.38–39); more important than that, he performed similar miracles himself. Apollonius reportedly performed even the miracle of raising the dead while he was in Rome (4.45): a girl had died just before her marriage, and the bridegroom was following her bier lamenting; the whole of Rome lamented with him, for she belonged to a consular family. Apollonius, meeting the funeral procession, said, "Put down the bier, for I will put a stop to your tears for the girl." Then he asked her name. The crowd thought he was going to deliver a funeral oration, but he merely touched her and said something in secret over her, and thus he awoke her from her seeming death. In the magical papyri, his name is attached to a spell, a fact indicating his considerable popularity as a magician. According to Dio Cassius, the Roman emperor Caracalla (r. 211–217) built a temple in honor of Apollonius, who was a "perfect example of the magician."

The figure of Moses was one of the most important propaganda instruments that Jews of the Hellenistic period used in their competition with non-Jewish schools and cults. In Deuteronomy 34:10–12, Moses is described as the greatest prophet in Israel, known for his signs and wonders as well as for his mighty powers and great and terrible deeds. This Moses was presented to the Hellenistic world as a miracle-working philosopher, as is exemplified in Philo Judaeus's On the Life of Moses.

There are many stories in late Judaism narrating how rabbis worked miracles of healing. The best known, perhaps, is the healing of the son of Yoḥanan ben Zakkʾai by Ḥaninaʾ ben Dosaʾ. Both rabbis lived in Palestine around 70 ce. Ḥaninaʾ ben Dosaʾ went to study the Torah with Yoḥanan ben Zakkʾai, whose son was seriously ill. Yoḥanan requested: "Ḥaninaʾ, my son, pray for mercy for him that he may live." Ḥaninaʾ ben Dosaʾ laid his head between his knees and prayed, and then the boy was cured (B.T., Ber. 34).

Miracles of healing were performed also by kings, for example, the Roman emperor Vespasian (r. 70–79). While the emperor was in Alexandria, a blind man approached him, acting on the advice of the god Sarapis; he fell at Vespasian's feet, demanding with sobs a cure for his blindness and imploring the emperor to moisten his eyes with the spittle from his mouth. Another man with a maimed hand, also inspired by Sarapis, asked Vespasian to touch it with his heel. "To the great excitement of the bystanders," states Tacitus, Vespasian "did as the men desired him. Immediately the hand recovered its functions and daylight shone once more in the blind man's eyes" (Histories 4.81; see also Dio Cassius, Roman History 65.8, and Suetonius, Vespasian 7.2–3).

Throughout late antiquity, Epidaurus was a holy site especially celebrated for the epiphany of Asklepios, the divine healer. According to Strabo, Asklepios was believed to "cure diseases of every kind." His temple was always full of the sick as well as containing the votive tablets on which treatments were recorded (Geography 8.6.15). Asklepios would appear to the sick sleeping in his temple—more precisely, in the innermost chamber (to abaton ) of the sanctuary; he would approach the sick in dreams and visions, or, as Aelius Aristides put it, in a "state of mind intermediate between sleep and waking." This practice of temple sleep, incubation (incubatio ), was of vital importance to the sick; it was in the state of such dreams and visions that one was healed or given instructions by Asklepios. The healing god would touch his patient's body with his hands, apply drugs, or undertake surgical operations. Consequently, the eyesight of the blind would be restored, the lame would walk, the mute would speak, and the man whose fingers had been paralyzed would stretch each of them one by one. Some examples of Asklepios's miracles follow.

Ambrosia of Athens, blind in one eye, came to Epidaurus to seek help from Asklepios. But as she walked around the temple, she mocked at the many records of divine healings: "It is unbelievable and impossible that the lame and the blind can be cured by merely dreaming." In her sleep she had a dream: Asklepios approached and promised to heal her; only in return she must present a gift offering in the temple—a silver pig, in memory of her stupidity. After saying this, Asklepios cut open her defective eye and poured in a drug. Her sight was soon restored. The following miracle story about a man with an abscess inside his abdomen reminds us of the initiatory dreaming of Siberian shamans. While asleep in the temple, the man saw a dream: Asklepios ordered the servants who accompanied him to hold him tightly so that he could cut open his abdomen. The man tried to escape but could not. Then Asklepios cut his belly open, removed the abscess, and stitched him up. Sometimes, the healing power of Asklepios reached the patient far away from his temple. Arata, a woman of Lacedaemon, was dropsical. While she remained in Lacedaemon, her mother slept in the temple on her behalf and saw a dream: Asklepios cut off her daughter's head and hung up her body in such a way that her throat was turned downward. Out of it came a huge quantity of fluid matter. Then he took down the body and put the head back onto the neck. After the mother had seen this dream, she went home and found her daughter in good health; the daughter had seen the same dream.

The Mediterranean world knew Egypt as the home of thaumaturgy, theosophy, and esoteric wisdom. There, the goddess Isis was praised for her miraculous healings; she was credited with bringing the arts of healing to men and, once she had attained immortality, taking pleasure in miraculously healing those who incubated themselves in her temple (Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History 1.25.2–5). At her hands the maimed were healed and the blind received their eyesight. According to the inscriptions found on the island of Delos dating from about the first century bce, Isis worship was attended by a functionary specifically called an aretalogos, an interpreter of dreams, who may have functioned as a proclaimer of miraculous events. The temple of the god Sarapis at Canopus, not far from Alexandria, was also famous for its divine healing; Sarapis would visit those who slept in his temple, giving them advice in dreams.

Yogins, Daoist Contemplatives, and Yamabushi

Indian ascetics practicing Yoga are well known for their miraculous powers. The yogin sits cross-legged and firm on a flat space with his eyes fixed on a certain object beyond him. He has to master, at the same time, the breathing techniques (prāṇāyāma ); at first, the breath is kept for one minute and then exhaled. This practice goes on for days, weeks, and months until the period of retention of the inhaled breath is gradually increased.

According to the Indo-Tibetan Tantric tradition, the ascetic is able to produce "inner heat" on the basis of rhythmical breathing and various "visualizations." During a winter-night snowstorm, the degree of his progress is tested by his ability to dry a large number of soaked sheets draped directly over his naked body. "Sheets are dipped in the icy water," reports Alexandra David-Neel. "Each man wraps himself in one of them and must dry it on his body. As soon as the sheet has become dry, it is again dipped in the water and placed on the novice's body to be dried as before. The operation goes on until daybreak. Then he who has dried the largest number of sheets is acknowledged the winner of the competition" (With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet, London, 1931, pp. 227–228).

The yogin acquires the "miraculous powers" (siddhis ) when he has reached a particular stage of his meditational discipline called saṃyama, referring, more specifically, to the last stages of yogic technique, that is, concentration (dhāraṇa ), meditation (dhyāna ), and samādhi. For example, by practicing saṃyama in regard to the subconscious residues (saṃskāras ), the yogin knows his previous existences; through the practice of Yoga, he arrives successfully at the state of mind in which he is one with the things meditated, namely, his subconscious residues. This enables him to ideally relive his former existences. Through saṃyama exercised in respect to notions (pratyaya ), the yogin also knows the mental states of other men; he sees, as on a screen, all the states of consciousness that notions are able to arouse in their minds. Some of the yogin's "miraculous powers" are even more extraordinary: he can make himself invisible by practicing saṃyama concerning the form of the body. "When the yogin practices saṃyama on the form of the body," Vācaspatimiśra comments, "he destroys the perceptibility of the color (rūpa ) that is the cause of perception of the body" (Eliade, 1958, p. 87).

In India, the yogin has always been considered a mahāsiddha, a possessor of miraculous powers, a magician. However, a yogin is still far from attaining his final goal of absolute freedom so long as his miraculous powers serve him as his "possession." As soon as he consents to use the magical forces gained through his ascetic discipline, the possibility of his realizing absolute freedom diminishes; only a new renunciation, a determination not to use the miraculous powers, would lead the ascetic to a higher spiritual horizon.

Daoists in ancient China are convinced that man can become an "immortal" (xianren, shenxian, or shengren ), that man is able to transcend his human condition by various means, including the practice of meditation. The Zhuangzi tells of one such extraordinary man living on a remote mountain: "He does not eat the five grains, but sucks the wind, drinks the dew, climbs up on the clouds and mist, rides a flying dragon, and watches beyond the four seas" (chap. 1). Moreover, "by concentrating his spirit, he can protect creatures from sickness and plague and make the harvest plentiful" (ibid.). Abstention from cereals belongs to a basic requirement in Daoism for nourishing life, as is illustrated by Ge Hong's Baopuzi dating from the early fourth century ce. "Sucking the wind" and "drinking the dew" are technical terms in Daoism for breathing exercises. It is certain that the story speaks about a Daoist contemplative on his ecstatic journey, transcending the universe. Especially interesting in the story is the fact that he is able to "concentrate his spirit," that is, to solidify his spiritual potency. The ability to solidify the spiritual potency or light belongs to the privilege of such religious specialists as shamans, yogins, and Daoist saints. According to Max Kaltenmark, the solidification of the spiritual potency points to an essential feature of the Daoist technique of meditation, which consists in freezing the faculties of the soul, concentrating them in a single point.

The practice of meditation essential for attaining immortality leads inevitably to the possession of miraculous powers. According to the Baopuzi, the Daoist immortal Ge Xuan, one of Ge Hong's paternal uncles, would stay at the bottom of a deep pond for almost a whole day in hot summer weather. This "miracle" was possible because of his mastery of "embryonic respiration": he was able to accumulate his breaths and to breathe like a fetus in its mother's womb. Ge Xuan was a disciple of the famous Daoist immortal Zuo Ci, of whom it is said that, despite abstinence from eating cereals for almost a whole month, his complexion remained unchanged and his vitality stayed normal (Baopuzi, chap. 2).

Mountain ascetics in Japan known as yamabushi acquired magico-religious powers through a series of disciplines. The yamabushi was the master of heat and fire; he walked barefoot on red hot charcoals without injury; he proved his extraordinary power when, with only a white robe on his naked body, he entered a bath of boiling water and came out entirely unscathed; and he surprised his spectators by climbing a ladder of swords, the sharp edge facing upward. Like a shaman, he was a spiritual being. In his inner consciousness he was a bird in control of cosmic space; at the culminating moment of a ceremony, the yamabushi in a trance would spread his arms and fly in the sky in imitation of a bird. In view of the extraordinary powers at his disposal, it is not surprising that he cured the sick, exorcised demons, and fought triumphant battles against evil spirits.

Miracles in Founded Religions

The founders of three major religions of the world—Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam—have each taken a different attitude toward miracle; Jesus Christ was utterly positive in working miracles, whereas Muḥammad, as represented in the Qurʾān, categorically rejected them. Significantly, the Buddha took the middle course, so to speak. Despite this remarkable divergence among these founders, the subsequent history of these religions demonstrates unmistakably that miracles and miracle stories have been an integral part of man's religious life.

Buddhism

The Buddha was well aware that the practice of meditation essential for attaining enlightenment leads eventually to the possession of "miraculous power" (Skt., siddhi ; Pali, iddhi ). But he did not encourage his disciples to seek siddhi s. "O bhikkus," the Buddha said, "you must not show the superhuman power of iddhi before the laity. Whoever does so shall be guilty of an evil deed" (Vinaya Texts, trans. T. W. Rhys Davids and Hermann Oldenberg, vol. 3, Delhi, [1885] 1965, p. 81). The true task was not to acquire miraculous powers but to transcend the world of pain and suffering and to attain the state of enlightenment (see Dīgha Nikāya 24.3). Moreover, the possession of one miraculous power or another in no way promoted, in the Buddha's mind, the propagation of the central message of Buddhism; yogins, ecstatics, and other ascetics could perform the same miracles.

"Miraculous powers" are one of the five classes of "superknowledge" (Skt., abhijñā; Pali, abhiññā ), which are (1) siddhi, (2) divine eye, (3) divine hearing, (4) knowledge of another's thought, and (5) recollection of previous existences. By virtue of deepening meditation, the Buddhist saint is able to acquire the siddhi in its various forms: he becomes invisible at his own will; he goes, without feeling any obstacle, to the far side of a wall or rampart or hill, as if through air; he penetrates up and down through solid ground, as if through water; he walks on water without breaking through, as if on solid ground; and he travels cross-legged in the sky, like the birds on the wing (Dīgha Nikāya 2.87, 11.4).

According to biographical sources, the Buddha himself was sometimes led to work miracles; for example, when he returned to his native city, Kapilavastu, for the first time after attaining enlightenment, he rose in the air, emitted flames of fire and streams of water from his body, and walked in the sky (see Mahāvastu 3.115). According to Aśvaghoṣa's Buddhacarita (19.12–13), in order to convince his relatives of his spiritual capacities and prepare them for conversion, the Buddha rose in the air, cut his body to pieces, let his head and limbs fall to the ground, and then joined them together again before the amazed eyes of the spectators. Among the eminent disciples of the Buddha, Moggallāna (Skt., Maudgalyāyana) was well known as the "chief of those endowed with miraculous powers."

As Buddhism was transplanted to China, its missionaries often resorted to the display of miraculous powers. Especially in northern China, Buddhist saints performed magical feats for evangelical purposes; Fotudeng, who came to China at the beginning of the fourth century ce, worked the miracles of producing rain, creating a lotus out of a bowl of water, and drawing water from dried-up wells. The fame of the monk Dharmaksema was based not only on his scholarly contributions but also on his supernatural powers to produce rain and foretell the outcome of political events or military campaigns. One may not be prepared to accept all of these miracle stories told by pious biographers, but they were undoubtedly created with the good intention of glorifying the Buddha, who was able to endow his ardent followers with such miraculous powers.

Christianity

Jesus Christ performed the miracles of healing and exorcism. In the miracle stories that, together with his sayings and passion narratives, occupy an important place in the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus of Nazareth is presented as the supreme thaumaturge, the great miracle worker, the magician. In fact, there was a charge that Jesus was in league with Beelzebul (Mk. 3:22, Mt. 12:24, 12:27) and, according to a rabbinic tradition (see B.T., San. 43a), Jesus was executed for his practice of sorcery, misguiding the people of Israel.

Typically, the miracle stories of healing and exorcism in the Synoptic Gospels all emphasize three motifs: (1) the history of the illness, (2) the actual process or techniques of the healing, and (3) a demonstration of the cure to the satisfaction of spectators. There is no doubt that the miracle stories were utilized internally for the strengthening of Christian faith and externally for propaganda purposes in a world in which such stories were commonly told of heroes of faith.

Particularly interesting are the techniques that Jesus employed for healing and exorcism. There is no question that he considered prayer to be essential for working miracles (Mk. 9:29). But, as a thaumaturge, he had to work up his emotions; in healing a leper Jesus was moved with "anger" (orgistheis ), stretched out his hand, and touched him (Mk. 1:40–45). Jesus displayed the emotional frenzy of the thaumaturge (see also Lk. 4:39). In the story of the deaf and mute man (Mk. 7:32–37), Jesus puts his fingers into his ears, spits and touches his tongue. Looking up to heaven, he sighs and says to him, "Ephphatha" ("Be opened"). In Mk. 8:22–26 Jesus heals a blind man by spitting on his eyes and laying his hands on them. Groaning sighs and spittle were often used by the thaumaturges. As to the use of Semitic words for healing purposes, the account in the Gospel of Mark (5:41) of Jesus restoring a girl to life by saying, "Talithȧ Koum" ("Little girl, stand up"), retains the original Aramaic words even in otherwise translated versions. According to the German theologian Martin Dibelius, the preservation of such foreign words and phrases may show that the stories were utilized as a kind of handbook to Christian miracles and magic. The image of Jesus as the thaumaturge can still be identified in the Gospel of John (see 9:6, 11:33, 11:35, 11:38, 11:43).

Especially interesting is a cycle of miracle stories in the Gospel of Mark (4:35–5:43) that includes the stories of the Gerasene demoniac, the woman with an issue of blood, and the daughter of Jairus. Each of these has all the characteristics of the popular miracle story, and each contributes to the impression that Jesus is a "divine man," tempting New Testament scholars to talk about the development of "divine man Christology" in the Gospel of Mark ; the miraculous power of Jesus is such that the Gerasenes beg him to leave their district, the touch of his clothes effects a cure, and he raises the dead by strange-sounding words. Moreover, Jesus is presented as performing the miracles of stilling the storm (4:35–41), feeding the five thousand people (6:34–44; see also 8:1–9), and walking on water (6:45–52).

Jesus Christ was followed by his apostles in working miracles (Acts 2:43, 5:12), and it seems that they worked the miracles of healing and exorcism "in the name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 3:6, 16:18; see also 19:13–17). Stephen and Philip demonstrated great wonders and signs among the people (Acts 6:8, 8:5–7), while Peter healed the lame and the paralytic, restoring the dead to life (Acts 3:1ff., 9:32ff., 9:36ff.). Even his "shadow" was believed to have healing power (Acts 5:15). Paul is also presented in Acts as a great miracle worker: he healed a cripple at Lystra (14:8ff.), performed an exorcism in the name of Jesus Christ (16:18), and cured Publius's father, who was sick with fever and dysentery, by putting his hands on him (28:8). Even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched Paul's body were believed to be effective for curing sickness and exorcism (19:11–12). In Acts 13:4–12, Paul evokes belief in the proconsul Sergius Paulus by showing his superior thaumaturgy over the Jewish magician Bar-Jesus and another magician, Elymas.

As we can see from the portrayal of these apostles in Acts, the Christian community in the Hellenistic Mediterranean world had a tendency to view its heroes as "divine men"; Paul's opponents in Corinth, especially those he argued against in 2 Corinthians, understood a Christian apostle as one who exhibited the aura and power of a "divine man," and they claimed it of themselves and wanted Paul to demonstrate it of himself. Accordingly, Paul had to write to the Corinthians that he had shown the signs of a true apostle among them, "with signs and wonders and mighty works" (2 Cor. 12:12; see also Rom. 15:18–19a; 1 Cor. 12:9–10; Gal. 3:5).

Jesus Christ and his apostles in the first century set the examples to be followed by the faithful. In the subsequent history of Christianity, charisma or divine gift of "power" was represented on earth by a limited number of exceptional charismatic figures, such as the martyrs of the second and third centuries, the bishops of the late third century, and, finally, the succession of great Christian saints of ascetic origin, from Anthony onward.

Islam

Muḥammad, the "seal of the prophets," rejected every request to pose as a miracle worker; in contrast to Moses and other Hebrew prophets, as well as Jesus, who all worked miracles (muʿjizāt ), Muḥammad made no attempt to advance his religious authority by performing miracles, although people demanded them, saying, "Why does he not bring us a sign from his Lord?" (sūrah 20:133). To those people who wondered why signs, that is, miracles, had not been sent down on him from God, Muḥammad responded: "The signs are only with God, and I am only a plain warner" (29:49; see also 13:27–30, 17:92ff.).

According to Muḥammad, as presented in the Qurʾān, all the existing things in the universe are the signs (āyāt ; sg., āyah ) pointing to the reality of God in action. Natural phenomena, such as rain, wind, the structure of heaven and earth, the rhythmical alternation of day and night, and so forth, are not simply "natural" occurrences; they should be understood as "signs" or "symbols" manifesting God's mercy and compassion for man's well-being on earth. God declares, "We shall show them our signs in the horizons and in themselves" (41:53; see also 51:20–21). The universe is thus miraculously transformed into a forest of symbols; human beings dwell within the forest of divine symbols, and these symbols can be deciphered by anyone if he is spiritually prepared to interpret them as symbols. There should be no miracles except for these "signs."

However, the majority of the Islamic community has never ceased to expect miracles. Muḥammad is presented in the traditions (ḥadīths ) as having worked miracles in public on many occasions. It was especially Ṣūfī saints who performed miracles (karāmāt ). Often called the "friends of God" (awliyāʾ, sg. walī ), they worked miracles by divine grace. On the one hand, it is often said by the Ṣūfīs that saints must not seek after the gift of miracle working, which might become a serious obstacle in the path to the union with God. On the other hand, the biographies of leading Ṣūfīs abound in miracle stories that certainly have been utilized for evangelical purposes: saints traveled a long distance in a short time; walked on water and in the air; talked with such inanimate objects as stones, as well as with animals; miraculously produced food, clothing, and other necessities of life; and made predictions of future events. Even after their death, saints are believed to work miracles at their own graves on behalf of the faithful, and their intercession is piously invoked.

See Also

Asklepios; Dreams; Healing and Medicine; Magic; Shamanism; Spittle and Spitting; Supernatural, The; Yoga.

Bibliography

There is no comprehensive book dealing with the topic of miracles in the general history of religions. On the problem of interpretation concerning miracles and magico-religious powers in "primitive" societies, see Ernesto de Martino's Il mondo magico (Turin, 1948), translated by Paul S. White as The World of Magic (New York, 1972). On the miracles and miraculous powers of shamans, there is an admirable account in Mircea Eliade's Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, rev. & enl. ed. (New York, 1964). This book contains an excellent bibliography.

Richard Reitzenstein's Hellenistische Wundererzählungen (1906; reprint, Darmstadt, 1963) still remains a classic for the study of the miracle stories in the Hellenistic Mediterranean world. Otto Weinreich has offered a detailed analysis of some of the major motifs appearing in the Greco-Roman stories of healing miracles. See his Antike Heilungswunder: Untersuchungen zum Wunderglauben der Griechen und Römer (Giessen, 1909). Valuable information on the miracle stories pertaining to the cult of Asklepios is presented in Emma J. Edelstein and Ludwig Edelstein's Asclepius: A Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies, 2 vols. (Baltimore, 1945). See also Károly Kerényi's important study Die göttliche Arzt: Studien über Asklepios und seine Kultstätten, rev. ed. (Darmstadt, 1956), translated by Ralph Manheim as Asklepios: Archetypal Image of the Physician's Existence (New York, 1959). Miracle stories in rabbinic Judaism have been collected by Paul Fiebig in his Jüdische Wundergeschichten des neutestamentlichen Zeitalters (Tübingen, 1911).

On the miraculous powers of yogins, there is a brilliant account in Mircea Eliade's Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, 2d ed. (Princeton, 1969), still the standard work on the theory and practice of Yoga. On Daoist immortals and their miraculous powers, there is a brief but excellent account in Max Kaltenmark's Lao Tseu et le daoïsme (Paris, 1965), translated by Roger Greaves as Lao Tzu and Taoism (Stanford, Calif., 1969).

On miracles in the life of the Buddha, see a valuable account in Edward J. Thomas's The Life of Buddha as Legend and History, 3d rev. ed. (London, 1949).

The modern study of the miracle stories in the Synoptic Gospels was initiated shortly after the end of World War I by such brilliant form critics as Martin Dibelius and Rudolf Bultmann. See a fascinating study by Dibelius, Die Formgeschichte des Evangeliums, 2d rev. ed. (Tübingen, 1933), translated by Bertram Lee Woolf as From Tradition to Gospel (New York, 1935). See also Bultmann's admirable analysis of the miracle stories in his Die Geschichte der synoptischen Tradition, 3d ed. (Göttingen, 1958), translated by John Marsh as The History of the Synoptic Tradition (New York, 1963). More recently, Gerd Theissen has studied the miracle stories from the perspective of the sociology of literature. See his Urchristliche Wundergeschichten: Ein Beitrag zur formgeschichtlichen Erforschung der synoptischen Evangelien (Gutersloh, 1974), translated by Francis McDonagh and edited by John Riches as The Miracle Stories of the Early Christian Tradition (Philadelphia, 1983). David L. Tiede, in his very useful study The Charismatic Figure as Miracle Worker (Missoula, Mont., 1972), distinguishes between the aretalogy of the sage-philosopher and the aretalogy of the miracle worker. On Christian saints and their miracles, there is an excellent study by Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity (Chicago, 1981).

On Muḥammad's reinterpretation of the concept āyah ("sign"), there is an admirable account by Toshihiko Izutsu, God and Man in the Koran: Semantics of the Koranic Weltanschauung (Tokyo, 1964), pp. 133ff. Reynold A. Nicholson has written on Muslim saints and their miracles in his The Mystics of Islam: An Introduction to Sufism (1914; reprint, London, 1963), pp. 120–147. See also a fascinating account by Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1975), pp. 204ff.

New Sources

Cavadini, John, ed. Miracles in Jewish and Christian Antiquity: Imagining Truth. Notre Dame, Ind., 1999.

Davis, Richard, ed. Images, Miracles and Authority in Asian Religious Traditions. Boulder, Co., 1998.

Earman, John. Hume's Abject Failure: The Argument against Miracles. New York, 2000.

Harline, Craig. Miracles at the Jesus Oak: Histories of the Supernatural in Reformation Europe. New York, 2003.

Kahl, Werner. New Testament Stories in Their Religious-Historical Setting: A Religionsgeschichtliche Comparison from a Structural Perspective. Göttingen, 1994.

Korte, Anne-Marie. Women in Miracle Stories: A Multidisciplinary Exploration. Boston, 2001.

Mullin, Robert Bruce. Miracles and the Modern Religious Imagination. New Haven, 1996.

Woodward, Kenneth. The Book of Miracles: The Meaning of the Miracle Stories in Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam. New York, 2000.

Manabu Waida (1987)

Revised Bibliography