About miraclesMiracles in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament)
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Creation of the "heaven and the earth" out of nothing in 7 days [or 4.5 billion years, depending on the interpretation]. (Genesis 1) |
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Creation of plants, and animals, again apparently out of nothing. (Genesis 1) |
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Creation of Adam out of dirt and Eve out of Adam's rib (Genesis 1 & 2; conflicting accounts) |
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Creation of "The "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" with magical powers capable of generating a moral sense in proto-humans who previously lacked an understanding of morality. Eating the fruit of the tree made them fully human. (Genesis 2) |
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A snake capable of speaking to humans. (Genesis 3) |
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Guidance of 2 or 7 of every "kind" of animal from various locations in the world across vast distances to the ark. (Genesis 7) |
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God promised that, in the future, when God pushed a cloud over the earth, he would create a rainbow as a sign of his covenant that he would not perpetrate another mass Genocide of humans by drowning. The miracle here is that prior to the covenant, rainbows did not exist -- in violation of the laws of nature. |
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The builders of the Tower of Babel all spoke one language; God confounded their languages so that they could not communicate. (Genesis 11) |
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Destruction of the cites of the plain -- Sodom and Gomorrah -- by raining down brimstone and fire. (Genesis 19) |
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Instantly turning Lot's wife into a pillar of salt. (Genesis 19). |
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The worldwide flood deep enough to submerge every mountain under water (Genesis 6). |
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Noah's ark. (Genesis 7). Although it was constructed of regular materials using ordinary construction methods, its leakage rate was apparently a miniscule fraction of normal, so that a team of 8 people could manage to keep it afloat. |
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The overnight mass murder/genocide of the firstborns of the Pharaoh and other Egyptians, their slaves and animals, made necessary because God hardened the heart of the Pharaoh. (Exodus 11) |
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A pillar of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to guide the Hebrews through the desert. (Exodus 13) |
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The Sun and Moon standing stationary in the sky. (Joshua 10) According to a course sold to public schools by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, "documented research through NASA" supports this verse from the Bible. They appear to be sincere, but sincerely wrong. |
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A magical brass serpent that cured people of snake bite. (Numbers 21) |
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A talking donkey (Numbers 22). |
In the above examples, we have not included many events that might have had natural causes, like:
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The drying up of the river (Joshua 3 & 4) and the destruction of the walls of Jericho prior to the mass murder of its citizens (Joshua 6). Both of these might have been caused by earthquakes. |
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The various plagues in Egypt that might also have had a natural cause. |
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Spontaneous health cures in which the blind see, the mute speak and the lame walk. |
Examples from the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) include:
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The presence of the "star" of Bethlehem -- some kind of celestial object -- that provided a fixed point of reference in the sky for the unknown number of Zoroastrian astrologers. That is, they did not rise in the East and set in the West as the stars, planets and comets did. |
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The virginal conception. (Luke 1, etc.) |
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Raising Lazarus from the dead after four days in the grave. (John 11) |
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Re-attaching a severed ear. (Mark 14) |
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Feeding 5,000 men and an unknown number of women and children with five loaves and two fish. (Mark 6) |
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Walking on water. (Mark 6) |
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Feeding 45,000 persons with seven loaves. (Mark 8) |
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Restoring a man's withered hand. (Mark 3) |
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Healing a slave's severed ear. (Mark 14) |
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Turning water into wine at Cana. (John 2) |
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Moses and Abraham appearing with Jesus during the transfiguration, even though they had been dead for over a millennium. |
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Many followers of Jesus who had died rose from their graves, walked to Jerusalem and appeared to many people (Matthew 27:57-58) |
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Jesus resurrection. |
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Jesus ascension into the clouds |
In the above examples, we have not included many illnesses that might have been due to psychosomatic causes, coincidence, sick persons mistaken for dead, etc. like:
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Exorcisms that allegedly drove demons out of people. (Mark 5, etc.) |
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Healing a paralytic. (Mark 2, etc.) |
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Restoring sight to blind men. (Matthew 9) |
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Curing leprosy (Mark 1, etc). Actually, the Greek word translated as "leprosy" covered many skin conditions. |
References:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
- J. Ankerberg & J. Weldon, "The Facts on False Views of Jesus: The Truth Behind the Jesus Seminar," Harvest House (1997)
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Copyright © 2008 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2008-JAN-18
Latest update: 2008-JAN-18
Author: B.A. Robinson
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